There is no way to completely discuss “Twinless,” the latest film from writer/director/actor James Sweeney, without robbing its biggest turns of their impact. The initial premise, about two guys that meet in a twin bereavement support group and then start to grow closer, is merely a small fraction of what this film has in store as it upends expectations and runs with them as far as it can. It’s a juggling act of tones that manages to be funny, chaotic, dark and even unexpectedly poignant. The film also has Dylan O’Brien giving one of his best performances to date, bringing just the right amount of heartfelt himbo energy to his role as grieving twin Rocky and giving the film unexpected emotional weight in key moments.
The film, which premiered Thursday at Sundance, begins with a car accident occurring offscreen. Putting its darkly comedic tone on immediate display, we get the most jarring cut to a funeral since “Hereditary” and see Rocky is having to be the person everyone else gets support from, even as he has just lost his twin brother.
Left adrift and angry at the loss without any real way of processing it, Rocky begins to attend the aforementioned support group. It’s there we get the first of many great dark jokes and O’Brien makes each that much funnier through his reactions alone. That’s also when we meet Dennis (Sweeney) who is attending the group as well. The two bond over their loss with Rocky calling up his new bud at all hours to help him do menial tasks like going grocery shopping because he likes the company. They couldn’t be more different in sexuality and disposition — Rocky is bro-ish and a bit dim while Dennis is quick-witted and dryly funny — but they still begin to just be present for the other. We see this all unfolding from Rocky’s perspective as he clings to the relationship like a life raft in the hope that he can move forward.
But this is just the beginning. Once the title card drops unexpectedly late into the film, everything changes. Just when you think the movie is teetering on the edge of falling into repetition, or even worse, running out of steam, the perspective shifts to Dennis and Sweeney’s master plan clicks into place. It is not a spoiler to say that nothing is exactly what it seems, but the precise details of how this soon takes shape would be a crime to give away. What can be said is that both of these young men are about to find that their lives will be forever changed. As each goes about their days in the pointedly bustling yet isolating big city of Portland, we spend much of our time with Dennis as he is the one driving almost all the significant events and yet is increasingly having a hard time holding everything together. He despises his job, his coworkers, and much of his life. When he’s with Rocky, he seems more joyful. There is a sweetness to their interactions.
The film morphs into something else, and what fun Sweeney has contorting his characters into a whole host of hilarious, yet still uncomfortable, situations. It isn’t a mystery, as the audience is clued in quite early, though “Twinless” still gets plenty of mileage from watching certain characters begin to piece together what is happening. The film could be mistaken as cringe comedy, but it’s much more than that, and Sweeney never lets the film’s delightful twists overtake the emotion at the root of the movie.
On a formal level, there are also some fun uses of split screen that show the diverging paths of characters before they come back together again. Sweeney excels at marrying style with character.
When the film reaches its inevitable breaking point, the movie that started coming to mind most was the late, great Lynn Shelton’s Sundance classic “Humpday.” Even as “Twinless” is not quite as simultaneously audacious and thoughtful as that, the scenes in the confines of Seattle hotel rooms where the two men finally begin to open up to each other shares a similar unpredictable, intimate energy.
The film never gets bogged down in its more starkly depressing elements, with Sweeney remaining light on his comedic feet in everything from a goofy movie he has his character watch to a killer final gag involving the cover of a children’s book. But it also hits on something bittersweet in the last lines that provide a cathartic little button to the whole affair.
“Twinless” is a sales title at Sundance.
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