'The Paragon' - A Hit-and-run Victim Seeks Revenge in New Zealand Fantasy Film by Michael Duignan

Florence Noble and Benedict Wall in The Paragon(Doppelgänger Releasing)

The Paragon official trailer and release date — Florence Noble and Benedict Wall in The Paragon(Doppelgänger Releasing)

Doppelgänger Releasing debuted the official trailer for ‘The Paragon’, the New Zealand fantasy/comedy film tells the bizarre story of a hit-and-run victim who’s on a mission to find the driver who hit him and somehow discovers a new psychic power along the ride.

‘The Paragon’ had its world premiere at last year’s New Zealand International Film Festival, and also screened at Sydney Film Festival and Fantasia International Film Festival.

Starring in the film are Benedict Wall, Florence Noble, Jessica Grace Smith, Michelle Ang, Shadon Meredith, Jonny Brugh, Cameron Rhodes, Chloe White, and Lucky Lee Morton.

Release Date

Directed by Michael Duignan making his feature directorial debut, ‘The Paragon’ opens in select US theaters and on VOD on September 6, 2024.

Synopsis

Do you want to see the unseen? Dutch (Benedict Wall) may look like just another defeated and washed-up loser, but behind his pissed-off exterior lurks a hyper-dimensional being of exceptional promise. His wife left him, his career as a tennis coach is floundering, and he would give anything to find the driver of the silver Toyota Corolla who hit him and drove off a year ago–the event that initiated Dutch’s downward spiral. Enter Lyra (Florence Noble), a witchy disciplinarian who offers to help Dutch unleash his latent psychic powers and break free from the illusion of linear time. After a crash course in telelocation and astral projection, the unlikely psionic prodigy is ready for his quest of cosmic revenge, but Lyra has other plans: she needs Dutch’s help to find a mysterious crystal known as the Paragon before it falls into the hands of her evil brother Haxan (Jonny Brugh) and his mind slaves. Everything converges towards the singularity in Michael Duignan’s feature debut, a hilarious rift in space-time.

Reviews

C.J. Prince in a The Film Stage review gave the film a score of B-, writing, “The Paragon gives its all, embracing its DIY nature to deliver a light and breezy sci-fi comedy, and what it lacks in budget it more than compensates for in low-key charm.”

Theodoor Steen in a FilmAnarchy review also praised the film, writing, “This is a humble film with just enough aspirations to really stick the landing. And that makes The Paragon a diamond in the rough, for those who see it.”