{{Short description|1997 British dark comedy film}} {{About|the film||Sister city{{!}}Twin town}} {{Use dmy dates|date=March 2016}} {{Use British English|date=October 2014}}
{{Infobox film | name = Twin Town | image = Twin town.jpg | caption = Theatrical release poster | director = Kevin Allen | producer = Peter McAleese | writer = {{Plainlist| * Kevin Allen * Paul Durden }} | starring = {{Plainlist| * Dougray Scott * Dorien Thomas * William Thomas * Sue Roderick * Rhys Ifans * Llŷr Ifans }} | music = Mark Thomas | cinematography = John Mathieson | editing = Oral Norrie Ottey | studio = {{Plainlist| * Agenda * Aimimage Productions * Figment Films }} | distributor = PolyGram Filmed Entertainment | released = {{Film date|df=yes|1997|04|11}} | runtime = 99 minutes | country = United Kingdom | language = English<br />Welsh | budget = £1.7 million<ref name="icon">{{cite book|first=Alexander |last=Walker |title=Icons in the Fire: The Rise and Fall of Practically Everyone in the British Film Industry 1984–2000 |publisher=Orion Books |year=2005 |page=274 |isbn=978-0752864846}}</ref> | gross = }}
'''''Twin Town''''' is a 1997 British dark comedy crime film, filmed mainly around Port Talbot and set in Swansea, Wales. It was directed by Kevin Allen and had a working title of ''Hot Dog''; a hot dog van features in a number of scenes in the film. It stars real-life brothers Rhys Ifans (in his first major movie role) and Llŷr Ifans (credited as Llyr Evans) along with Dougray Scott. The director appears on screen, briefly seen as a show host on a TV set in the static caravan home of the twins while co-writer Paul Durden briefly appears as a rude taxi driver.
==Plot== Set in Port Talbot and Swansea, the Lewis "twins" of the title are not twins but brothers. They live with their parents and sister Adie in a caravan on a mobile home site. Constantly mocking their sister's employment at a local massage parlour, they spend most of their time joking around, taking drugs and stealing cars.
Their father, "Fatty" Lewis, falls from a ladder while doing roofing work for Bryn Cartwright, a wealthy, prominent local businessman and small-time gangster. Laying blame, the twins attempt to demand workers' compensation for the accident. Bryn claims it was a cash arrangement with no legal representation and refuses the request for compensation. The twins take this personally and seek revenge by gatecrashing and ruining a local karaoke competition in which Bryn's daughter, beautiful Bonny is singing, by appearing from back stage and urinating on her during the performance in the Barons nightclub in Swansea. Bryn vows to get even and acquires the help of his associates, two corrupt police officers, Greyo and Terry Walsh to assist him getting revenge on the twins. After several efforts to disrupt their way of life, Bryn appears to succeed by having one of the detectives to assist him in beating up the twins down a back street.
As retaliation continues, the feud spirals out of control, progressing with the twins breaking into Bryn's property and beheading the Cartwrights' pet poodle. Terry responds by setting fire to the Lewis' dog's kennel with their pet inside. However, an adjacent gas bottle explodes, destroying the Lewises' mobile home and killing the twins' family. Clearly upset, the twins make arrangements with the local male voice choir and steal their father's hearse at his funeral. Terry meanwhile, much to Greyo's distress, accuses Fatty's co-workers Dai and Chip of destroying the caravan by placing items from the scene of the crime in their builder's van. The twins soon come down from the hills where they have been hiding out and go after Bryn, breaking into his house again and tying him up with washing line rigged to his own electric garage door. The twins ask to borrow Bryn's boat to which he agrees, with the hope of the twins letting him go unhurt. The twins disappear leaving Bryn tied up and at the brink of asphyxiation in his own garage. When his wife Lucy arrives later that evening, she attempts to use the electric gate remote from outside while returning home, causing the garage door to lift, hanging Bryn. On looking under the door and discovering the hanging, Lucy hysterically runs through the house and finds their daughter floating on a lilo in their indoor swimming pool listening to music through headphones, blissfully unaware of what has gone on.
The twins consider their job done and carry out their father's wish of having a burial at sea with the assistance of Bryn's boat, with the coffin respectfully draped in the Welsh flag. It is a poignant moment as the local choir (formed from a number of real-life local male voice choirs) sing the Welsh language song ''Myfanwy'' at the end of Mumbles Pier. Meanwhile, Terry, terrified and pleading, has been gagged and bound to the coffin, and lowered into the sea just off the pier head of Mumbles Swansea. The coffin floats for a while before the twins make a bet on how long it would stay afloat, seemingly brushing aside the emotion of their father's funeral at sea.
The coffin sinks and a few tears are shed by the twins. They then question each other on how far the boat would travel and imply that they would be heading to Morocco. The boat is last seen heading out to sea, driven by the twins to a haunting choir still singing on Mumbles Pier.
