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Twister

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Vestron. Director Michael Almereyda; Producer Wieland Schulz-Keil; Screenplay Michael Almereyda; Camera Renato Berta; Editor Roberto Silvi; Music Hans Zimmer; Art Director David Waso

Harry Dean Stanton
Suzy Amis
Crispin Glover
Dylan McDermott
Jenny Wright
Lois Chiles

Twister is an oddball family drama about some Kansas nuts who bounce off the walls of their mansion while a storm brews outside. Appealing for its ambition to achieve a unique tone and for its wildly disparate cast, pic never entirely comes together.

Harry Dean Stanton is a retired soda pop tycoon who casually presides over a brood consisting of his layabout daughter Suzy Amis, the latter's eight-year-old daughter, his pretentious would-be artiste son Crispin Glover, the latter's fiancee Jenny Wright, unconventional black maid Charlaine Woodard and his own fiancee, children's TV evangelist Lois Chiles.

Trying to work his way back under the same roof is Dylan McDermott, father of Amis's child, a ne'er-do-well who seems like too nice a guy for the fruitcakes populating Stanton's family.

Although it's impossible to see what first-time writer-director Michael Almereyda, working from a novel [OH!] by Mary Robison, is trying to get at, he doesn't at this point display the powers to unify the set of performances or to consistently control the tone. Novelist William Burroughs puts in a brief appearance.

(Color) Available on VHS, DVD. Extract of a review from 1989. Running time: 94 MIN.

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