Dual
Falcon Films | Release Date: April 15, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
62
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 25 Critic Reviews
Positive:
17
Mixed:
7
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
86
Paste MagazineJacob OllerJan 24, 2022
If you’re blessed with matching taste, where you’ll put up with a bunch of over-literal, stiff-backed oddballs dealing with a clone crisis, you’ll find a rewarding and gut-busting film that’s lingering ideas are nearly as strong as its humorous, thoughtful construction. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJan 24, 2022
Dual adds a fresh sprinkle of doom to the already savage deadpan of Stearns’ previous work, and bitterly crystallizes the existential anxieties that have crushed down on so many of us with new weight since the pandemic started. That it also allows Karen Gillan to give two hilarious performances, both colder than death but at distinctly different temperatures, is just icing on the cake. Read full review
80
We Got This CoveredMartin CarrMay 2, 2022
This searing social satire on identity in contemporary culture features a career-best turn from Karen Gillian on powerhouse form. Read full review
80
IGNSiddhant AdlakhaJan 25, 2022
Writer-director Riley Stearns transforms depression and disappointment into a hilarious confrontation of death and a peculiar tale of self-image in an uncanny film with a precisely bizarre lead performance. Read full review
80
VarietyPeter DebrugeJan 24, 2022
Dual is in fact a fairly astute comedy. The laughs come not from jokes so much as sharp jabs of truth — wince-inducing insights into the subjects most movies won’t touch, like our fear of death, intimacy and being forgotten. Read full review
80
SlashfilmBen PearsonJan 24, 2022
Ruthless, deeply cynical, and thrumming with jet-black humor, Dual is a Riley Stearns movie through and through. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleJosh KupeckiApr 14, 2022
Stearns’ film is less interested in examining the complexities of our duality than it is with displaying our societal follies with an irony and disaffection that is Stearns’ trademark. When Dual’s clone confrontation lands on its O. Henry finale, it’s both inevitable and satisfying, another darkly comic deposition to add to the archive. Read full review
77
PolygonTasha RobinsonApr 15, 2022
It’s a strange and memorable film with a unique voice and a unique perspective, and that alone makes it worth seeking out. But just as Stearns’ characters seem to be constantly suppressing a shriek of dismay or despair or defiance, viewers may come out of this one suppressing the urge to go yell at Stearns and demand a satisfaction that the movie isn’t about to offer. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleBob StraussApr 13, 2022
While Stearns’ style is detached and clinical, he finds tender humanity in unexpected places. Read full review
75
Washington PostPat PaduaApr 11, 2022
Dual takes awhile to get into gear, ending on an unresolved note. But it’s a funny and provocative struggle over the meaning of life. Read full review
75
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonJan 24, 2022
The results are deliciously off-kilter, even if the sci-fi world Stearns has created is somewhat clumsily reverse-engineered to make his central premise possible. Read full review
70
Screen DailyAmber WilkinsonJan 24, 2022
Karen Gillan is the main selling point of the latest film from Riley Stearns (The Art of Self-Defence) – an odd mix of deadpan satire and high concept sci-fi that some may find off-putting – so it’s handy for him that she offers not one but two intense and stripped-back performances. Read full review
67
ColliderRoss BonaimeApr 12, 2022
Gillan gets a great opportunity to show her comedic skills, and Stearns remains a solid purveyor of dark comedy, but Dual’s gloom eventually overtakes the absurdity to a depressing degree. Read full review
65
Film ThreatRob RectorJan 26, 2022
Gillan is always a powerhouse, and the set-up of her in a Battle Royale rumble is enticing. Still, the actor is required to maintain a monotone delivery from which only the slightest emotions escape. Read full review
63
ObserverOliver JonesApr 19, 2022
Dual can occasionally feel like a one-joke film that never bothers to be funny, or where the comedy comes off as so arch that it lands as something else entirely. Read full review
63
UproxxVince ManciniJan 28, 2022
Finland is a weird little place, and Dual is a weird little movie. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineMark HansonJan 26, 2022
Riley Stearns’s film consistently tickles the funny bone, even when it comes at the expense of psychological nuance. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comSheila O'MalleyApr 15, 2022
Even with the excellent central performance by Karen Gillan, playing a "dual" role—herself and her own copy—Dual makes for a strangely tepid viewing experience. Deeper exploration is not on the table. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleApr 14, 2022
While her résumé of fantastical roles makes her seemingly right for this kind of part, Gillan is directed into a pair of off-puttingly stiff performances, more skit-appropriate than feature-rich. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterJohn DeForeJan 24, 2022
Stearns’ third feature (following Faults and The Art of Self-Defense) is his least satisfying so far; as visually drab as its predecessors, it has more difficulty mining its off-kilter aesthetic for nervous laughter and conceptual provocation. Read full review
45
TheWrapElizabeth WeitzmanApr 14, 2022
Ultimately the movie asks a lot of us, while simultaneously withholding too much. The concept remains compelling, but the execution both figuratively and literally falls flat. Read full review
42
The PlaylistRodrigo PerezJan 24, 2022
Both Stearns and Gillan commit to the detached tenor. Still, it’s often more distant and isolating than it is funny, therefore leading to a movie that feels misjudged and far too remote, even for those well-versed and conversant in this weirdly lopsided style. Read full review
40
The New York TimesNatalia WinkelmanApr 14, 2022
There is something insincere in this movie’s manner, an aloofness that masquerades as satire but repels inquiry or emotion. “Dual” takes a worthy idea and throws a smoke bomb in its middle, leaving the audience to squint through the haze. Read full review
40
Screen RantMae AbdulbakiJan 27, 2022
There are inklings of something more interesting and rich beneath the surface, but Dual never brings the pieces together. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreApr 12, 2022
There is nobody to relate to. That makes the movie’s muddled message a chore to plow through and its payoff more of a shrug that the sharp slap it could have been. Read full review
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