Review: Twinless – “a highly compelling and thought-provoking piece of filmmaking.”

If there’s a film you need to go in totally blind this year, make sure it’s Twinless. Its genre-meshing and structure-bending artistry is something to behold but unfortunate spoilers would ruin the fun of experiencing not just the twisted premise but especially the emotional payoff of James Sweeney’s extremely clever and thematically poignant sophomore feature.

After all it’s no fluke that Twinless won the Audience Award (US Dramatic) at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, where it premiered, and that Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner, TV’s Teenwolf) was given the Special Jury Award for Acting (US Dramatic). This is in fact one of those unique cinematic journeys where you immediately know you’re in good hands but nothing can prepare you for how jaw-dropping and pathos-inducing things will get.

As summed up by its title, the film follows Roman (O’Brien), a young man who has lost his twin brother Rocky in a tragic accident and, consumed by grief, he begins attending a twin bereavement group. At his first meeting, Roman befriends Dennis, another young man who has recently lost his twin and the two immediately bond, among other things, over the reverse dynamic they shared with their respective deceased sibling. Roman couldn’t be any more on-the-nose straight, whilst Rocky was gay, however Dennis is a twinky gay guy, whereas his twin was the hetero of the pair.

Writer/director and producer James Sweeney plays Dennis and although one could argue O’Brien has the meatiest role (more on that in a moment), he deserves praise for filling the multi-hyphenate shoes without skipping a damn beat in every department he’s involved with. This is an incredible feat of filmmaking and Sweeney, despite his young age and being just on his second feature, pulls it off seamlessly and with the confidence of a seasoned auteur.

The themes at play here are complex and intertwined. Grief is most definitely the story’s catalyst and the family dynamics it unravels are masterfully brought to life in the scenes between Roman and his mother, played with pitch-perfect restraint by legend Lauren Graham. Rocky was obviously her favourite son and so Roman not only has to deal with his own hurt but also cope with the fact he’s meant to disappoint his mom.

O’Brien captures his character’s overly charged, toxic masculinity and ready-to-burst vulnerability with a powerful command of his craft. Both Roman and Dennis are lost souls who are lonely and alone now but already were even before their twins’ untimely deaths and that’s why they crave connection and kinship through their shared pain, in spite of their countless differences.

Their newfound friendship brings much-needed respite in both their lives, as an expertly cut buddy montage illustrates, but the caustic humor seeping through the script progressively suggests that the comedic side of this dramedy is headed towards darker tones. And Sweeney doesn’t spare the storytelling arsenal at his disposal, playing with the film’s structure and aesthetics, switching from 35mm film to digital, mastering a virtuoso split-screen movement converging into a single shot through a mirror and other interesting visual ideas, proving he’s a literate filmmaker with spunk.

Things inevitably get tricky when Dennis introduces Roman to his colleague Marcie (a brilliantly measured Aisling Franciosi) and the two start dating. Their bromance dynamic is ruined and cracks are open, revealing wounds and leading to unexpected territory. Identity is indeed another big theme here and figuring out who you are is one of the most difficult things to do, let alone when you’ve lost a huge part of yourself. And then of course there’s forgiveness, which Sweeney has rightfully defined as underrated.

Twinless is a highly compelling and thought-provoking piece of filmmaking, which will probably make some audiences uncomfortable to the point of cringe. But even that factor is an integral part of the story and needs to play its part for the epilogue to work and pack an authentic emotional punch. It deserves to be discovered and discussed because it eerily captures the loneliness epidemic of this day and age but specifically nails both the queer perspective on it and the fragile masculinity. When Dylan O’Brien suddenly switches roles to portray Rocky in a flashback sequence I was left speechless by his bravura at embodying such different characters with a level of naturalism that’s rare to witness on screen and in my heart he’s won all of the awards this season.

TWINLESS is in UK & Irish cinemas 6 February. For cinemas visit: https://bit.ly/m/twinlessfilm / PARK CIRCUS