'Twisters' swirls an old-fashioned rom-com into an effects-happy action movie
I spent my boyhood in small Iowa towns. One afternoon my mother and I were on the back steps, gazing down across the highway at cornfields that seemed to go on forever. Suddenly, the air got eerily still. “Look,” mom said. A couple of miles away, a funnel cloud eased itself down and began winding across the countryside, luckily in the other direction. I sat there awed and transfixed, and have loved watching tornadoes ever since.
I’m clearly not alone. Which is why we have Twisters, an entertaining new summer blockbuster inspired by the 1996 summer blockbuster Twister, which introduced airborne cows into the cinematic lexicon. Directed by Lee Isaac Chung, who made Minari, Twisters isn’t a sequel proper but its story-beats mirror the original formula, which embeds an old-fashioned romantic comedy inside a modern effects-happy action movie. Whooshing with sucked up bodies and tumbling semis, it’s about love and loss among the brave souls who spend their lives chasing tornadoes.
English actress Daisy Edgar-Jones stars as Kate Carter, a one-time storm chaser who has become a New York meteorologist after a tragic encounter with a tornado. Five years later, she’s lured back to her native Oklahoma by her old comrade Javi, a thankless role nicely played by Anthony Ramos.
Javi has come across equipment to get better data on tornadoes, and he needs her to join his high powered team. You see, Kate has an almost magical nose for where the big ones will strike. Reluctantly she agrees — for one week.
In Oklahoma Kate discovers that there are rival storm chasers. The main one is Tyler Owens — that’s Glen Powell from Hit Man — a cocky, muscled-up YouTube star who shoots fireworks into funnel clouds, sells T-shirts saying “Not My First Tornado” and leads a motley crew of hellraisers. Kate thinks he’s a hustling hot dog; Tyler thinks she’s a fetchingly out-of-place New Yorker. Even before their meet-cute, we know they’re made for each other. They’re bound by a shared obsession with tornadoes.
Now, Chung is the latest indie director to move straight from small personal films to big-budget extravaganzas. In truth, the fit isn’t perfect. Although the action scenes are reasonably exciting, I kept wishing Chung had a better pop sense, especially in his handling of space. His camera is often too close to the characters’ faces, and while the movie does offer immersively granular views of debris swirling in a vortex, it never achieves the thrilling sense of a tornado’s power and scale that comes from keeping our visual distance.
Twisters updates the original by making its heroine — not its hero — the center of gravity, but alas, the script doesn’t let Kate be a whole lot of fun. Although Edgar-Jones is a good actor — she was terrific on the TV series Normal People — she lacks the big-screen electricity of an Emma Stone or Jennifer Lawrence. She’s a bit overmatched by Powell, a confident actor who seems to think there’s an Academy Award for Smugness. That’s not a swipe, at least not completely. Carrying himself like a movie star in a world of extras, he boasts the energy and charisma to make the love story work.
As for the storms themselves, Twisters shows the shattering damage caused by tornadoes and tweaks the greedy entrepreneurs who swoop in to buy cheap property from the desperate victims. Yet, fearing controversy, it never so much as mentions climate change. Chung has said this is because he doesn’t want to “preach” — he only wants to show our world. But in our world, meteorologists like Tyler and Kate talk about and believe in climate change.
Then again, it’s the nature of summer blockbusters not to fret overmuch about reality. To jack up the suspense, Twisters gives us an imaginary Oklahoma whose citizens are so dim that, even though they live smack dab in Tornado Alley, are bombarded by newscasts warning of biblically large tornadoes, see nearby towns get pulverized and find themselves buffeted by winds as they stand in the street, they still need Tyler and Kate to tell them to take shelter.
Such cluelessness helps make Twisters an exciting movie, but if I was a Sooner I might be tempted to sue.
Transcript
DAVID BIANCULLI, HOST:
This is FRESH AIR. The new movie "Twisters" stars Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones as two intrepid storm chasers who compete with each other to find the biggest tornadoes. The movie is directed by Lee Isaac Chung, whose previous film, "Minari," was nominated for the Academy Award for best picture. Our critic-at-large, John Powers, says "Twisters" is a pleasurable summer blockbuster, with all the virtues and limitations that phrase suggests.
JOHN POWERS, BYLINE: I spent my boyhood in small Iowa towns. One afternoon, my mother and I were on the back steps, gazing down across the highway at cornfields that seemed to go on forever. Suddenly, the air got eerily still. Look, Mom said. A couple of miles away, a funnel cloud eased itself down and began winding across the countryside, luckily in the other direction. I sat there awed and transfixed and have loved watching tornadoes ever since. I'm clearly not alone, which is why we have "Twisters," an entertaining new summer blockbuster inspired by the 1996 summer blockbuster "Twister," which introduced airborne cows into the cinematic lexicon.
