Review: TWISTERS

 by Rob DiCristino

A smash hit romantic comedy. With tornadoes.

Reviewing A Quiet Place: Day One a few weeks back, I cited it as one of the rare instances in which a promising independent filmmaker — in that case Michael Sarnoski, writer and director of the intimate and excellent Pig — made the overnight leap from micro-budget passion project to blockbuster tentpole without compromising the nuance and integrity that made them such an interesting voice in the first place. While the Chloè Zhaos and Colin Trevorrows of the world have struggled to assert their points of view in unwieldy franchise productions like Eternals and Jurassic World, A Quiet Place: Day One prioritizes character over spectacle, largely resisting the alluring — but often empty — sci-fi/fantasy trappings that confuse and overwhelm those other efforts. But in revitalizing the Twister IP after almost thirty years of dormancy, Minari filmmaker Lee Isaac Chung manages to pull off something that is, in some ways, more impressive: Rather than navigating around its genre trappings, Twisters bolts them to its hood and hits the gas, giving us one of the most joyous and invigorating blockbusters in years.

More a sister film to Jan de Bont’s 1996 original than a true sequel — the only tangible link between them is Dorothy, a bit of once-pioneering weather tech now rusting with age — Twisters introduces us to Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones), an eager young weather scientist who believes she can tame the storms laying waste to her home state of Oklahoma’s infamous “Tornado Alley'' year after year. When her overconfidence leads to the death of three teammates, however, Kate resigns from storm-chasing until Javi (Anthony Ramos) presents an opportunity for redemption: With enough field data, his company’s new 3D modeling technology can predict tornadoes before they form, giving residents ample time to take shelter when disaster strikes. A gun-shy Kate commits to just a few days of work, during which time she crosses paths with Tyler (Glen Powell), leader of a thrill-seeking crew of charismatic YouTubers who scoff at Javi’s buttoned-down, corporate-sponsored approach. With tornado season in full bloom, the dueling crews load up and roll out. Which one will reign supreme? Let the games begin.

And while Kate’s traumatic past — and the chronic survivor’s guilt that comes with it — gives the film some perfunctory emotional gravity, Twisters genuinely revels in those games, setting half a dozen excellent storm-chasing sequences against what are clearly, actually, mercifully, honest-to-god, real-life Oklahoma pastures. Blockbuster veteran Dan Mindel’s cinematography is lush and expressive, using but never abusing a number of verite techniques to grant depth and texture to each frame. Twisters comes with a healthy dose of CGI, of course — Mark L. Smith’s screenplay demands cyclones that can be whipped up, duplicated, and extinguished at a moment’s notice — but Chung and his team work overtime to keep things from ever looking too glossy or polished. Most outdoor scenes are appropriately overcast, and even the occasional interjections from Tyler’s mounted GoPros are composed with a clear sense of internal geography. We’re never lost, in other words, not even when our two caravans are looping and figure-eighting between neighboring tornadoes half a mile apart.

But disaster epics clearly weren’t the only genre films Chung had in mind when composing Twisters: Once the first act sets our conflicts and characters in motion, the film pivots into a charming romantic comedy about two genius-level hotties doing science and falling in love. Anyone But You and Hit Man may have introduced audiences to the wonder of Glen Powell, but Twisters should cement his status as our newest, most captivating leading man. Powell’s braggadocious cad with a heart of gold steals the entire film out from underneath a not-untalented supporting cast — including veteran Maura Tierney, future Man of Steel David Corenswet, and Love Lies Bleeding’s Katy O’Brian — and gives literal hundred-story tempests of wind and rain legitimate competition for our attention. Daisy Edgar-Jones does what she can with her thinly-sketched Kate, but it’s only when Powell’s Tyler starts to understand — and fall in love with — her that the character starts to rise above those limitations. As Twisters hits beat after reliable rom-com beat, we see how good these two actually are for each other, how much more fun they have with their work when they’re doing it together.

And if nothing else, Twisters gives us ample opportunity to share in that fun. Its disarming cocktail of primal, old-fashioned thrills will feel foreign to mainstream moviegoers whose palates have been spoiled by Minions and whatever smirking bullshit the Chrises are getting into over on Netflix, but that’s precisely what makes it so valuable. It may even reinvigorate interest in the big-screen experience — though a climactic sequence set in a disintegrating movie theater might dissuade audiences from coming back for the next would-be blockbuster — and reaffirm our faith that talent is talent; gifted artists can and will work within any system, no matter how unimaginative its processes or antithetical its ethos. Lee Isaac Chung’s new film is by no means groundbreaking in plotting, pacing, execution, or thematics, but there is something truly reassuring about its enthusiasm, its earnest and unrelenting joie de vivre. “This is the kind of movie I got in the business to make,” says Glen Powell in Twisters’ press notes, “the kind of movie I actually want to go and see.”

Twisters hits U.S. theaters on Friday, July 19th.