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Twisters

“If you feel it, chase it.” Tyler (Glen Powell)

I felt the urge for an old-fashioned disaster movie, massaged into the present by Amblin Productions, no strangers to the warm, affecting adventure. I chased the urge to my big, loud, and spacious cineplex, to be delighted by the sense of wonder and danger so much a part of tornado chasing and summer disaster movies.

Twisters, a loose sequel to 1996’s Twister, is helmed by Lee Isaac Chung, the Oscar-nominated director of Minari, who knows about midwestern attributes and the struggles of protagonists against governments, opportunists, and, well, storms. It’s set in Oklahoma, hardly a stranger itself to tornados, but not as fabled as Dorothy’s Kansas. Yet the pedigree of writers, from Twister director Joseph Kosinski to sci-fi influencer Michael Crichton, with Mark L. Smith doing the heavy writing, is winning.

Although the modern special effects are impressive, even when not in Dolby sound, the modern bent is on the humans, in particular the rom-com leads twister-chaser Tyler and meteorologist Kate. While such beautiful people are destined to pepper the dialogue with screwball lingo and their affections destined to merge, Chung keeps the corn in the fields, and dare I disclose, never shows them kissing.

This is the reality I like—not bogged down by silly romancing, the leads pursue the bad-boy twisters with the knowledge they have gained over the years and the catalyst of personal stories affected by younger tornado encounters. The other side of the reality is the land grabbers who bilk survivors out of the true value of their properties and the entrepreneurs who ignore the human suffering. In addition, not a word is spoken about climate change’s responsibility for the upturn in numbers of twisters and their severity.

 
Not preaching about current social storms, just solid action both destructive and seductive. Summer has been waiting for relief from our political violence and social unrest. Twisters brings relief and just darn good entertainment.

As hordes in Twisters search for protection from the storms, someone yells, “We’ve gotta get everyone into the movie theater!” I agree.

 

Twisters

Director: Lee Issac Chung (Minari)

Screenplay: Mark L. Smith ( The Revenant)

Cast: Daisy Edgar-Jones (Pond Life), Glen Powell (Hit Man)

Run Time: 1 h 57m

Rating: PG-13

 

John DeSando, a Los Angeles Press Club first-place winner for National Entertainment Journalism, hosts NPR’s It’s Movie Time and Cinema Classics as well as podcasts Back Talk and Double Take (recently listed by Feedspot as two of the ten best NPR Movie Podcasts) out of WCBE 90.5 FM, Columbus, Ohio. Contact him at JohnDeSando52@gmail.com

 

John DeSando