Get Duked! is a comedy-thriller about three delinquent teens and one sheltered home-schooler set out to win the Duke Of Edinburgh Award, a outdoors exercise in teamwork, foraging, and orientating. After they're dropped off a sinister figure in well tailored hunting clothes is seen in the distance. What unfolds is one part Most Dangerous Game, one part Stand By Me, and one part teen raunch comedy. It's a bizarre and surprisingly delightful alchemy.
The group- Samuel Bottomley as Ian(the nerd), Viraj Juneja as DJ Beatroot(the rich kid turned wouldbe rapper), Rian Gordon as Dean Gibson(the world weary tough), and Lewis Gribben as Duncan MacDonald(the delightfully gonzo dunce)- have wonderful easy chemistry and are all remarkably assured in their performances. Providing authenticity and near constant humor while still providing small but unmistakable evolution as characters and as a group. Ian begins as the odd-man-out but the film doesn't fall into the trap of making this a plot point, the other boys almost immediately accept him, and as a result more time is taken with what it should be, the jokes and the bonkers encounters the group has. The supporting cast all fit perfectly with this very delicate and odd tone, this absurd sincerity but also this playful theatricality- most notably Eddie Izzard and James Cosmo(of Braveheart fame).
Surprisingly picturesque scenery pair with a number of scenic flourishes- a "music video" they make while hiking, an extended drug/rave scene in a barn with a bunch of farmers, a riff on a startling pegan ritual. The hiphop soundtrack with some diegetic attempts from DJ Beatroot keep the momentum going and underscore how fresh the story is. In the end the film may also actually have something to say, and with a story that has so many plates in the air, so many tones going on, it's pretty impressive.
An out of left field stunner of a comedy, exciting enough for a Halloween thrill.
Currently streaming on Amazon.
Don't Miss It.
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