Twisters Review: Powell and Edgar-Jones Wrangle This Jam Packed Epic Into Shape
★★★ Despite high winds, my hairsprayed barnet remained only tentatively tousled
*Minor Spoilers Ahead*
As the person behind the desk at my local Curzon turned the screen around to let me peruse where I would like to sit, I realised that I was the only person booked in to see Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glenn Powell discover the true potential of mother natures chicest of weapons - wind. (See below)
No, not a film about the birth of the famous ice lolly - Twisters (2024) is a stand alone sequel to the 1996 film Twister, this time directed by Lee Isaac Chung with screenplay by Mark L. Smith.
Starring Daisy Edgar Jones as Kate Carter who, despite my cynical prediction, confidently embodies the somewhat camp Oklahoma accent without it feeling forced or comical, it’s a 2 hour chunk that gradually raises the tension with each passing minute.
Glenn Powell, star of Top Gun Maverick, Anyone But You and gay classic Scream Queens, is a perfect co-star to Jones as “Tornado Wrangler” (!) Tyler Owens. After being dormant from the start of the film, he appears after 20 minutes parading into the story as a somewhat bad boy alongside his 'chaser’ friends in a car that could only be described as one you might parked at a dogging site.
Owens best friend and fellow wrangler Boone (Brandon Perea) provided light comic relief which I imagine was intended to make straight people laugh, however as it was just me in the theatre i’ll never know. One gay piece of trivia I couldn’t get past was the fact that Powell’s character in Scream Queens also had a best friend called Boone, played by Nick Jonas. What can I say, gay people never forget names of fictional men. Just like Elephants.
Other stars to note to complete the set include Good Luck To You, Leo Grande lothario Daryl McCormack as Jeb and Love Lies Bleeding terror Katy O’Brian as Dani. O’Brian looking so different from her previous steroid clad flick that I didn’t realise it was her until the credits rolled. I guess that’s acting folks!
Following Jones who, after an historically windy incident as a PhD student, returns to the chaser world after storms are predicted to rock her own neighbourhood in Oklahoma alongside pal Javi (Anthony Ramos) who works for what could only be described as Big Pharma, but the tornado equivalent… Big Wind? Sure.
As is law gay people can’t sit in seats appropriately for more than two minutes so at 122 minutes the film does creep over my limit of ‘sitting time’, but Powell and Jones’ performances were enough to captivate me for the most part. Director Chung earlier this week revealed that there IS in fact a ‘flying cow’ that had been snuck into the film as a reference to the original Twister film, despite rumours there wasn’t. Blink and you’ll miss it (like I did as I was probably trying to find a new gay way to sit in my chair), but he promises that it’s there.
Where I got lost in the turbulence was with two crucial elements. One being the music, which after listening to the radio I am aware is in fact one of the elements of the film a lot of people in the UK adore. Country music is great - LOVE Beyoncé - but in a film where tension is so succinctly made by the unpredictable nature of the power of wind and carefully executed shots of what it feels like to be inside a tornado, hearing a banjo midway through took me out of the peril and into a line dancing studio somewhere in Norfolk.
Despite a strong plot (which I will keep a secret because i’m not a complete blabbermouth), a secondary narrative including the brilliantly talented Maura Tierney as Jones’ mother Cathy felt like it was being forced upon us and become something that I felt I was meant to care about rather than organically interested in. As we found out more about the inner workings of Kate’s familial and romantic history, the atmosphere of tension that we were once entrenched in dropped out of thin air. Although this provided a touching backstory for Kate that allowed us to connect with her past which could only be described as being her ‘rich wind geek’ era, the moments of calm felt like a whole new plot point was being segued into a story already full to the brim.
Not sure who made it a theme to destroy the interiors of movie theatres at the moment either (see A Quiet Place: Day One) but the film crescendos to a nail biting finale that makes the change in pace worth it in the end.
Props to those going to see this in 4DX who have shared their whiplash inducing experiences across TikTok this week. Bravo. (Although this person using flash in their video deserves to go to jail for the very act of filming oneself with the flash on in the cinema that other people are also sat in.)
Overall, a great film for those who love disaster, peril, big arms, cowboy hats, wet white t-shirts and drones.
★★★
If you enjoyed this review, feel free to share, comment or subscribe to get the next newsletter delivered direct to your inbox. Thank you for supporting Light In The Loafers. You can still get 10% off your first year below, or subscribe monthly for the price of a coffee and a slice of cake.