Dark urban black comedy of Welsh youth.
Critics have described Twin Town as "The Welsh Trainspotting" but, while there are similarities between the two, such a comparison is essentially lazy.
Trains... more >
Critics have described Twin Town as "The Welsh Trainspotting" but, while there are similarities between the two, such a comparison is essentially lazy.
Trainspotting's graphic portrayal of drug-taking, miscreant behaviour and the struggle against this lifestyle invites the viewer to form an opinion on the youthful protagonists and associated culture, whilst showing several of the characters - particularly Renton - to possess greater intelligence, depth and sensitivity than Joe Public might typically associate with your average junkie. He may be a smackhead, but it's hard not to at least sympathise with his predicament to some degree.
By contrast, Twin Town's Lewis 'twins' (they, er, aren't actually twins) are little more than shallow wasters who think nothing of spicing up their otherwise dreary existence through mindless theft, violent acts of vengeance and, yes, indulging in all manner of substance abuse. The only people who are likely to sympathise with
them - even when their caravan blows up and kills the rest of their family - are the kind of people who, for whatever reason, aspire to this kind of quasi-anarchic lifestyle.
That said, Twin Town is an absorbing and occasionally riotously funny film, albeit in a rather coarse way. One of the funniest moments, for example, comes when the twins' father 'Fatty' Lewis hospitalises himself by falling from a ladder whilst on a building job - or, more specifically, when his employer delivers a witheringly apathetic response to the incident, which common decency prevents me from repeating here.
It would be ridiculous to describe Twin Town as a revolutionary piece of cinema, or a great work of art - indeed, some of its humour is shamelessly low-brow and rather predictable - but it retains the viewer's interest to the end largely through its slow spiral from fairly aimless comedy into something much darker, deeper and more disturbing. Towards the end, you might almost feel that it's a different film from the one at the outset.
It's highly unlikely to change your life or the way you view cinema, but it should certainly keep you entertained...and let's face it, there's a tiny bit of the wannabe social reprobate in us all, really...isn't there...?
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