Twinless

Part of my coverage of the 12th Chicago Critics Film Festival.

TWINLESS   ***

James Sweeney

2025

IDEA:  Two men form a close bond after meeting in a support group for twins who have lost their twin.

BLURB:  There’s always been something vaguely reactionary about the term “bromance,” as if a close relationship between men requires a whimsical title as reassurance of nothing unusual (read: homosexual) going on. Although never uttered in Twinless, the word shadows the almost-parodically convivial partnership of Dennis and Roman in the first section of the film. Then, Sweeney pulls the rug out from under the audience, reframing the salutary simplicity of his “bromance” as a relationship predicated on grief, obsession, envy, sexual tension, and an aching hunger for companionship. One of the parties here may be gay, but his desire for his newfound friend ultimately has less to do with this fact than with a more primal lack in his life he’s trying to fill; to place this friend into the dual role of recovered twin and lover. This might make Twinless sound intensely psychological, but despite some flirtations with thriller territory, Sweeney keeps the film mostly within the bounds of romantic comedy, which makes his provocative ingredients seem all the spikier. As in his excellent first feature, Straight Up, the writer-director-star shows a gift for badinage that brings to mind the screwball greats, mixed with a Woody Allen-like erudite neuroticism and a taste for dark absurdism that feels wholly Millennial. Sweeney’s wit infuses the pinpoint editing, as well, and at times appears in visual conceits such as a split-screen and a fractal zoom effect. While Twinless can occasionally feel a bit too unserious in its handling of heavy subject matter, it always returns to the anchoring emotions of Sweeney and Dylan O’Brien, a terrifically-paired duo who create a friendship that is brotherly and romantic but mostly happily unclassifiable.