Sundance is about the diamonds in the rough, and the surprises, and James Sweeney sophomore directing effort, which he stars in opposite Dylan O’Brien won the Eccles audience over on night one of the Park City festival’s 2025 edition.
Sweeney billed the movie as a bit “DePalma and grief drama,” the story about a young man Dennins (played by Sweeney) who loses his gay lover Rocky tragically (played by O’Brien). However, Rocky has a twin brother, Roman. Both Roman and Dennis find each other in a twin-loss bereavaement group, and a complex bromance sprouts.
The pic reps a return to Sundance for producer David Permut who sold the Jack Black comedy Polka King to Netflix, and for O’Brien who was here last year with Ponyboi.
Twinless comes from Writer-director-actor James Sweeney. It’s his Sundance debut.
Sweeney had been working on the script for ten years, and sent it to O’Brien back in 2020. “I saw all of the Mazerunner movies in the theater,” said Sweeney.
On how he achieved the intriguing pace of the script, Sweeney revealed “They say you write a film three times — once in the script stage, once on set, and once in edit.”
