Writer-director James Sweeney’s new film Twinless made some noise the first night of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival. The dark comedy marks Sweeney’s first film at the prestigious festival in Park City, Utah. Co-starring in the film, Sweeney plays a gay man who meets a straight man experiencing the loss of his gay twin brother in a bereavement support group. A relationship subsequently unfolds. Saturday Night’s Dylan O’Brien pulls double duty playing both the gay and the straight twin.

O’Brien received the script in 2020 after Sweeney worked on it for ten years. The Teen Wolf star described feeling connected to both twins even though he is straight. Commenting to Variety, “When I read something, it’s like I can hear the guy’s voice or I can’t… And from the second I picked up the script, I was just like, ‘Roman is in me.’ I know this guy. And then when I get to Rocky, I had an instinct for him too.”

The film has received significant praise with a 100% from 17 critic reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. IndieWire compared Sweeney’s work to that of Almodóvar or De Palma describing “It’s funny, it’s adorable, and it’s probably enough to have sustained a spiky 90-minute charmer that appealed to a broad cross-section of young viewers.”

O’Brien’s creative performance has been celebrated and hailed as a “Career-Best”. The other stars of Twinless include Aisling Franciosi, Lauren Graham, Tasha Smith, Chris Perfetti, François Arnaud, Susan Park, and Cree Cicchino.

Sweeney was placed on the Top 10 Directors to Watch list. The film is currently up for sale.