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Movie Review: 'Twist'

A new 'Twist' on the Charles Dickens classic gives way to more of a marketing campaign than a literary adaptation.

By Sean PatrickPublished 3 years ago 4 min read
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Few movies scream ‘How do you do fellow kids’ louder than the new action comedy Twist. Twist takes pieces of Charles Dickens’ literary legend and crosses it with parkour and a pop soundtrack, along with several nods to Banksy, to hip up the Dickens classic. Because of course, the last thing kids want is to read a book that has stood the test of time as a classic work of literature for more than a century.

Nope, give it a pop soundtrack, a sexy young cast, Michael Caine for some reason, and call it Twist, that’s what the young people want. You can almost envision marketing gurus high fiving as they were told what was in the script, lord knows marketing gurus can’t read more than a page. A chill runs down the spine thinking about how they probably went looking for soundtrack songs and marketing tie-ins before they even sought a director and crew.

Twist Tuesdays at 9 Pm on the CW

Twist stars Rafe Law, Jude’s boy, as Ollie, but his friends call him Twist, naturally. Abandoned by his father and orphaned by his artist mother at a young age, Twist grew up on the streets, slept in art galleries and developed his skills as an artist by spray painting in places most people can’t climb to. He makes a point of putting his art in remarkably inaccessible places and is somehow able to tag the entire side of a high rise without anyone realizing he’s there… in London, a massive metropolis, where no one seems to wonder about the man hanging on the side of a building painting some massive cartoon of some sort.

Twist is in the midst of a daring escape after tagging a police vehicle when he meets Dodge (singer Rita Ora), do you get it, Dodge, like Artful Dodger, get it? I can keep explaining if you want. Dodge introduces him to Batesy (Franz Drameh) and they in turn introduce Twist to Red (Sophie Simnett), Twist’s assigned love interest. This trio works for Fagin (Michael Caine), a former art dealer turned underworld kingpin. Fagin leads the group in a theft ring, planning elaborate art heists.

Fagin’s partner is Bill Sikes (Lena Headey), a dangerous woman who uses fear and intimidation tactics to maintain order in her gang, much different from Fagin’s more family friendly group of criminals. Fagin recruits Twist to help with a new scheme. Fagin wants revenge on his former art world partner, Dr Crispin (David Williams) and to get it, he’s cooked up an elaborate plan to steal a painting Crispin stole years ago and kept hidden until it reached a higher value. Now on the verge of selling the painting for millions of dollars, Fagin sets his plan in motion.

Somehow the fact that Twist is dealing in high art thievery instead of mere pickpocketing is supposed to make Twist seem deep. Instead, it feels like yet another attempt by marketing people to give the impression of depth. If you make enough vague allusions to the brilliance of someone else's art someone is bound to mistake you for smart. That’s the theory behind pretty much all of Twist, aside from all the acrobatic and unnecessary parkour.

Twist Thursdays at 8 Pm ET on the CW

Remember Parkour? It was that style of running that the marketers behind the Bond franchise tried to hitch their wagon to years ago? Parkour is still a thing apparently, though now people call it Free Running or other such nonsense terms for unnecessary flippy dos over railings and legitimately, irresponsible and dangerous jumping across the tops of buildings. People have been killed trying to recreate this nonsense in real life, forgetting that movies have stuntmen, mats and air bags.

Free running is just the kind of thing that is supposed to appeal to Gen Z kids and separate them from their parents' money but the reality is that millennial's are now working in boardrooms and marketing companies and can vaguely remember thinking parkour was cool. For all the effort and polish of Twist, the movie never feels like anything other than a soulless exercise in marketing as a movie. Every moment appears calibrated to appear in a trailer intended to sell you this movie. That’s great for marketers but I am already watching the movie and would prefer a few coherent scenes, a story, some characters and perhaps not symbolically urinating on the grave of a literary legend.

Twist debuts in limited theatrical release on July 30th as well as for on-demand rental and digital download.

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About the Creator

Sean Patrick

Hello, my name is Sean Patrick He/Him, and I am a film critic and podcast host for the I Hate Critics Movie Review Podcast I am a voting member of the Critics Choice Association, the group behind the annual Critics Choice Awards.

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