By George & Josh Bate
Twinless made its world premiere at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the coveted Audience Award and generated widespread critical acclaim. Months later, the film from writer, director, producer, and star James Sweeney hits theaters on September 5 and invites wider audiences to immerse in a thematically complex, emotionally poignant, and uncomfortably tense drama.
Twinless stars Dylan O’Brien as Roman, a young man whose identical twin brother Rocky recently passed away. When he joins a twin bereavement support group, Roman befriends Dennis (James Sweeney), another young man who lost his twin brother, and begins a friendship that proves more complicated than he initially thought.
Sweeney’s sophomore feature begins as one kind of film before evolving into another and concluding as another. Twinless starts as a meditative examination of grief, a particularly profound form of grief in the loss of one’s twin. Movies and television shows that explore grief have been commonplace since the beginnings of the mediums, and yet a honing in on a particularly intimate and troubling form of grief in losing a twin makes for a refreshing spin on the long-standing theme of loss. At one point in the film, Lauren Graham, who plays the mother of Dylan O’Brian’s Roman and his dead twin Rocky, questions the sentiment that losing a child is the hardest thing anyone can endure as the pain of losing a twin may be an even more troubling torment. It’s a brief line from Graham that perfectly encapsulates why the grief at the heart of Twinless is so painful, something writer/director Sweeney never loses sight of.
Indeed, Sweeney ensures that the emotional core of losing a twin runs through his entire film, even when the story takes unexpected turns and thematic layers are added. Twinless would probably have been a gut-wrenching watch if it simply sat with O’Brien and Sweeney’s characters as they find friendship in the aftermath of losing their twins, but Sweeney makes things more interesting by venturing into psychological thriller territory. Although to define exactly how the film makes this evolution would be to give away key plot details, it can be said that this reinvention of genre comes as surprising and gives the emotions of grief an uncomfortable companion: tension.
Any film that lets the audience in on a secret held by one of its leads inherently fosters a sense of suspense, and Twinless does exactly that. Thanks to sophisticated directing, framing, and writing from Sweeney, there’s a palpable tension that comes from the secret. Will the other person find out? What will happen if the other person finds out? These kinds of questions loom large over Twinless and allow the film to yield discomfort on a multitude of thematic, emotional levels – not just grief over loss, but discomfort at seeing a character harbor a secret destined to cause pain upon its reveal.
Coursing through the veins of this emotional and uncomfortable journey is a much-needed sense of dry humor. O’Brien’s Roman, who admits that he is not “the brightest tool in the shed,” often uses the wrong words and requires explanations for things one would think a healthy, functioning 30+ year old would already know. Although this leads to moments of subtle humor throughout, a perfectly delivered line from O’Brien early on about how people shouldn’t laugh at him when he gets things wrong, but, rather, use it as an opportunity to correct him and teach him ensures that whatever laughs come from Roman’s mistakes are accompanied with genuine endearment. In turn, the vicarious grief the audience feels from Roman hits even harder as there is an innocent, almost child-like quality to O’Brien’s character, a contrast to the more intellectual and often snarky Dennis.
Eventually, the film resolves its main story effectively, albeit without the emotional gut punch one would expect. Twinless is an undoubtedly moving film, but, even at its end, never one that quite crosses the line from moving to genuinely, gut-wrenchingly emotional. Perhaps, this was Sweeney’s intent – to tell a more grounded without a showy display of emotions. Regardless though, the resolution lacks the emotional catharsis the narrative was seemingly building up to. In the end, Twinless makes yet another thematic turn in ultimately being a tale of friendship, a poignant evolution given the film’s primary focus on grief.
Throughout this journey, Dylan O’Brien and James Sweeney deliver stellar performances. O’Brien, who plays Roman and his deceased twin Rocky in flashbacks, plays the brothers so differently and crafts two distinct characters with his two distinct performances. As Roman for much of the film, O’Brien beautifully plays a character struggling with the complexities of grief. He is not always able to voice exactly what he is feeling and struggles to come to terms with how he can grieve a brother who he also holds so much anger toward. It’s a performance with great subtlety masked under a character many will perceive initially as comedic. Side-by-side for much of the film with O’Brien is Sweeney, who shows that he is just as compelling on camera as he is behind the scenes. Sweeney’s performance evolves over the course of the film as layers of his character Dennis’ psyche unravel. A less nuanced actor may have played Dennis too rigidly or even villainously, but Sweeney ensures that his character always elicits empathy, even when his decisions become increasingly questionable.
VERDICT: 8/10
Twinless begins as a meditative examination of grief before heading into psychological thriller territory and eventually culminating as a profound tale of friendship. The second feature film from writer, director, producer, and star James Sweeney makes for consistently moving viewing in its focus on such a specific, overlooked form of grief, even if it never quite becomes gut-wrenchingly emotional. Despite this, unexpected story turns and thematic complexities add nuance to a story about grief with palpable tension coming from a character holding a terrible secret. Dylan O’Brien delivers a superb performance as Roman and his deceased twin brother Rocky in flashbacks, beautifully conveying the complexities of grief and difficulties in articulating one’s complicated feelings toward a loved one. Sweeney, meanwhile, is just as effective on camera as he is behind the scenes with a nuanced performance that ensures his character Dennis continues to elicit empathy and doesn’t devolve into simple villain territory. What on the surface may seem like a rather somber, straightforward drama transforms into something far more thrilling and contemplative through sophisticated filmmaking from the young filmmaker Sweeney.