Twist

What an original title for my comment. It was what I thought of in a pinch. Anyway . . . the film is based on Oliver Twist, using basically, only the name of the characters and their abject living conditions to parlay a story about male hustlers and their life in Toronto.

The atmosphere created is pitch-perfect, and the audience really gets the feel of the weather in Toronto during winter. It's dark, damp and freezing cold, much like the the world the boys live in. And in the hollowed eyes of the hustlers, you can feel their hopelessness and exhaustion.

It is told in the view point of Dodge, rather than Oliver, and focuses on his life. Dodge is played by Nick Stahl, who does a great job of evoking the scared, hungry, cold and insecure young boy, who has seen too much. Joshua Close plays Oliver, who seems a little too one-dimensional for my liking, but is really effective in scenes with Stahl (especially the alley scene), perhaps a testament to Mr. Stahl's talents.

The film is definitely disturbing. There is no sugarcoating, and yet, there is no sex in the film, only mild violence. Most is left to the audience's imaginations, even the face of the Bill character, who plays the "pimp" in the film. His anonymity may have been used to increase the scariness of the character and his intentions, but almost became a shtick in my eyes, especially after his deplorable actions after finding out his "woman" had betrayed him. Bill was almost too bad to be a "real bad guy."

The lines are blurred between affection, power, violence and sexual need, perhaps most effectively in the one scene, it is all mixed up into one degrading act for Dodge. Some might have found it grotesque or perverted or used for shock value. However, I found it necessary to understand Dodge's actions and his character. It also helps to underline the pervasive cycle of abuse.

The ending is dark and bleak, and full of symbolic undertones. There are many questions left unanswered. I found the film to be very engaging, bittersweet and a good portrayal of how love is the most complicated emotion of all.

I just read the review of TWIST by this knut knipp and I would advise him to stick to mainstream movies, dude go check out the new spidey movie, it rocks! Twist is no fun movie, but being a teenage male hustler is no fun thing either, unless you have a rich sugar daddy willing to take care of you. And i have known a few guys in that situation. But I guess if you're in Toronto, things can't get much worse, but a bus to LA would be a welcome change. I really don't see why the writer/director used Oliver Twist as a plot guide, it really is sort of absurd. A movie on hustling in bleak Canada doesn't need a "fagen" or an "oliver" to make it work. The performance by Nick Stahl is truly astounding, this guy is a great actor and could give the young River Phoenix a run for his money. There is no happy ending, like there was in the original Oliver, but I suppose Dickens had to keep his publisher/editor happy and the books had to sell. Actually he was the equivalent to today's Disney movies, where such banal exercises as Holes, has to conclude with everyone living happily ever after. If you like niche movies and are not into the general crap that comes out of Hollywood, then i say check out Twist.

Nick Stahl's desperate stare sold the movie for me, I rented it based on the cover, having never heard of it. This is one of the best movies I have ever seen. Joshua Close's performance wasn't all that good, but Nick Stahl's was phenomenal. The movie was really emotional but really subtle. It has an excellent soundtrack, matching every scene to emotional perfection. It's a twist on Oliver Twist but set in modern day Toronto and with male prostitution and heroin instead of pick-pocketing. Don't get hung up on the comparison, look at it as it's own movie. It has the best ending to any movie I've ever seen. Essentialy it's about the blurry lines between affectionate contact, sexual contact, and violent contact. The movie forces you to bottle your emotions by never actually showing explicit sex or violence, it keeps you from getting any release. I think the method worked perfectly. The only two problems with the movie in my mind, are that Joshua Close was cast, and that although the subtleness is excellent, it's sometimes hard to hear every word of the dialogue, so keep it up load and pay close attention.

Jacob Tierney does a wonderful job in this movie simply by playing to his actor's strengths. This movie drags the audience through a Arnofskesque journey through a world where there is never a happy ending, and does a fantastic job of it.

The play between the boys (and girls) stuck in Vancouver's shadowy underbelly of sex and drugs illustrates just how lonely the sex industry is for the de facto children caught in it.

The character of Dodge is particularly well played by the often typecast Nick Stahl. Despite typecasting (which is often a sign of true talent in at least one area), he pulls the bitterness of the role right out into the open and twists it slowly between his hands.

Tierney's auteurship of the piece does create a uniqueness that might otherwise be subsumed by various facets of previously done works.

It goes without saying that updating and reinventing a classic tale is a minefield of potential mismatches, and anyone familiar with the original is disinclined to suffer fools gladly. In this case, even if the viewer tunes out Dickens, the best that can be said of it is that some of the acting (particularly Stahl) scores and the technical values are at least adequate.

Because none of the characters is fully developed, there is no opportunity to judge much beyond that. And because the plot is therefore weak and wobbly, the only thing left for comments is trying to find isolated bits of action or notions relating to one's own experiences. For example, I found the scenes involving heroin use strangely devoid of release, merely technical and prophylactic. In order for a screenplay to succeed, it needs to draw the viewer into the feelings of the actors. That happens only rarely here in spite of what one senses is good dramatic potential.

I think I'll stick with Dickens.