Twister

Wednesday, July 20 at 7:30 PM — The Auditorium at NEIU — 3701 W Bryn Mawr Ave
Tickets: $10 at the door

TWISTER
Directed by Michael Almereyda • 1989
Twister is the first feature film from Michael Almereyda, Pixelvision connoisseur and beloved director of experimental-leaning arthouse titles like Nadja, Tesla, and the 2000 film adaptation of Hamlet. Harry Dean Stanton plays Eugene Cleveland, a soda pop and mini-golf magnate presiding over what appears to be a looney bin in rural Kansas but is actually just his family. As he spends his retirement mulling over potential business ventures (what if cows were tiny?), his aimless children – played by the reliable freakshow Crispin Glover and a routinely pantless and drunk Suzy Amis – hatch a plan to reunite with their long-absent mother. Rounding out this deranged soda pop-swilling (lifetime supply!) clan is Cleveland’s prodigal son-in-law (Dylan McDermott), his fiancée (a local Christian children’s show host), a granddaughter who’s raising herself, and a bemused and competent assistant/maid/chef who should probably quit. Featuring a small role for Jenny Wright, and menacing cameos from Tim Robbins and local Kansan celebrity William Burroughs. Based on Mary Robison’s novel OH! (Robison’s later book Why Did I Ever,about an unhinged Hollywood script doctor, is on CFS’s Recommended Readings list) Twister has an unrelenting narrative and visual weirdness that, much like the family itself, is simultaneously exhausting and comforting. The film had a middling release, likely because the short-lived Vestron Pictures (their eccentric list of titles includes Dirty Dancing and Jackie Kong’s Blood Diner) was verging on bankruptcy by the time Twister was finished, and we’re thrilled to have an original release print in the CFS collection. Stay through the end credits because Crispin crooning “daddy was so mean!” will likely inspire you to pick up his 1988 studio album. (RL)
93 min • Vestron Pictures • 35mm from Chicago Film Society Collections, permission Swank
Preceded by: “The Impact of Television” (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1980) – 22 min – 16mm from Chicago Film Society collections