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Twinless is about an unlikely duo a personable bro who's not the brightest tool in the shed and a prickly often condescending gay man.
When they meet in a support group for people who have lost their twin, a very interesting bond is formed.
The movie's got a wry sensibility, great chemistry, and it dares to take some dark turns you probably won't see coming.
I'm Glenn Weldon.
And I'm Aisha Harris, and today we're talking about Twinless on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR.
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Joining us today is one of the hosts of NPR's Code Switch podcast, Gene Demby.
Hey, Gene, welcome back.
What's good, y'all?
Oh my God, so glad to be here.
Great to have you.
Also, I'm not sure if listeners know, but you yourself are a twin.
I am a twin.
Another kind of twin in this movie.
Well, yes.
But I'm very excited to hear your thoughts on that.
But first, you know, Twinless is written, directed by and stars James Sweeney as Dennis, a moody loner whose twin brother has passed.
He connects with Roman, a doltish but vulnerable guy who's also lost his twin brother.
Roman's played by Dylan O'Brien.
Now, despite having little in common besides a deceased sibling, they grow close and lend one another some emotional support in dealing with their grief.
But, and this is a pretty big but, there's a lot they don't know about each other.
And that's all I'm going to say about that for now.
Twinless is in theaters now.
Jean, I'm going to start with you.
Give it to us.
How do we feel about this movie?
I love this movie.
And it was so stressful to watch.
I watched it and then my wife, who had been sleeping, woke up and she was like hey, I want to watch this with you.
And I was like, I will absolutely watch this again with you right now.
And I watched it again with her and saw her sink into the couch like, oh, my God.
Like, watch the stress.
And I was like, I know.
You have to experience this, too.
I've never seen James Sweeney, any of his work before.
Like, whatever he does, henceforth, I'm all on board with that.
This movie is, like, really intense.
And...
It's both like a small character movie, but also like it's so intense.
I was like, oh, this is going to turn into like a thriller or like an unnerving twist to happen.
Because there are a lot of unnerving twists, but I thought like somebody was going to be bloodshed at some point.
And so the whole time you watch this movie, like, the coil is sort of wrapping tighter and tighter.
And yet, and this is so wild about it, it's, like, legitimately laugh out loud funny, right?
Like, the guy who plays Roman and Rocky, his twin, I mean this in the best way.
I mean, like, no shade.
He's very good at playing an idiot.
Yes.
No, that's so true.
Yeah.
So I've been like dying to chop it up with somebody, especially y'all about this, just because it's a movie that like invites so much discussion.
Yes.
I think it's important to stress that as stressful as this movie is, it is also comedy.
So I'm glad you...
You hinted at that, Gene.
But Glenn, yes, tell me, how are we feeling about this?
Oh, I'm so glad that Jean is on the panel today because I think, A, because I miss you.
Oh, thank you.
Likewise.
B, because I think between the two of us, I think we got this movie covered.
Jean is a twin.
I just don't think about you like that, bro.
So I think we got it covered.
I love this film on its own, and especially as the second film from James Sweeney.
I saw his first film, which is called Straight Up, a while back.
And I remember thinking, this is a great first film, but I cannot wait to see his next one.
Because he also...
Wrote and directed straight up.
He also starred in it.
He played a gay man who started to question his identity because he found himself drawn romantically to a woman.
It was funny.
It was sweet, but not too sweet, which is important to me.
It was also poking at some ideas that don't get explored in a sympathetic way about identity.
The only thing I noticed about that first film is that you could hear the screenplay, if that makes sense.
Like, the dialogue was very witty and very crisp, but the characters sometimes came off as mouthpieces.
The rhythms were just a bit too arched, a little too theater, a little too sitcom-y, a little too like set a punchline.
He has settled in with this movie.
He's created characters who say funny things.
He has not come up with funny things and then created characters to say them.
These are very natural rhythms.
These characters are given room to deepen and complicate, and that's most...
Most seen in the character of Marcy, who becomes Roman's girlfriend.
Oh, my God.
She's played by Aisling Franchosi.
And she is a broad comic character when we first meet her.
So it's clear we're seeing her through the James Sweeney character's eyes, Dennis's eyes.
