It’s the Battle of the Daddies — and There’s Only One Spot
It’s the battle of the daddies — two dads, one absurdly competitive school admissions process, and absolutely nobody willing to act normal about it.
Josh Duhamel directs and stars opposite Michael Socha in Preschool, a London-set comedy that turns the last open spot at an ultra-posh preschool into an escalating war of parental one-upmanship. Duhamel plays Alan, while Socha plays Brian, two fathers convinced that getting their child into the right school is worth increasingly ridiculous measures.
The premise is the click for us. What begins as a simple application keeps snowballing until ego, family and some deeply questionable decision-making are all caught in the mess. And because Duhamel is directing himself straight into the chaos, he gets to push Alan further and further while Socha gives him another dad just stubborn enough to keep the whole thing going.
entertainment
Two dads. One spot. Playtime is over.
Catch up with Preschool now that the dad-vs-dad comedy is available digitally.
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Duhamel connected with the script through his own experience as a parent. When the project was announced, he summed up the pressure underneath the comedy simply: “Anyone with kids will relate to the lengths a parent will go for their children.” Preschool takes that recognizable instinct and lets two grown men push it somewhere far less reasonable.
The movie was originally scripted for Malibu before production shifted to London, a move Duhamel has said ended up working in the film’s favor. Instead of a California preschool, the story landed inside an older British school world with a completely different energy — and access to a cast that includes Antonia Thomas, Charity Wakefield, Fenella Woolgar and James Cosmo.
And one important correction from our original March post: Preschool was released digitally in the U.S. on March 17, 2026, rather than opening as a wide theatrical release. The PG-13 comedy runs about 104 minutes and is available to rent or buy digitally.
Images: Paramount Pictures.
For a movie about getting very small children into school, the adults are doing an impressive amount of spiraling. That remains the fun of the setup: Duhamel and Socha are fighting over a tiny school chair like somebody put a championship belt on it.
The trailer makes the escalation pretty clear: applications turn into competition, competition turns personal, and suddenly preschool admissions look a whole lot more exhausting than preschool itself.
Watch Josh Duhamel & Michael Socha in the Official ‘Preschool’ Trailer
Dig out the official sneak-peek trailer right down below, released by Paramount Movies.
Source: Paramount Movies; Apple TV; Deadline; People.
