Filmland is the Arkansas Cinema Society’s curated celebration of local, national, and international cinema. In it’s seven year history, the annual event has hosted an impressive array of industry guests that includes Richard Linklater, Jessica Chastain, Adam Driver, Michael Shannon, Joel Edgerton, Chloé Zhao, Will Forte, and many others. Filmland 2024 is no different.

This year’s festivities kicked off with a special screening of “The Duel”, the debut feature film from co-directors Luke Spencer Roberts and Justin Matthews. This uneven yet somewhat contagious dark comedy stars Dylan Sprouse and Callan McAuliffe as former best friends who decide to resolve their differences the way most of us would – with an old-fashioned duel, complete with vintage pistols, ten paces, the works.

Taken as a whole, “The Duel” is a mishmash of ideas, several of which work well and others that don’t. It’s as if you plucked ingredients from “The Hangover”, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, and Ridley Scott’s “The Duellists” and threw them into a pot. Unfortunately some of those ingredients overpower the others. In this case it’s the film’s crude buddy comedy aspirations. If you plow down deep enough you’ll find what resembles a thematic core. But it’s buried under banter and antics that only seem there to get an R rating.

Roberts and Matthews don’t waste much time kicking things off. We learn that Colin (Sprouse) and Woody (McAuliffe) were once best of friends. But that changed when Colin secretly started sleeping with Woody’s girlfriend. To pay his ex-friend back, Woody took Colin’s cherished surfboard, the last thing made for him by his late father, and burned it. With no hopes of reconciliation, the two decide to handle things the gentlemanly way – with a duel.

In case you’re wondering, the movie is indeed set in our current day which makes the film’s premise even more outlandish. But that’s also one of the movie’s strengths. It’s completely aware of how silly it is and everyone involved is in on the joke. That doesn’t mean all the humor works (more on that in a second), but it makes the absurdity not only easier to digest but also easier to embrace.

Stuck with the two friends-turned-enemies are their other pals, Kevin (Hart Denton) and Sam (Denny Love). Both have taken different sides in the dispute but agree that Colin and Woody are taking things too far. So they tag along like good movie sidekicks as their stubbornly furious friends meet with the mysterious Christof (a scene-stealing Patrick Warburton) who looks, speaks, and acts as if he stepped out of a time machine.

Christoff is a seller of antiquities who not-so-secretly moonlights as an organizer of one-on-one duels. He immediately begins laying out the rules which includes the proper way of challenging, maintaining gentlemanly behavior, and choosing your “Field of Honor” (aka where to duel will take place). That last rule falls on Kevin and Sam for no plausible reason other than to give the characters something to do.

Kevin and Sam have a chance meeting with a coked-up Joey (Christian McGaffney) who connects them to Rudolpho (Ronald Guttman), a wealthy drug baron and duel enthusiast in Mexico. Rudolpho invites the uncouth foursome and Christoff to use his lavish estate for their showdown. They agree, but before any shooting is done there has to be a time of reflection, a big feast, and several other time-spenders meant to give characters opportunities to hammer things out.

The woman in the middle is Abbie (Rachel Matthews). She would have been a welcomed addition to the story if she had been given anything resembling a character arc. Instead Abbie is never seen until later. She pops up at Rudopho’s mansion to give a number of stilted speeches in an effort to talk some sense into her two battling beaus. She’s obviously right about what they’re doing, but her sudden moral clarity rings hollow because we haven’t had any time with her.

To Rogers and Matthews’ credit, “The Duel” wraps up with a gutsy finish that’s also the only way it could end without selling out. And it’s an ending that comes closest to hitting home the film’s deeper theme. The performances are roundly solid and there are funny lines scattered all through it. But certain characters make no sense outside of serving up punchlines. And the film’s fixation on earning an R rating robs it of time and attention that could have been better spent. “The Duel” is available now on VOD.

VERDICT – 2.5 STARS