Mm-hmm.
But the script and the actor allow her to grow and deepen and find other registers to play.
And she becomes a very important part of the movie.
This is a very enjoyable film.
Yeah.
You've just convinced me to go back and watch Straight Up.
I also really love this movie.
And while I am neither a gay man nor a twin...
I absolutely jibe with James Sweeney's whole energy and vibe and his comedic sensibilities.
Glenn, that point you made about him being able to tap into a sweetness that is never too sweet is absolutely true here.
Because his character, Dennis, in this film...
You know, he is kind of a condescending, like, I think I'm better than you sort of.
He has that vibe, but he softens over time through his relationship with Roman.
And being able to play an idiot as Dylan O'Brien does, it's like playing drunk, right?
Like, it's hard to do.
Yep.
And so when you can do it well, oh, my goodness, it works so well.
How do you know if lemons are ripe?
Yellow.
Unripe lemons are green.
So why do they got so many unripe ones out there?
Those are lines.
He is a quote unquote adult or an idiot, but he also like is aware that he is not very smart.
There's such a great dynamic between the two of these characters because at one point he's like look, I know that I'm not very smart, but like, please treat me like a human being.
Can you not laugh at me?
I know I'm not like the brightest tool in the shed, but I don't appreciate it.
Yeah.
Yeah, of course.
I'm sorry.
You know, if I get something wrong, tell me.
Then I can know better.
Would now be a good time to point out, I think you meant to say sharpest tool in the shed?
I love that scene.
That like very fine line between being kind of dumb, but also his ability to be vulnerable in a way that Dennis can't.
It's so rare to see that.
Yeah, this is just a fun movie.
But I also feel as though we can't really talk about this.
This would be beyond surface level without getting into.
There's a pretty big twist.
I will say that that comes early on in the movie.
And so we're going to get into that.
We're going to get into some major spoilers.
So just giving you a warning.
Now, here's the gist.
Dennis is not, in fact, a twin.
It is revealed.
Even worse.
Oh, God.
This is where I started really sinking into my seat while watching this.
Even worse, he's indirectly responsible for the death of Roman's twin, Rocky.
Dennis and Rocky had a one night stand and Dennis became upset when Rocky didn't follow up with him afterward.
Honestly, relatable.
I've been there.
He angrily confronts Rocky on the street, and then Rocky was struck and killed by a car because he stepped off the sidewalk without looking both ways.
And now Dennis is maybe, I guess, trying to absolve his guilt by befriending Roman.
And also it's worth noting that Roman is in town.
He's there because he's helping to settle up Rocky's loose ends.
He never had the opportunity to know Rocky's like real life.
So he has no idea that Dennis is who he is.
Wow.
And this is revealed like 20 minutes in.
I could see a movie where you don't find this out until the third act and it would feel very manipulative.
That's not what happens here.
Is that the key, or is that the secret sauce to this working is to raise the stakes and show us just how close these two men are becoming, make us feel what we know is going to be lost?
And I think it does that really smartly by letting Marcy become a real sympathetic rounded character.
I think that the fact that she's the vector by which this friendship lives or dies is a really smart thing that this movie does.
Yeah.
Because Marcy has like a sort of a longitudinal relationship with Dennis, right?
She's known him for a long time.
And so she's starting to put together like, hey, You don't have a twin brother.
Like she starts to like put the pieces together.
The scene in which Rocky is killed.
My wife, when we watch movies together, she yells.
Like she yells when exciting, dramatic things happen.
And so because I had just seen it, like literally just before she sat down to watch it, I like looked at her.
I was like, here we go.
Here it goes.
And she yells so loud.
It's like, oh my God, our baby's asleep.
Please.
Once it's revealed that Dennis has this relationship with Rocky and he was, like you know, a little pressed right.
Like after their one night stand he was sort of like you can see, there's this really funny moment.
He's like trying to, like he's asking people who are sort of disinterested like should I reach out to Rocky?
And like he's obviously fishing for someone to tell him the thing that he wants to hear, which is like yes yeah, oh man, my wife kept saying this dude loves to fly close to the sun, like Dennis keeps.
