THE SCHOOL DUEL Review - Fantasia Fest 2025

You know those rare films where you walk out a little rattled, not because you didn’t enjoy it, but because the weight of it just sits on you? The School Duel is that kind of movie. It’s my number one from Fantasia Fest this year — and, honestly, my number one film of 2025 so far — and it’s also one of the hardest to talk about without feeling the heaviness of what it’s saying.

Todd Weisman Jr.’s dystopian vision is set in a near-future Florida where gun control has been outlawed and school shootings are beyond epidemic — they’re a way of life. The government’s solution? A yearly, nationally televised “competition” where the country’s most dangerous potential shooters — the “red flag” list — are thrown into an arena to kill each other. The idea is that by eliminating the worst threats, you prevent dozens of future massacres. It’s The Hunger Games by way of American gun culture, and it’s every bit as disturbing as it sounds.

At the center is Sammy, played with staggering nuance by Kue Lawrence, a 13-year-old who doesn’t belong there. He’s not a threat. He’s not violent. He’s just a kid who sees the competition as patriotic, prestigious — a chance to be part of something “great.” He idolizes past winners the way other kids might look up to sports heroes, and it’s that misguided ambition that puts him in the crosshairs. Watching him navigate a game designed for killers is nerve-shredding, and the film keeps you in his POV, which means the fear, confusion, and creeping realization hit you just as they hit him.

Weisman shoots the whole thing in panoramic black-and-white, giving it the feel of guerrilla reportage — raw, unfiltered, and impossible to look away from. The choice strips away the distraction of color and locks you into the faces, the weapons, the brutality. He often even incorporates a camera tactic that lends to the first-person shooter POV from video games such as "Call of Duty" or "Quake." There are probably both filmmaking prowess and scathing commentary built into choices like this. The supporting cast is equally potent: Michael Sean Tighe is magnetic as a mentor whose intentions you can never quite pin down, and Oscar Nunez turns up in a pitch-perfect bit of satirical casting as a Florida governor who embodies the absurdity of this world without ever winking at the camera.

It’s not an easy watch. In fact, I’d say for some it will be impossible — especially for anyone with a personal connection to the subject matter. The violence isn’t gratuitous, but the implications are relentless. Still, that’s the point. The School Duel forces you to sit with the discomfort and the moral rot that would allow such a system to exist. It’s anti-gun without being preachy, political without being partisan, and unflinching in its refusal to offer easy catharsis.

And that’s why it sits at the top of my list this year. Fantasia Fest has always been a home for bold, challenging work, but this isn’t just provocative for provocation’s sake — it’s smart, it’s searing, and it lingers. Days later, I’m still replaying moments in my head, still unpacking the choices, still shaken by what it says about where we are and where we could go. The School Duel doesn’t just demand your attention while you’re watching it — it follows you home, sits in the corner, and refuses to leave.

🍿 SCORE = 95 / 100

*Watch my full Fantasia Top 5 on YouTube HERE.