Twinless **** (2025, Dylan O’Brien, James Sweeney, Aisling Franciosi) – Classic Movie Review 13,838

Dylan O’Brien and James Sweeney star in the 2025 dark comedy drama film Twinless as Roman and Dennis, who meet in a bereavement support group for twins and start an unlikely bromance.

Dylan O’Brien and James Sweeney star in the 2025 American psychological dark comedy drama film Twinless as Roman and Dennis, two young men who meet in a twin bereavement support group and start an unlikely bromance. Roman is straight and is grieving his gay brother and Dennis is gay, and lies about having had a twin to get close to Roman. They seem like two peas from the same pod, but are they?

Gay man Dennis has accidentally killed straight man Roman’s gay brother Rocky, then meets Roman by chance, follows him into a support group meeting, and falls totally for Roman, head over heels. Dennis introduces Roman to his office receptionist Marcie (Aisling Franciosi) and they start a relationship, upsetting Dennis. Marcie is sharp, and starts inquiring into Dennis’s story of his gay twin, with disastrous results on Dennis’s intense friendship with Roman.

Twinless is sweet, funny and shamelessly sentimental, but in a good way. There are lots of tears among the laughs. It starts with a death and a funeral. Dylan O’Brien, mixing sensitive and violent as Roman, and James Sweeney, mixing sad and sassy as Dennis, go to it full on. Dylan O’Brien also plays the gay brother Rocky in flashback, total ‘tashed gay. It’s brave and bold of both of the actors, with meaningful stares and pregnant pauses for long looks and unhappy faces. There’s nowhere for the actors to hide except inside their characters.

It is very slickly made in atmospheric Portland, Oregon, with attractive, imaginative photography, songs and score (music by Jung Jae-il, who wrote the score of the 2019 film Parasite). Twinless is one of those movies you want to hug, need to hug.

The script is slick, smart and witty, and quite wise too, a huge credit to James Sweeney, but also to Dylan O’Brien who believed in him and supported him as star and executive producer. It is a total one-off, but just for once it would be nice to have a sequel so the films could be twins.

Cast: Dylan O’Brien as Roman/ Rocky, James Sweeney as Dennis, Aisling Franciosi as Marcie, Lauren Graham as Lisa, Rocky and Roman’s mother, Tasha Smith as Charlotte, Chris Perfetti as George, François Arnaud as Sammy, Susan Park as Sage, Cree Cicchino as Bianca, Katie Findlay as Lori.

Directed/ written by: James Sweeney
Music: Jung Jae-il
Producers: James Sweeney, Liz Destro, Ali Jazayeri, Miky Lee, David Gendron, Dylan O’Brien, Kevin Sullivan
Production: Republic Pictures, Permut Presentations, TPC
Distribution: Lionsgate, Roadside Attractions, Sony Pictures Releasing International.

Twinless premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival on 23 January 2025 in the US Dramatic Competition, where it won the Audience Award. It was released in the US by Lionsgate Films and Roadside Attractions on 5 September 2025.

In 2019, Sweeney directed, wrote, and starred in Straight Up. Sweeney’s second film Twinless premiered at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. It was released in the US on September 5, 2025.

Cast: Dylan O’Brien, James Sweeney, Aisling Franciosi, Chris Perfetti, Heidi Herschbach, Lauren Graham, François Arnaud, Susan Park, Cree Cicchino, Katie Findlay.

Duration: 100 minutes.

Production: Republic Pictures, TPC, Permut Presentations, Backyard Plane, Three Point Capital.

Dylan Rhodes O’Brien (born August 26, 1991).

© Derek Winnert 2026 – Classic Movie Review 13,838

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com