We interview Josh Duhamel (pulling double duty as actor and director) and Michael Socha about their new comedy, PRESCHOOL.
Parenting is Hell, and when we look to our children to absolve our sins or try to live vicariously through them, it’s even worse. That’s the premise behind PRESCHOOL, the new PG-13 comedy from writer Richard D’Ovidio (HYPNOTIC, THIR13EEN GHOSTS) and director Josh Duhamel (BUDDY GAMES).
Duhamel (TRANSFORMERS, SHOTGUN WEDDING) stars as Alan, an American expatriate who’s married into affluence while Michael Socha (“Being Human,” THIS IS ENGLAND) plays Brian, a bootstrapping entrepreneur who’s built his fortune through determination and risk. The film opens with each father greeting their newborns in separate hospitals, promising them the best that life has to offer and swearing their fealty to the next generation. Brian seems the more pragmatic of the two, laying out the blueprint for success to a minutes-old empty vessel that hasn’t the agency to accept while Alan encourages his growing progeny to be an astronaut (likely in a throwback to American superiority in that field).
When both fathers end up at the prestigious Puggsley Academy (a name I’m sure is meant to illustrate the folly of antiquity) and learn there is only one open slot left, their oaths to their children ignite the competitiveness within them and the war commences. Through dinners, sporting outings, and a little light stalking, the men learn each other’s weaknesses and plot to exploit them to achieve their ends.
The film constantly toys with the audience’s allegiance to either father, painting each in hues of sincerity and villainy. Brian seems to be the more sincere of the two