Main Cast: Harry Dean Stanton, Suzy Amis, Crispin Glover, Dylan McDermott, Jenny Wright
Release Year: 1989
Country: US/UK
Run Time: 93 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
Don't mistake this movie for the stormy special-effects blockbuster of the same name; the two films are light years apart. Based on Mary Robison's novel Oh!, this Twister was the quirky first feature from screenwriter/director Michael Almereyda (Nadja, The Eternal) about an eccentric soda-pop tycoon and his dysfunctional family. Suzy Amis plays Maureen Cleveland, a single mother who lives with her precocious daughter Violet (Lindsay Christman) and her very strange brother Howdy (Crispin Glover) in the family mansion, tended by the young live-in housekeeper Lola (Charlaine Woodward). Maureen's ex-boyfriend Chris (Violet's father) comes back to town with the intention of rescuing Maureen and Violet from Kansas so they can start a family of their own. This turns out to be more difficult than he expected. Maureen is still angry about their break-up and seems unresponsive to his earnest and somewhat clumsy displays of affection. Howdy is too busy writing nonsensical songs and hanging out with his new girlfriend Stephanie (Jenny Wright) to be of any help. To complicate matters, their father Eugene (Harry Dean Stanton) shows up with a prudish children's TV evangelist named Virginia (Lois Chiles) and announces their engagement. No one gets along, and soon all are trapped indoors during a particularly bad Kansas twister. As the storm rages outside, Maureen and Howdy cook up a plan to find their long-lost mother, who may be the only person who can explain why they are all so odd. Like Almereyda's later films, Twister is a kaleidoscope of absurd conversations, oddball characters, and events that seem to happen for no reason at all. It's a perfect vehicle for Crispin Glover, who delivers some of the film's wackiest dialogue as the rich kid comfortably living in his own fantasy world. Tim Robbins makes an appearance as Stephanie's jealous ex-boyfriend Jeff, and author William S. Burroughs has a cameo as a farmer shooting targets in an empty barn. ~ Anthony Reed, All Movie Guide
Dan Bishop - Art Director, Carol Wood - Costume Designer, Michael Almereyda - Director, Roberto Silvi - Editor, Dan Ireland - Executive Producer, William J. Quigley - Executive Producer, Hans Zimmer - Composer (Music Score), David Wasco - Production Designer, Renato Berta - Cinematographer, Aron Warner - Production Manager, Wieland Schulz-Keil - Producer, Dianna Freas - Set Designer, Michael Almereyda - Screenwriter, Joe Gayton - Screenwriter
The film relates the story of the eccentric Cleveland family during the event of a tornado hitting their rural Kansas home. The head of the family is Eugene Cleveland (Stanton), who built a soda pop empire and lives off the proceeds. His two adult children, Maureen (Amis), and Howdy (Glover), still live with him in his mansion along with Maureen's daughter Violet and a housekeeper. The siblings Maureen and Howdy are directionless and conspire to find their mother who left unexpectedly when they were young.
Howdy finds an envelope with their mother's address and he and Maureen take Violet with them in an effort to track her down.
The address on the envelope leads them to a farm in which they meet an unnamed character played by William Burroughs. Burroughs tells them he bought the farm from her and met her once when they were in escrow; that "Jim" spoke with her mostly. When the kids ask if they can speak to Jim Burroughs replies "Jim, got kicked in the head by a horse last year. [He] went around killing horses for a while, until he ate the insides of a clock and he died" (a line originally found in John Millington Synge's 1907 play Playboy of the Western World). He then indicates that he thinks she moved to Ireland and that becomes the focus of their drive to see her and forgive her. At dinner one evening, Howdy reveals to his father that he and Maureen have actively attempted to find their mother. Eugene informs them that she died in a mental institution and didn't even recognize him toward the end. Maureen's boyfriend Chris (McDermott), the father of Violet, appears after a lengthy absence determined to win Maureen back. He eventually wins her over and they decide to get married. Meanwhile, Eugene absconds from his immediate family with his housekeeper in tow.
