Das Chaoten-Kaff

Very very funny.

A sleeper hiding in the dusty back shelves of the video store, that I took out one night with curiosity and no expectations. I'm three-quarters English, a quarter Welsh and have spent a long time in Australia, but I don't think it was just the Welsh part of me that enjoyed this movie.

I loved its roughness, its quirkiness, its lack of perfection and its reality and sure! some of the characters were grubby, superficial and less than enervating.

This is a loosely woven picture of reality in an under-privileged urban environment with all the mundanity, idiocy, drama, violence, beauty and humour of everyday life that eddies around us, and in this instance, the Lewis twins. There are a couple of truly hilarious scenes that very few actors could emulate, but the twins in the movie are twins in real life and it flows naturally.

Revenge escalates inevitably beyond the frivolous into the 'deadly' serious with a speed and abandonment that has you gasping. But unlike some movies that lose it at the end, this one magically gathers in all the loose threads and delivers a finale of epic proportions that elegantly spans the coldly ruthless and the vauntingly sublime and leaves you with a sense of deep justice.

GREAT. This is the sort of stuff the Americans don't do very often or very well, and mostly misunderstand when someone else does it properly. This was done properly.

Reviewers disappointed by an inevitable comparison with Trainspotting obviously missed a lot of the subtle stuff in both movies that is exclusive to the towns, times and cultures they portray. They got sidetracked by the 'big' issues ....

Shelve your preconceptions, grab the remote and replay all those bits that are hard to catch if your ear isn't tuned to the accent. Sure it helps if bad language doesn't get in the way of enjoyment, but let's face it, you should be used to those Anglo-Saxon and Gaelic words by now - so if you can handle it, this one's a delight - but it'll never be mainstream.

The film has everything you'd want it to have. Especially if you're British. Probably more of a bloke's film, but still fun for everyone.

The story is brilliant, and so accurately welsh. Every minor detail adds to the whole experience. The film progresses like a serious drama and seems to come out with brilliant comedy without even trying. As well as the actual storyline being funny, little quirks about each character and even the attention to welsh detail makes you laugh.

Not only is it well written, it's also beautifully filmed, and makes great use of the camera. The film encompasses a huge range of interesting shots.

Enhancing the film further was it's great choice of cast. All the characters were perfectly conveyed, and film avoided any bad performances.

The music is also something to listen out for, as it stands out as a good piece of work on it's own.

I highly recommend Twin Town (especially if you're British), as it's an exciting film experience with a great story, interesting shots, decent actors, and appropriate use of excessive swearing and violence.

It suddenly occurred to me while watching this film that, whether by accident or design, I've seen a whole lot of films that star Rhys Ifans. His brother Llyr appears with him here, the lesser-experienced brother that had previously only appeared in Ymadawiad Arthur and has made no further films to date. He does adequately, yet watching this - Rhys' second cinema film - it becomes clear he's the star.

Off-puttingly touted as the "Welsh Trainspotting" - because who wants imitations? - this is really nothing of the sort, and is far more impressive than you would expect. Already three years old, it has yet to be shown on British terrestrial television and nor do I expect it ever will be. It's content is morally vacuous, including police corruption, joyriding, drug taking, animal killings and murder. Peppering the script are a man who breaks his wife's nose, massage parlour brothels, female masturbation and almost continuous usage of the f-word.

If that hasn't already put you off, this is a tale that features two bath-sharing brothers, who, after being refused compensation for their father's broken leg, take revenge by urinating on their enemy's daughter. However, Twin Town, bizarrely, never really offends, as it is done in, despite the subject matter, a good-natured tone. And I did have to smile at the real-life names of the dogs that feature in this tale of cocaine dealers - Charlie and Snowy. I wonder if that was intentional?

What really grips about Twin Town is that, in the age of the depleted UK film industry, it lacks the desperate mugging and dead laugh areas that characterise the 1990s British "comedy". A desperate, "please love us America, please give us your box office, we're begging", which is normally prevalent in the genre, is almost wholly absent here. (For further information on such a desperate breed, see Rhys' first major film: "Notting Hill") Okay, there is the overstatement that sees a male voice choir singing Mungo Jerry's "In The Summertime", or the twins joyriding their own father's hearse, but generally this film, despite the extremities of it's plot, does keep an eye towards realism and naturalistic dialogue. And the overlong, feeble "comic pauses" that normally kill off the rotting carcasses of British Film are nowhere to be found, due to a constantly moving, frenetic pace.

The only down side to all this is that, apart from Rhys who has appeared in, to date, ten movies after this, the rest of the crew involved haven't achieved success. In fact, this was the first feature of the two writers involved and they haven't written another film since, presumably due to its lacklustre showing at the box office. A great shame, as Twin Town is well worth watching.

It's quite nice to see how good this film is when you think about it. A lot of people don't really know much about Welsh films and to be honest it's because there isn't that many unless there are in welsh language. Before Dougrary Scott starred in Mission Impossible 2 and Ripley's game there was Twin Town and the same goes for Rhys Ifans who stole most of the limelight on Notting Hill as the mad masturbating Welshman Spike but it all started here with Kevin Allen's Twin Town. A hard look at Swansea life through so many different characters who you forget who is who after the first half hour but what a bunch of characters they are. Most of them actually put Wales to shame but with a funny twist of humour and violence. This came hot on the heels of Trainspotting and had a lot to look up to but I think this just as good as Trainspotting. It starts off well enough and keeps going throughout without it letting up for a second till the end credits. Even though there are some ruthless people in this you can't help but fall in love with them especially Terry played by Dougrary Scoot who is just so comic as a hard cop bully who thinks he is the man but is actually very accident prone at most times and that's what makes him great amongst other roles.

This is a so much happening here and we should look at this for what it is which is a feel good film that starts you off straight away and doesn't let you stop till the end credits.

Danny Boyle is in many ways the British answer to Quentin Tarantino. Despite Boyle not having complete authority over TWIN TOWN, his trademarks are definitely present, and many parts of this film are truly excellent. However, the film as a whole seems to lack true continuity, as it seems to be a loose, simple plot formed by sporadic situations that the writers feel are funny (in many ways they are). Which brings me on to the Tarantino connection - one has to only watch 20 minutes of his films to realise the man is in love with situations - whether they be from circumstance or dialogue. However Quentin is the true master of this kind of film-making. A lesser creator will provide interesting and funny scenes, but with a taste of incompletion left in the mouth.

That said, TWIN TOWN is acted wonderfully, and the Swansea setting makes for some interesting and novel humour. Whereas some of the violence seems a little contrived, it is refreshing to see new kinds of film-making, and moreso to see it grow from the mind of Brits!