Directed by Lee Isaac Chung, who made "Minari," "Twisters" isn't a sequel proper, but its story beats mirror the original formula, which embeds an old-fashioned romantic comedy inside a modern effects-happy action movie. Whooshing with sucked-up bodies and tumbling semis, it's about love and loss among the brave souls who spend their lives chasing tornadoes.
English actress Daisy Edgar-Jones stars as Kate Carter, a one-time storm chaser who's become a New York meteorologist after a tragic encounter with a tornado. Five years later, she's lured back to her native Oklahoma by her old comrade Javi, a thankless role nicely played by Anthony Ramos. Javi has come across equipment to get better data on tornadoes, and he needs her to join his high-powered team. You see, Kate has an almost magical nose for where the big ones will strike. Reluctantly, she agrees - for one week.
In Oklahoma, Kate discovers that they are rival storm chasers. The main one is Tyler Owens - that's Glen Powell from "Hit Man" - a cocky, muscled-up YouTube star who shoots fireworks into funnel clouds, sells T-shirts saying, not my first tornado, and leads a motley crew of hell-raisers. Kate thinks he's a hustling hot dog. Tyler thinks she's a fetchingly out-of-place New Yorker. Even before their meet-cute, we know they're made for each other. They're bound by a shared obsession with tornadoes. Here, driving off to find one, Javi asks what's happening up ahead. Kate and Tyler explain.
(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "TWISTERS")
ANTHONY RAMOS: (As Javi) What do you see?
DAISY EDGAR-JONES: (As Kate Carter) It already has a nice structure. Moisture levels are just right and lots of cape.
RAMOS: (As Javi) What else are you seeing?
EDGAR-JONES: (As Kate Carter) Flow is clean, pulling tons of warm, moist air from the south.
GLEN POWELL: (As Tyler Owens) And when that warm air and moisture bust through the cap, it explodes in the atmosphere, creating an anvil. The vertical wind shear begins to rotate the updraft, forming them as a cyclone.
EDGAR-JONES: (As Kate Carter) And here's the mystery.
POWELL: (As Tyler Owens) We don't know how a tornado forms. We see the hook on the radar, but...
EDGAR-JONES: (As Kate Carter) What are all the invisible factors coming together? Every little detail that...
DAISY EDGAR-JONES AND GLEN POWELL: (As Kate Carter and Tyler Owens) Has to be perfect.
POWELL: (As Tyler Owens) And it's a mix of what we know and everything we can't understand. It's part science, part religion.
POWERS: Now, Chung is the latest indie director to move straight from small, personal films to big-budget extravaganzas. In truth, the fit isn't perfect. Although the action scenes are reasonably exciting, I kept wishing Chung had a better pop sense, especially in his handling of space. His camera is often too close to the characters' faces. And while the movie does offer immersively granular views of debris swirling in a vortex, it never achieves the thrilling sense of a tornado's power and scale that comes from keeping our visual distance.
"Twisters" updates the original by making its heroine - not its hero - the center of gravity. But alas, the script doesn't let Kate be a whole lot of fun. Although Edgar-Jones is a good actress - she was terrific on the TV series "Normal People" - she lacks the big-screen electricity of an Emma Stone or Jennifer Lawrence. She's a bit overmatched by Powell, a confident actor who seems to think that there's an Academy Award for smugness. That's not a swipe, at least not completely. Carrying himself like a movie star in a world of extras, he boasts the energy and charisma to make the love story work.
As for the storms themselves, "Twisters" shows the shattering damage caused by tornadoes, and it tweaks the greedy entrepreneurs who swoop in to buy cheap property from the desperate victims. Yet fearing controversy, it never so much as mentions climate change. Chung has said that this is because he doesn't want to, quote, "preach." He only wants to show our world. But in our world, meteorologists like Tyler and Kate talk about and believe in climate change.
Then again, it's the nature of summer blockbusters not to fret over much about reality. To jack up the suspense, "Twisters" gives us an imaginary Oklahoma, whose citizens are so dim that even though they live smack-dab in Tornado Alley, are bombarded by newscasts, warning of biblically large tornadoes, see nearby towns get pulverized and find themselves buffeted by winds as they stand in the street, they still need Tyler and Kate to tell them to take shelter. Such cluelessness helps make "Twisters" an exciting movie. But if I was a Sooner, I might be tempted to sue.
BIANCULLI: John Powers reviewed the new film "Twisters." On Monday's show, our postponed interview with David Leitch about performing and directing dangerous and wild movie stunts. He was a stunt double for Brad Pitt, Matt Damon and Keanu Reeves. Leitch produced and directed the new action-comedy film "The Fall Guy," starring Ryan Gosling as a stuntman who has to perform stunts in his real life in order to save his life. I hope you can join us.
(SOUNDBITE OF DR. JOHN'S "DELICADO")
BIANCULLI: FRESH AIR's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham, with additional engineering support by Joyce Lieberman, Julian Herzfeld and Diana Martinez (ph). For Terry Gross and Tonya Mosley, I'm David Bianculli. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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