Review of Twixt (2011) by Feli Y — 30 Apr 2012

"Twixt" is the kind of movie that has a big chance of being misundertood. Anyhow, not only does Coppola not seem to care but he didn't even put a big press behind his project. The result? A unique movie, which no one went to see only because there wasn't any publicity. This is a great example about how the media create the premature reknown of a film, not the director. Sad story about "Twixt" is that it deserves much more. First because its content is absolutely monstrous, and it's simply a beautiful and unnatural movie. "Twixt" is a tale worth being told.

The ones who only knoy Coppola's Godfather or Apocalypse now will probably be very surprised by something so different as "Twixt". But we can not forget that Coppola is also the one who directed "Bram Stocker's Dracula" or "Youth without Youth". Coppola was always intersted in illusion, dreams and something like the difference between what's real and what is not... That's where Twixt comes in, a fantastic tale about a writers search for inspiration. The story might seem familiar but believe me when I tell you that it brings something completely new to the table. I mainly mean the genre: Coppola actually puts a lot of different elements together. It can be very disturbing at first but he manages to create a balance between the thriller, horror movie and fantasy genre. And it hasn't become a deformed mixture as some might think, but more of a very personal style, which actually managed to highlight the spellbinding atmosphere so many movies seek.

The particular style created by unusual filters and lighting effects can be a little hard to swallow at first. I guess once you've accepted the odd environment you actually enjoy looking at it.

Val Kilmer did perhaps not give his life's performance, but he was very convincing. Enough at least to make me believe in the strangeness of his nocturnal strolls. But I honestly think that Bruce Dern actually outmatched Val Kilmer in this movie. I mean, I barely recognized him in his madness.

I'd have to leave one more word about the music: irreproachable.

I guess "Twixt" is the kind of movie we all can learn a lot from, it only happened to be released a bit too early for being rightly understood.