Twin Town

It suddenly occurred to me while watching this film that, whether by accident or design, I've seen a whole lot of films that star Rhys Ifans. His brother Llyr appears with him here, the lesser-experienced brother that had previously only appeared in Ymadawiad Arthur and has made no further films to date. He does adequately, yet watching this - Rhys' second cinema film - it becomes clear he's the star.

Off-puttingly touted as the "Welsh Trainspotting" - because who wants imitations? - this is really nothing of the sort, and is far more impressive than you would expect. Already three years old, it has yet to be shown on British terrestrial television and nor do I expect it ever will be. It's content is morally vacuous, including police corruption, joyriding, drug taking, animal killings and murder. Peppering the script are a man who breaks his wife's nose, massage parlour brothels, female masturbation and almost continuous usage of the f-word.

If that hasn't already put you off, this is a tale that features two bath-sharing brothers, who, after being refused compensation for their father's broken leg, take revenge by urinating on their enemy's daughter. However, Twin Town, bizarrely, never really offends, as it is done in, despite the subject matter, a good-natured tone. And I did have to smile at the real-life names of the dogs that feature in this tale of cocaine dealers - Charlie and Snowy. I wonder if that was intentional?

What really grips about Twin Town is that, in the age of the depleted UK film industry, it lacks the desperate mugging and dead laugh areas that characterise the 1990s British "comedy". A desperate, "please love us America, please give us your box office, we're begging", which is normally prevalent in the genre, is almost wholly absent here. (For further information on such a desperate breed, see Rhys' first major film: "Notting Hill") Okay, there is the overstatement that sees a male voice choir singing Mungo Jerry's "In The Summertime", or the twins joyriding their own father's hearse, but generally this film, despite the extremities of it's plot, does keep an eye towards realism and naturalistic dialogue. And the overlong, feeble "comic pauses" that normally kill off the rotting carcasses of British Film are nowhere to be found, due to a constantly moving, frenetic pace.

The only down side to all this is that, apart from Rhys who has appeared in, to date, ten movies after this, the rest of the crew involved haven't achieved success. In fact, this was the first feature of the two writers involved and they haven't written another film since, presumably due to its lacklustre showing at the box office. A great shame, as Twin Town is well worth watching.

Twin Town cannot be mentioned in the same breath as Trainspotting, simply because it is a completely different film, the fact that they are both set in squalid urban surroundings and involve drugs is incidental. Twin Town is basically a sequence of revenge acts between two groups of people linked in all sorts of ways. The Twins to whom the title refers might as well be cardboard cutouts, for the lack of personalities, but you find yourself sympathetic with them despite their debauchery. Likewise the death of the Lewis family (minus the sons) is a very sad moment, despite the fact that they have been portrayed so shallowly. This is the success of the film, the way it manipulates your emotions to leave you genuinely shaken by the violence in the events leading up to the climax, whereas the opening of the film leads you to expect a light-hearted farce. Watching it again it is easy to divide the film into two sections, but very difficult to pin down where the change of pace and mood begins. The humour and irony is superb, particularly the razor sharp sarcasm of Adie. Although a very seedy picture of Wales is presented, this presents a very positive view of the people of Swansea and manages not to be anti-English in the slightest despite the obvious nationalistic feel. The acting is great, and as long as you aren`t expecting anything like Trainspotting and you let the humour wash over you you`ll enjoy this.

Being a Swansea girl originally, I had no trouble in deciphering the accents...

Swansea is indeed an Ugly, Lovely City, and the stark and honest portrayal of life in the dull valleys of south Wales, where unemployment is high, was a piece of script writing and directing genius. The Lewis "twins" were played brilliantly by the Evans brothers, and their honest and forthright portrayal of two youngsters bored with the humdrum life was refreshing and gritty. The human touch in this film was evident from the start, and in many areas it seemed to have an almost Docu Drama type genre, which added to the realism. It is unfair to compare Twin town to Trainspotting, as there are no comparisons to be made, both should be viewed as independant films, and to link them together does the would be viewer no justice. Twin Town has all the elements of a great movie, Comedy, Drama, and in combining these,the viewer cannot help but become attached to the characters. This film made me laugh, gasp and cry.A stroke of Pure Genius.

This is one of my favourite all time films, it is funny, irreverent, unexpected, gritty, real in a surreal way and very very funny. Maybe not everyone got it.. maybe not everyone has been to Wales.. but it captures it so accurately, in a comic book yet real way. It is full of tender moments as well as being brutal and immoral. So many jokes, so many visual gags, and so many really warm and well imagined characters. It is two fingers up to Hollywood, to formulaic movies.. it is in a whole new genre of it own.

From the very first scene to its finale it is rich in entertainment, shock, surprise, humour and emotion. This is such a good film... I love it!

It's quite nice to see how good this film is when you think about it. A lot of people don't really know much about Welsh films and to be honest it's because there isn't that many unless there are in welsh language. Before Dougrary Scott starred in Mission Impossible 2 and Ripley's game there was Twin Town and the same goes for Rhys Ifans who stole most of the limelight on Notting Hill as the mad masturbating Welshman Spike but it all started here with Kevin Allen's Twin Town. A hard look at Swansea life through so many different characters who you forget who is who after the first half hour but what a bunch of characters they are. Most of them actually put Wales to shame but with a funny twist of humour and violence. This came hot on the heels of Trainspotting and had a lot to look up to but I think this just as good as Trainspotting. It starts off well enough and keeps going throughout without it letting up for a second till the end credits. Even though there are some ruthless people in this you can't help but fall in love with them especially Terry played by Dougrary Scoot who is just so comic as a hard cop bully who thinks he is the man but is actually very accident prone at most times and that's what makes him great amongst other roles.

This is a so much happening here and we should look at this for what it is which is a feel good film that starts you off straight away and doesn't let you stop till the end credits.