The closer he gets to Roman, the more he becomes kind of ensconced in parts of Rocky's world is just looming over the last what like hour and 20 minutes of the movie.
And their friendship is so, it's, like, legitimately beautiful to watch, right?
Like, they look out for each other.
They seem to really enjoy each other's company.
It's, like, very, like, unfussy companionship, right?
They are like naturally in sync, even though you know, and I think it's like one of the themes of the movie is like you would not necessarily assume that these two people would be friends, and I don't want to ruin too much, but like they sort of question like would we be friends had we had the universe aligned in a different way?
And it's like oh, it's just so heartbreaking, Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
What I also find interesting about this is that, like Dennis, is clearly unhinged in every way possible.
The very least there's like a big showdown or something like that.
And what I find interesting is that, like Dennis, is not necessarily interested in Roman sexually, or at least I don't get that sense.
It's more like he's both has a sense of guilt.
Yes, he's attracted to him because he looks.
He looks exactly like this dude.
He was like infatuated with yeah.
And we also learn, interestingly, that he has this, like, weird thing about twins.
Like, he, like, wants to be a twin, and he...
There's a great, great reference to It Takes Two, the classic Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen movie.
But I found it so interesting because you could also see it going in that direction of like this homoerotic tension, but it never really gets there.
And I think all the ways it kind of avoids that and focuses in on on this idea of of these two very different people managing to be friends is what is so fascinating.
Like all the turns that you can imagine this taking, and how It subverts those in every way, which I think is what makes this so great.
Yeah.
We mentioned Dylan O'Brien playing Roman as, you know, kind of an adult.
And he does it well.
And he does it by saying something like, I'm not the brightest tool in the shed.
So, folks, if you heard that in Aisha's intro when you were – had your emails already.
No, don't.
That's from the movie.
It's a line from the movie.
Thank you, Glenn.
So settle down.
But he also briefly plays the dead twin Rocky in flashbacks.
And I got to say, the first time we meet Rocky, I, a gay man who's seen gay characters played by straight actors forever, I was like, oh, he's making choices.
Like, does Glad have a hotline and do I need to call it?
Because that is a lot.
At one point, we see him coming out of his apartment.
The first line out of his mouth is drama.
And I'm like, can we not?
This is a hate crime.
But then I remember how often I say drama to my friends and I will continue to say it.
So at that point I kind of relaxed a bit because like, let he who is without sin cast the first, Sharon Stone.
You know what I'm saying?
But Rocky turns out to be a very familiar type, a very hot gay who just is completely comfortable in his skin.
And it's important for us to see him like that.
And for him to be that.
So we can then see how comparatively stunted and lost Roman is, how much Rocky's departure and call it for what it is abandonment really how much that cost him.
And I thought that was a really important note for the movie to hit.
The movie's... Well, it doesn't imply.
It sort of says.
I'll write that like part of the reason that the two of them, Rocky and Roman, who were apparently incredibly close when they're younger part of the reason they were estranged was when Rocky came out to Roman.
Roman responded horribly.
And when his brother basically left, like you know clearly, I guess the implication is he went to someplace where he could be safer or more, you know, find community.
Yeah.
Roman felt abandoned, you know, and he sort of carried this guilt like I drove away this person who I love more than anybody.
Glenn, you were saying that, like, you can see how comparatively stunted Roman is relative to Rocky.
But also, like, that's clearly why Dennis was drawn to him, too.
Like Rocky was so comfortable in his own skin and Dennis is sort of very charming but like very, you know, but very dorky um, and so like you could see why these two people, who are like searching for both companionship and sort of and searching for a kind of confidence would be, would feel like the like the loss of this person in particular.
Yeah yeah gene, i don't want to, But I am curious about, like the twin perspective.
I would love to hear a little bit more about how that played for you as a twin.
Well, I should say I'm a fraternal, so my sister and I, like, there was the gender stuff, you know.
So, like, obviously, we were really, really close when we were younger.
We always had a playmate who was the same age.
You know, we played with each other's toys.
Twin years, you sort of start to, like, go in different directions.
But, like you know, there is a sense of and I think this is probably true of all siblings who are close in age but that sense of, like you know, you live in a microculture of the house that you grew up in, right?
