In the movies, there are three types of characters who go to support groups.
First are the people who find genuine redemption, joining the groups with sincerity — and doing so, typically, just before the ending credits roll. Good for them.
Then there are the charismatic troublemakers who only show up because they’re forced to, and often walk out with a new accomplice to share whatever vice they were supposed to be kicking.
Most characters fall into one of those two categories, but occasionally you’ll get a third type: the flim-flammer, someone who lies about a nonexistent personal tragedy or addiction in order to participate.
The best-known example of the latter is the narrator of Fight Club, and now, in Twinless, there’s a much less explosive addition to that canon.
Dennis (writer-director James Sweeney) meets Roman (Dylan O’Brien) at a support group for twins whose twin has died. The two make an odd couple — Dennis is a soft-spoken designer, while Roman is a gym rat with anger issues — but they fall into a close friendship on the basis of their shared loss.
In an early flashback, it becomes clear that one of the two men is lying about that loss, and that his deceptive presence at the support group was no accident. This could be the setup for a thriller, but instead Twinless turns out to be a gently comedic drama.
The story touches on grief, sexuality and male loneliness, but Sweeney does those themes short shrift in a movie that’s continually occupied navigating an unlikely premise that plays out at implausible length.
It works as well as it does because Sweeney holds close to the edge. The two characters’ differences are not papered over, and the character who is lying recognizes the impossibility of maintaining a permanent deception regarding a topic at the core of their friendship.
Nor is either character made overly sympathetic. Roman’s short fuse leads him to lash out at his girlfriend (Aisling Franciosi, playing a character pure as Boundary Waters snow), while Dennis behaves with extraordinary selfishness.
That keeps the stakes reasonably low and saves Twinless from melodrama, but the film’s continual need to serve its twisty plot nonetheless distracts from the deeper issues it points to.
What if Dennis and Roman were both just exactly who they seem to be? That would be a harder hook to sell, but it would allow Sweeney to focus on the connection between the men. Can they truly help each other, or will their friendship only create more hurt?
The film has been a crowd-pleaser, winning the Audience Award for a dramatic feature at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. Even if Sweeney doesn’t do his characters full justice, it’s gratifying to see male vulnerability so openly on display in the age of the chest-thumping “manosphere.”
Twinless also has an appealing, low-key energy, with Sweeney distributing gags like he’s dropping them out of his pockets. Laugh or don’t, the movie isn’t going to stop and wait for you.
O’Brien, who is also seen as his late twin, has the juicier role, but Sweeney (making his sophomore film, after Straight Up) brings an odd magnetism to the wrecked but wry Dennis. Tackling heavy subjects, Sweeney has a refreshingly light touch.
Images courtesy Roadside Attractions
Leave a Reply