Movie Breakdown: Twisters

Pre-Screening Stance:

While I remain baffled that Lee Isaac Chung’s directorial follow-up to Minari is Twisters, it sure does look like a fun time.

Post-Screening Ramble:

Good news! Twisters is a blast. The story is as such – Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) can look at a tornado and figure out what the pesky bastard is going to do next, and because of this skill she’s been recruited by her old buddy Javi (Anthony Ramos) to help his company place some sort of fancy 3D-mapping gear around a live twister. Supposedly, the data collected from this will allow the powers that be to better predict where a tornado may pop up next. Anyhow, Kate isn’t pumped about returning to the field (due to previous twister trauma), but she agrees to go, which pushes her into the path of Tyler (Glen Powell), a rambunctious Youtube star who refers to himself as the Tornado Wrangler. Things then get … well, they get twisted.

Look, this is a really stupid movie. It exists in a far out realm of nonsensical silliness and anytime something is explained, it’s usually done so via a throw-away line that will likely fly right by you. It is, however, also a majestic affair. Powell is a charming, alluring force on the screen (as is his ragtag team of storm chasers), and Edgar-Jones is just too damn endearing to not like. Twisters also feels like the inclement weather version of Top Gun: Maverick, which I guess shouldn’t be too surprising since it was written by the director of that film – Joseph Kosinski. In other words though, it’s a movie loaded with big, sweeping, cheer-worthy moments that’s entirely deserving of a big screen and an even bigger bucket of popcorn. So, yes, go see Twisters. It opens this Friday, July 19.

One Last Thought:

It’s not all rainbows here – Twisters has one of the most jarringly goofy soundtracks I’ve come across in a long while. There isn’t a single song in this movie that doesn’t sound like the fake tracks used as interludes on reality TV shows.