And so you have this person who... you grow up with the same parent.
Like sometimes when you have a sibling and the sibling is far apart enough in age, like those parents have different sort of like capacities or whatever.
But, like when you are a twin, you have a person who, like very, very instinctually, understands what it's like to have the upbringing you had like, in a way that no one else had right.
Like in this movie, you see that Roman has a really testy relationship with his mom, who was played by Lauren Graham Lorelei Gilmore.
I was very curious about like...
What was Rocky's relationship like to this?
Like was it one of those things?
Like I feel abandoned in part because like, you left me to deal with this person who I don't get along with right by myself, you know.
Didn't want him to go through it alone.
And so, like, basically made it so that he had the same injury.
That kind of, like, you have a built-in best friend is, like, a really, really powerful thing.
You just have someone you don't have to explain everything to, you know?
Yeah, yeah.
I had never really thought about that perspective before, about having the same parent in the same place.
Because I grew up in a household where there were several years between my sister and I, And then I have two younger sisters who are decades younger than me.
And I had my parents when we didn't have a lot of money.
And then we had a little bit more money by the time my second sibling came in.
So that is such a real thing.
And I love the way.
Lauren Grant has a small role in this movie.
Those moments when she's with Roman on screen just feel so... I can feel it.
I can understand it so well.
And there's love there, but also there's so much fraughtness there.
And if you'd seen Straight Up, you would have noticed how many Gilmore Girls jokes there are in that movie.
So it's kind of fun.
It's great to see Lauren Graham here.
Easter egg.
I'm sure it was quite the boon for him to get her.
He's like, yes, this is my dream.
I just want to really briefly talk about the ending without revealing the ending.
It's perfect and in a movie like this it's not about the bomb going off.
We know the bomb's going to go off.
We're waiting for it.
What's important about a movie like this is what happens after.
You have to nail it because that's the thing we don't know how it's going to do.
And this thing had five minutes to go and I thought, how is he going to land this plane?
Because all of a sudden I realized, oh, we're in the movie's last scene.
This is the last beat, the last moment.
It has to pay for itself.
And it so does in a quiet, perfect way that doesn't feel overdetermined, that doesn't feel, you know workshopped, that doesn't feel clever and sweaty.
It just feels natural.
And I just love that choice that the movie makes at the end there.
Absolutely.
A thousand percent.
You know not to be like to like gild a lily too much, but like you know there's all these things, pieces about sort of like the crisis of male friendships and um, I just think like a real thing, but like this is a movie, I would like a lot of like straight dudes who are sort of alienated.
Yeah.
Because it's like such a smart movie about, there's a scene right towards the end that when Roman...
He doesn't have anything to do when his girlfriend is otherwise engaged, right?
And just I kept thinking about all those pieces about like hey man, I need my husband, my boyfriend, whoever to like, have someone to talk to.
That is not me.
Yes.
And it's like a very real thing that I think a lot of dudes will recognize in themselves.
And a lot of women will like, yes, this is what I'm trying to tell you about.
I need you to go out in the world and have an emotional, intimate community, that it's not just me doing all that stuff.
Yeah.
I mean, I don't have anything to add, except I completely agree with both of you.
And I think this movie is very good at just kind of planting little seeds, coming back to them, but not in a like I'm going to make sure you know that I'm coming back to it.
It's just natural.
I hope to see more from James Sweeney and from Dylan O'Brien because again, my goodness, so fantastic.
I know he was, you know, if you watched certain shows or movies, you would know him.
But this is my first time really digging into him, and he is fantastic.
You weren't on the Scorch Trials, huh?
Oh, no.
Sorry.
I was not.
Well, we want to know what you think about Twinless.
Find us on Facebook at facebookcom slash pchh.
And on Letterboxd at letterboxdcom slash nprpopculture.
We'll have a link to that in our episode description.
That brings us to the end of our show.
Gene Denby, Glenn Weldon, thanks so much for being here.
Thank you.
Appreciate you.
Thank you.
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So please go find out more at plus.npr.org or visit the link in our show notes.
This episode was produced by Liz Metzger, Janae Morris and Mike Katzeff and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy.
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