==Cast== {{div col}} * Llŷr Ifans as Julian Lewis * Rhys Ifans as Jeremy Lewis * Huw Ceredig as Fatty Lewis * Rachel Scorgie as Adie Lewis * Di Botcher as Jean Lewis * Dougray Scott as D.I Terry Walsh * Dorien Thomas as D.S Alan 'Greyo' Grey * William Thomas as Bryn Cartwright * Jenny Evans<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/lifestyle/tv/what-bonny-cartwright-twin-town-11207505 |title=This is what Bonny Cartwright from Twin Town is doing now |date=April 19, 2016 |website=Wales Online}}</ref> as Bonny Cartwright * Sue Roderick as Lucy Cartwright * Brian Hibbard as Dai Rhys * Morgan Hopkins as Chip Roberts * Buddug Williams as Mrs Mort * Ronnie Williams as Mr Mort * Boyd Clack as the Vicar {{div col end}}
== Reception == On Rotten Tomatoes the film has a score of {{RT data|score}} based on reviews from {{RT data|count}} critics.<ref name="tomatoes">{{cite web|url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/twin_town|title=Twin Town|website=Rotten Tomatoes|publisher=Fandango|access-date={{RT data|access date}}}}{{RT data|edit}}</ref>
Roger Ebert gave the film two stars out of four, saying that he "was not sure where the movie wanted to go and what it wanted to do--this despite the fact that it goes many places and does too much." He also compared it unfavourably to ''Trainspotting'', which had been released the previous year.<ref>{{Cite web |date=May 30, 1997|last=Ebert |first=Roger |author-link=Roger Ebert |title=Twin Town movie review & film summary (1997) |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/twin-town-1997 |website=RogerEbert.com |access-date=2021-01-23 }}</ref> William Thomas of ''Empire'' gave it 4 out of 5 and wrote that the film "is low-life and proud of it. It's gritty, brutal and not for the faint of heart." He called the comparisons to ''Trainspotting'' "a masterstroke of marketing but far from accurate".<ref>{{cite web |author1=Thomas |first=William |date=2000 |title=Twin Town |url=https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/twin-town-review/ |website=Empire}}</ref>
The film was entered into the 47th Berlin International Film Festival.<ref name="Berlinale">{{cite web |title=Berlinale: 1997 Programme |url=http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1997/02_programm_1997/02_Programm_1997.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050508065502/http://www.berlinale.de/en/archiv/jahresarchive/1997/02_programm_1997/02_Programm_1997.html |archive-date=May 8, 2005 |access-date=2012-01-14 |work=berlinale.de}}</ref>
It is the favourite movie of the Welsh former international rugby union referee, Nigel Owens.<ref>{{Cite web |date=February 15, 2022 |title=Was Finn Russell's Yellow Card the Correct Decision?! | Whistle Watch |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePNrwbWLZnw |website=YouTube}}</ref>
Composer Mark Thomas won a BAFTA Cymru award for his work on the film.<ref>{{cite web |title=1998 Cymru Original Music |url=http://awards.bafta.org/award/1998/cymru/original-music |website=awards.bafta.org |publisher=BAFTA Awards |access-date=21 July 2023}}</ref>
==Documentary and sequel== The 1997 TV documentary ''Shoot Out in Swansea: The Making of Twin Town'' by Richard Barber, looked at the making of ''Twin Town'' and featured interviews with the cast and crew of the film.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Shoot out in Swansea The Making of Twin Town (1997) |url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b80387975 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230624201306/https://www2.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b80387975 |url-status=dead |archive-date=24 June 2023 |access-date=2023-05-23 |website=BFI |language=en}}</ref>
In April 2009, director Kevin Allen revealed plans for a sequel, explaining that Rhys and Llŷr Ifans were willing to reprise their roles, which would see them returning from Africa as Islamic converts.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/wales/south_west/7992135.stm | work=BBC News | title=Director plans Twin Town sequel | date=9 April 2009}}</ref> The sequel did not materialise, however, when Allen changed career and became a pig farmer in Ireland three years later.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/sequel-twin-town-called-1815929|title=Sequel to Twin Town called off|date=13 August 2011|work=walesonline}}</ref> In 2016 Allen stated, in a ''Wales Online'' article, that he was working on a sequel set around the Llanelli area; Allen said it would again be a comedy, but with a political spin regarding the legalisation of marijuana.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.walesonline.co.uk/whats-on/film-news/cast-twin-town-reunite-new-18878830|title=Cast of Twin Town reunite for new Swansea Kevin Allen film|first=Nino|last=Williams|date=4 September 2020|website=WalesOnline}}</ref>
==See also== * ''Mine All Mine'' * Cinema of Wales * List of Welsh films * List of British films
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== * {{IMDb title|0120394}}
{{Kevin Allen}}
Category:1997 films Category:1997 black comedy films Category:British black comedy films Category:British coming-of-age films Category:Films directed by Kevin Allen Category:Films set in Wales Category:Films shot in Wales Category:Films set in Swansea Category:Films shot in Swansea Category:PolyGram Filmed Entertainment films Category:Gramercy Pictures films Category:1997 directorial debut films Category:Films scored by Mark Thomas (composer) Category:1997 British films Category:1997 English-language films Category:English-language black comedy films