By Philip Cu Unjieng
For close to three decades now, the film Twister (1996), directed by Jan de Bont and starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton, has helped define what the modern disaster movie is like. It was edge-of-the-seat action, taking us into the eye of these tornadoes while helping make weather people and meteorologists cool. So, one can only imagine what a disaster film, 28 years later, should be all about. Along with improved film technology, we have the true-to-life situation of climate change and global warming, causing increased havoc with our weather.
And so here we have one of the films vying to be this year’s big summer film, a new Twisters. The strange part is that the film is directed by Lee Isaac Chung, who we would best know for the thoughtful immigrant story set in rural Arkansas, Minari. That film was shot in Oklahoma, where Chung has returned, to shoot this Twisters. If you recall Minari, it was about Korean immigrants, and autobiographical. It is a small film, so it was something of a surprise to hear Chung would be directing this disaster film, a summer blockbuster.
Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and Javi (Anthony Ramos) are old friends and co-workers on a team attempting something radically different with tornadoes. Tyler (Glen Powell) is a a self-described tornado wrangler, a science cowboy, who is as much about his social media likes and subscribers as he is about the hard science. Boone (Brandon Perea) is Tyler’s right-hand man. The narrative has to do with Javi recruiting Kate five years after the accident that had her turning her back on the thing she was so passionate about - not just recording and amassing data on twisters but seeking a way to ‘strangle’ them.
Where Chung turns out to be an excellent choice in mixing the personal backstories of Kate and Tyler with the disaster film elements, of great assistance here is the fact that Daisy Edgar-Jones can act; so she adds so much texture to Kate, and we genuinely care about her. Glen Powell is still playing charmer, as he did so well in Top Gun: Maverick and practically every film we have seen since then. So it remains to be seen if he’ll be more Brad Pitt than Tom Cruise, a movie star/leading man who can also act with depth.
Chung shows how Minari's intimacy and micro-approach can still be effective and blend in a big-budget summer film like Twisters. It actually helps balance the film and enhances the action/disaster sequences, as we care more about the characters. I’ll compare this to how Chloe Zhao, after Nomadland, didn’t handle her shot at big-budget films via The Eternals too well.
At its core, Twisters is the new generation of movie stars, traipsing in an old-school movie event - and it works like a charm. Action sequences are top-notch, upgrading a tornado as a force of nature that we feel close to, especially if you watch this on an IMAX screen. It might have taken 28 years, but we can be thankful they got it right, and this film is a worthy successor.