Twin Town

(Allen, 1997)

Twin Town suffered upon its release from unfair comparisons to the previous year’s Trainspotting, whose director Danny Boyle is one of the executive producers here. Granted, both films are black comedies, heavy on drugs, sex and bad language, but really this is where the similarities end.

The film – based in Swansea, Wales – follows a pair of teenage brothers who, while extremely close, are not actually twins. Played by real-life brothers Rhys and Llŷr Ifans, the duo spend their lives stealing cars, sniffing glue and generally doing whatever they please, much to the chagrin of their family, the police and local big-shot Bryn Cartwright (William Thomas).

An accident causes bad blood between the brothers and Cartwright, sparking a downward spiral of revenge that swiftly progresses from mostly harmless, to vulgar, to deadly in short order. Everyone around the boys get sucked into the mess, since neither side is willing to back down. Enter drug dealers, bent coppers and karaoke kings, and exit a household pet or two.

Twin Town is full of twists that you probably won’t see coming, but despite the horrors wrought by the morally ambivalent anti-heroes this film still manages several moments of genuine humour. The supporting cast are all endearingly believable, even as we catch a glimpse beneath their veneer. It’s a film which is unabashedly Welsh at its core, but if you let this put you off you’ll be missing a hugely entertaining, dark little treat.

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tl;dr: To call this film a Welsh Trainspotting is to do it a disservice. It’s a coal-black, laugh-out-loud comedy packed with sex, drugs and sausage rolls.

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