Movie Review: TWINLESS

By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Abbie Bernstein

Posted: September 5th, 2025 / 05:17 PM

TWINLESS movie poster | ©2025 Republic Pictures

Rating: R|
Stars: Dylan O’Brien, James Sweeney, Aisling Franciosi, Chris Perfetti, François Arnaud, Tasha Smith, Lauren Graham
Writer: James Sweeney
Director: James Sweeney
Distributor: Republic Pictures
Release Date: September 5, 2025

It’s probably best to go into TWINLESS not knowing too many details. We’re in Portland, Oregon. Roman (Dylan O’Brien) has just lost his identical twin brother Rocky (also O’Brien in flashbacks). Both grieving, Roman and his mother Lisa (Lauren Graham) fight ferociously.

At a support group specifically for people who have lost identical twins, Roman meets Dennis (James Sweeney, who also wrote and directed). Dennis is sweet-natured and gay. Roman is heterosexual but unperturbed by Dennis’s sexuality; after all, Rocky was gay.

Mainly, Roman is shatteringly lonely. He calls Dennis and asks if he’d like to go grocery shopping together.

So far, we seem to be watching a bromance between two young men who feel like they’ve lost their other halves.

But then, about twenty minutes in, filmmaker Sweeney changes the game, so that we’re not sure which way the story and the people will jump next. What follows is a mixture of sharp, often dark humor, enormous emotional sensitivity and lots of uncomfortable motives and behavior.

Sweeney is adroit enough as a storyteller and as an actor to keep our sympathies shifting, so that just when we’re ready to forgive, some other shocking revelation drops, and just when we’re ready to throw down condemnation, we experience a tug of empathy. It’s quite an impressive feat, psychologically and viscerally.

O’Brien does extraordinary double duty as Roman and Rocky. Roman is tamped-down, unhappy, unmoored, and achingly eager for connection. Rocky is so suave he appears to be taller than Roman, confident, smooth, and never at a loss. We get why Roman misses him so much, and Roman’s haltingly articulated pain is affecting.

Aisling Franciosi is effective as Dennis’s cheerful coworker, Graham brings frazzled grouchiness to the bereaved Lisa, and Tasha Smith is entertaining as the support group leader who valiantly attempts to keep things running smoothly.

There are a lot of themes explored in TWINLESS, but to discuss them invites spoilers. Perhaps the least spoilery to mention is that the film deals with the nature of affinity, and what this can and cannot overcome.

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