I’d rush into a tornado to save Glen Powell. Twisters feels like this year’s Top Gun: Maverick, a crowd-pleasing epic theater experience that feels like a throwback summer blockbuster in the coolest of ways. Much like the latter-mentioned legacy sequel, Twisters supersedes its predecessor in just about every way while bolstering new stars and bringing new thrills. 

Twisters follows tornado trackers Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Javi (Anthony Ramos) who look to test an experimental new tracking system. They come into contact with the charismatic yet reckless Tyler Owens (Glen Powell) and his gang of social-media-driven Tornado wranglers. The film is directed by Lee Isaac Chung, who also directed 2020’s Minari. 

Powell always thrives in the lovable douchebag role. His character in this movie feels like an evolution of Hangman in Top Gun: Maverick. Side note, Powell would make a good Indiana Jones. A handsome, tall, and gruff nerd who’s likable and charismatic. I especially felt this while watching this year’s Hit Man and Twisters only helped to exemplify it. 

Edgar-Jones shines in her first huge role, bringing loads of heart. The romance between Edgar-Jones and Powell was very push-and-pull in a very fresh way. The characterization in this film also really outdoes its predecessor.

I already know that country stuff is gonna pop off when this movie gets really popular. But it was a smart market to capitalize on with how popular country music is now. Artists like Beyoncé and Post Malone tapped into the genre and now so has modern Hollywood. 

Dread is a great tool for horror. Even if nothing overtly terrifying is happening on screen, if there’s an element of dread on hand, you’re primed for anything. Horror uses it better than any other genre, so a good genre filmmaker can go to town. Oddity is a solid example of this, as a horror movie bathed in dread. It’s nothing like the recently released Longlegs, but then again, what is? Taken on its own, this is an effective little fright flick.

Oddity is the sort of film that works best as a calling card for its director. Beyond that, the atmosphere on display is worthy of praise. The story itself is a bit on the light side, but it winds up coming together in a pretty interesting way. If you like smaller horror films, then this is one to check out, as it delivers far more than it doesn’t.

One year after Dani (Carolyn Bracken) has been brutally murdered at the home in southwestern Ireland she shared with physician Ted Timmis (Gwilym Lee), the latter is still living there. He claims it’s because it’s close to his job at a nearby psychiatric hospital, though others think there’s more to it than that. Ted’s former patient Olin Boole (Tadhg Murphy) has been pegged with the slaying, though again, not everyone thinks that was the case, especially when Olin was savagely killed shortly thereafter. When Dani’s blind twin sister Darcy (also Bracken) shows up on the one year anniversary of the murder, she startles Ted and his girlfriend Yana (Caroline Menton). Darcy is a medium and has a gift for him, one that he’ll wish she had not brought with her.

From here, the supernatural begins to rear its head. Darcy has a wooden mannequin for Ted, which belonged to her and Dani’s mother. He’s not interested, while Yana is hugely put off by her and the doll, but they want to be polite. The longer Dani is around, and the more trance-like she gets, the more scared Yana gets, eventually with very good reason.

The cast lends an effective seriousness to the proceedings, even if no one here outright blew me away. The main trio of Carolyn Bracken, Gwilym Lee, and Caroline Menton anchor things with a quietness that is almost more befitting a drama. Bracken gets to do some interesting things later in the game, while Menton gets to be effectively frightened, but they’re all in service of their director’s vision. In addition to Tadhg Murphy, the supporting cast includes Jonathan French, Joe Rooney, Steve Wall, and more.

Filmmaker Damian Mc Carthy should have a nice future in horror, given his sense of atmosphere. He utilizes dread and some occasionally gnarly visuals to good effect. His direction is ahead of his writing, as the pacing is a bit slow, but it eventually comes together. Oddity lives up to its name, but it does feel longer than it’s under 100 minute running time. Once Mc Carthy tightens things up a bit, his next work will not just be good again, but almost assuredly great. I’m bullish on his talent, that’s for sure. At a certain point, you’re stressed at the horrific possibilities, which is huge within the genre.

Oddity never ascends to the next level, but as a small fright flick with some strong atmosphere, it works. The sense of dread and potential for terror is there, so when Mc Carthy makes another genre effort, I’ll be there. He’s got the goods.

SCORE: ★★★

Related

Almost thirty years ago Director Jan de Bont (Speed) brought one of nature’s deadliest forces, tornadoes, to the big screen.  Warner Bros. Twister, starring Helen Hunt (As Good As It Gets) and Bill Paxton (True Lies) told the story of a group of storm chasers and their scientific endeavors to learn more about tornadoes to create better warning systems. Liked by critics and loved by audiences, the movie became a bona fide box office success and made people look at cows in a whole new light.  This week, a highly anticipated, stand-alone sequel, Twisters comes to theaters nationwide.

While in graduate school Kate Cooper (Daisy Edgar Jones; Where the Crawdads Sing) devised a substance that theoretically could suffocate a tornado stopping it before it could do any damage. However, while testing the material, it failed to collapse the tornado and the category EF5 event claimed the lives of three of her friends and stopped Kate from storm chasing.  Five years later, the only other survivor of the group, Javi (Anthony Ramos; A Star is Born) comes to visit Kate in New York City and asks her to help him chase tornadoes so he can collect data with the new equipment he has.

After initially turning Javi down, Kate joins him in the field for a week.  At the meeting location, Kate is introduced to Tyler Owens (Glen Powell; Anyone But You), a social media sensation who records him and his team storm chasing.  With a huge following, Tyler is cocky and obnoxious and, while Kate hates him at first, they eventually end up working together to modify Kate’s initial design with the hope of dissipating the funnel.

Director Lee Isaac Chung (Minari) brings together a solid cast and creates some intense scenes but he also misses on a few marks.  First, he intercuts some real weather scenes into the film with clouds moving at an accelerated pace to give a sense of realism.  However, he does more damage than good as the real-life weather is a stark contrast to the computer-generated ones.  He also doesn’t create the kind of tension de Bont did with Twister or perhaps, because we have seen it before, it doesn’t create as much tension as it did the first time around.  The CGI was pretty good but when the tornado takes out some oil tanks, the fire that ensues looks sort of fake.

The incorporation of social media this time around will appeal to younger audiences but it also makes Tyler come off looking a bit bad. While Powell’s smile is disarming it can come across as plastic at times which doesn’t make him look any less like a smug tool.  Edgar-Jones does a very good job and I can see for several reasons why she was chosen.  I don’t think Ramos was well cast and that mistake pulled me out of the film more than once.

The plot was ok for the most part.  It certainly wasn’t as cohesive as the 1996 version and it didn’t do much of anything to swerve away from the tried and true, which may be part of the problem.  Having loved Twister, I got the impression that this repeat was just more of the same and it wasn’t as exciting as the first time around.  Had Kate’s parents been Jo and Bill, it would have tied the second film to the first and would have added a whole other layer to the story and the legacy as a whole but I guess Hunt turned the producers down which is a shame.  It is obvious how the story was originally meant to be but it had to pivot without Hunt’s involvement.

For younger generations, who may not have seen Twister, Twisters is a wild ride and I can imagine how they feel seeing for the first time, just as I did when I first watched Twister.  However, for those of us who saw the 1996 movie, there is a sense of “been there, done that”.

Grade: C