This film came as a pleasant surprise, with powerful performances, vivid cinematography, and a highly entertaining and fitting ending.DUKE follows Dare and Roost, brothers who grew up in a reformatory, fighting not only bullies but also the very people assigned to keep them safe. Now as adults, the brothers move to Los Angeles, where Dare moonlights as a police detective, while Roost lives in isolation, watching old John Wayne films, training to be a lawman, and dreaming of the day that he may join Dare out on the streets. The plot kicks into full gear when Dare discovers that an elusive local criminal, Winky, is back out on the streets and wreaking havoc on the community. Dare hits the streets to investigate, and we quickly discover that this will be the biggest case of his life. I won't spoil it too much.With indie films, you never really know what you're going to get. Within a few minutes of watching the film, I felt at ease with the filmmakers, the Gaudioso Twins, behind the wheel. The production value, editing, performances, sound and music, are all well-executed, and the film uses its resources very wisely. If you get a chance to screen this film, I suggest doing so.

I have never been one for indie films due to grit and low budget feeling acting and camera work. The Gaudioso Twins are very very good at telling stories and doing so in an attractive package. This film is highly gritty but not in a way that turns the average movie goer off. There are many many moments where characters really perform well. The camera angles are nice. The story is very bitter sweet. For me most films/stories can be boiled down to one moment, the climax. This story unfolds and by the end, emotions will run very high. The first there quarters of the film are very fun and entertaining, like sin city. The final quarter the film takes a turn from action to drama and narrows focus on the heart of the main characters. Like any good flick we see snippets of characters background to shine light on the "why" of certain moments and certain expressions of the characters. I have watched this film just in the last week or so about 25 times simply because by the end the emotions are very bitter sweet and deep. Beneath the grit lies a beautiful and sad story that is sure to stroke those emotions. As a composer my self I would like to commend the music for doing its job, it played a very big role in ushering in the emotions of the sequences. I would say indie fan or not this is a great story!

This film jumped out among a sea of titles I've seen and reviewed over the last several years. The directors, The Gaudioso Twins, have created a tragically beautiful story. The structure is sound, following two clearly delayed and broken men through their equally treacherous fantasy/real life. The film felt strange to me, but good strange, like a dream within a dream tethered to hope and love. "I love you Dare"... "I Love you too Roost" - great lines and delivery. A must see, if you care to experience a precious and novel approach to the indie-noir-crime-drama! Notable mention to the stylized directing, quick editing and powerful acting by Michael Bowen, James Gaudioso and Richard Roundtree.

Rock solid performances, and a lot of great effort on the part of the production staff, it shows that this was a labour of Love. The story is really very good, but always just feels like a whimsy. You always feel like none of this is happening, mostly because it couldn't, and also the ethereal way in which the music, and lighting are used. I wanted to like this movie from the start a lot more than I did. I did really Enjoy this movie enough though because, they took a great cast of not unknown people, and like I said the background production work is all very good, it just doesn't feel real. I would recommend this to a film buff, but not to the average person, it just bounces around too much, and there are far too many plot holes. Came up a bit short, and I wish them better luck on the next outing.