"Twins have long held a fascination for filmmakers. You find them scattered across film history in every genre, from Freudian thrillers (The Dark Mirror, Dead Ringers) to goofy comedies (Big Business, Jack and Jill) to a whole host of horrors (from The Shining to Sinners). Writer-director James Sweeney is the latest filmmaker to explore this uncanny bond with his second feature, Twinless."
"The film initially centres on Roman (Dylan O'Brien), a hoodie-wearing lump who often confuses his idioms (at one point, he describes himself as "not the brightest tool in the shed"). His suave, more accomplished brother, Rocky (also played by O'Brien in flashback), has recently died, and Roman attempts to process his profound grief by joining a bereavement support group for twins who've lost their siblings."
"Growing up as a "military brat" in small-town Alaska, Sweeney always daydreamed he might have a secret twin out there. "I definitely fantasised about running into my long lost twin in a forest somewhere, thinking that would be the thing that would make my life a lot easier," says the 35-year-old filmmaker, now based in Los Angeles. His interest in twins even extended to dating one at one point, and it was around then that he became acquainted with the idea of twin bereavement."
Twinless follows Roman, a hoodie-wearing man who struggles to process the death of his more successful twin brother, Rocky. Roman joins a bereavement support group specifically for twins and encounters Dennis, a sharp-witted mourner whose similarities to Rocky foster a fast, co-dependent friendship. The relationship shifts into psychological unease as Dennis proves not to be what he appears. James Sweeney's childhood fantasy of a secret twin and an experience dating a twin inform the film's focus on twin bereavement. The screenplay began over a decade ago, and the film probes identity, grief, and the uncanny bond between twins.
Read at AnOther
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]