At first blush, Twinless sounds like typical Sundance fare — a twee, tear-jerking indie that, despite boasting a recognizable face, will have a quiet release and otherwise fade into the ether.
Yet thanks to its deftly twisty black comedy and a breakout performance from Dylan O’Brien, writer, director, and co-star James Sweeney’s sophomore feature has emerged as one of this year’s best surprises.
After amassing a teen cult following in YA staples like Teen Wolf and the Maze Runner franchise, O’Brien has more recently shifted to indie character work (last year’s Sundance saw him hamming it up as a smarmy wannabe pimp in the crime drama Ponyboi). Yet for all his 2010s internet boyfriend acclaim — like Dennis, many an ex-Tumblr user would do depraved things to suck this guy’s toes — the actor’s dual roles in Twinless is his most revelatory turn yet.
O’Brien’s sly, charismatic turn as Rocky lends the film a rare, ebullient spark, making his absence in both Dennis and Roman’s lives that much starker for the rest of its runtime. He has a harder and ultimately more satisfying part to play as Roman, imbuing rich layers of raw devastation and unbridled anger under his buffoonish exterior that I can only hope position him as the heir apparent to Channing Tatum’s onscreen himbo legacy.
Even as Twinless careens toward its sudden, briefly violent resolution, the rest of Sweeney’s dramedy is so clear-eyed in its farcical vision that you can’t help but root for our ill-fated duo to make it out intact, no matter how many trainwrecks are thrown their way. And what, really, what more can any of us ask for?
