There have been a lot of different kinds of controversies in the film industry, but one kind of controversy I don’t abide by is piracy. Especially when said piracy is at the hands of the Sundance Film Festival. This festival gives access to many films via the screener portal. Yes, you have to, but tickets like you would with a theater, but they are still available  where other film festivals dont give this kind of access. So, to pirate these films is an absolute no no. This is so wrong! Twinless was  the victory this earlier this year. Now everybody has the chance to see the full movie that was partly pirated by some reprehensible people. It’s time for all the hype to live up to the story.  This film is finally coming in theaters.

This might be one of the hardest reviews I’ll ever have to write because I’m so close to the material in a weird way. As the title suggests, the main plot of the film revolves around loving a twin. I am a twin. Watching this movie was very strange because of that fact. My twin brother and I were very close to one another, as you’d might imagine. When siblings are created, then born and eventually grow up together, they develop a connection to one another. That’s definitely how it was with my brother David. Yes, we’re Dan and Dave, not the Olympic Gold medal winning decathlon, Dan and Dave, but different ones. We were unbearable as kids. We loved all the same things and did everything together until we didn’t. Twinless is a bit different than our lives, but it still gave me chills watching it thinking of having a twin brother who could have gone through this scenario. It’s pretty weird.

Dennis (James Sweeney) is a young gay man who works at an ad agency. He is pretty lonely until he meets the man of his dreams, Rocky (Dylan O’Brien). They have a night to remember. Until the O’Brien character doesn’t call or text the Sweeney character back. This bothers the Sweeney character, but when he goes to confront the O’Brien character about this, something tragic befalls him. This is when an unforeseen circumstance happens. He noticed that the love of his life has a twin brother Roman who is going to a twins grieving group. He attends as well, and they hit it off and become friends. The problem is that the newfound friendship is based on lies.

Sweeney is also the writer/director of this film. So he’s doing Triple duty. That’s a rarity these days. Usually, a film has a writer or director, but not all three, with an actor included. Sometimes, filmgoers see a filmmaker doing two of these duties. Sweeney has his hands full with this film. He’s not the only one doing double or triple duty, though. O’Brien is also doing double duty as he plays both twins in this story Rocky & Roman. Sweeney had to have all the ins and outs of this story perfectly in his head so he didn’t miss anything. That could have happened if he wasn’t on top of his game. This is his second feature, so he should know what he’s doing by now.

O’Brien is the main star of this film besides Sweeney that is. He has had a bit of a good career. Normally starring in young adult movies like The Mazerunner Trilogy, Love & Monsters, and American Assassin. He has become pretty adept at the action franchise by now. These roles are a bit different than anything he’s played in his career thus far. It’s more of a character study. He has to put all his acting skills to work with these dual roles. They are completely different characters. One is a flamboyant gay man, and the other is a tough guy. Both twins, of course. Playing two different characters couldn’t have been easy. He did a terrific job developing both of their personalities and differences even though they are twins. I want to see him do more roles like this.

Sweeney has to balance a lot, but his performance doesn’t falter. He has to play various emotions at the same time. There are many times when he changes from being happy and content to being dower and sad. Balancing these emotions couldn’t have been easy. He also has to interact with other actors such as Aisling Franciosi as Marcie, a co-worker of his who he has an up and down relationship with. He also introduced her to one of the O’Brien characters, which caused him some trouble. As  I mentioned, he has a lot to balance in this film. I don’t want to sound like a broken record, but it’s true. This could have gone off the rails, but it doesn’t. I was genuinely very impressed by everything he had to accomplish with this film.

Going back to the twin aspect of this story. I’d be remiss if I didn’t bring this up. Sweeney had a fascination with twins that went more in depth than just the O’Brien dual characters. The Olson twins were a fetish of his character, and he had twins popping up all over the place in the movie. He had a crazy fascination with twins that went a little overboard. Being a twin myself, as I mentioned, it’s not that big a deal. Yes, having a connection with another person on this level is cool. it’s not the end all, be all. Knowing my own brother my whole life, it was good when he moved away and started his own new life away from me. We still are good friends and obviously brothers, but separation can be good at times. The two characters in this film were completely different. Being a twin isn’t all that people think it is.

Twinless has a vibe that was completely different from any comedy I’ve ever seen before. Even though it had a subplot involving twins, it wasn’t what I was expecting.  The dual performances by O’Brien were pretty impressive. The real impressive achievement with this film was the triple duty that Sweeney pulled. He showed me something I didn’t think I’d see with this movie. The story, direction, and acting were all on point. It’s a rarity. We won’t see much more in the near future. I don’t think many people can do such a thing, especially newcomers like he is to me. I’m sure he’ll be on the radar of some of the bigger studios after this monumental achievement.  Overall, this was a good movie. Not exactly what I was expecting, but that’s a good thing. Films shouldn’t be predictable. This one was far from that for me. Maybe even my twin brother might like it. I’ll just have to wait and see. 

3 ½

Dan Skip Allen