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The Silent Twins

2022

Agnieszka Smoczynska

Letitia Wright, Tamara Lawrance, Jodhi May, Jack Bandeira ...

4.9

104

Drama The eerie story of twin sisters who were entirely silent, communicating only to each other as children. As teenagers, they became obsessed with writing fiction, then with teenage boys, and finally, with crime.

	Author	Review
United States	Leslie Felperin The Hollywood Reporter	"A peculiar blend of fairy tale, pop music, and tawdry romantic clichés"	NEU
United Kingdom	Tim Grierson Screendaily	"A wilfully challenging, sometimes abrasive drama, Agnieszka Smoczynska’s combative portrait forces us to embrace its unconventional leads"	POS
United States	Rafaela Sales Ross The Playlist	"Imaginative, but frustrating (...) As a visual offering, “The Silent Twins” has moments of sheer, raw imaginativeness. As a worthy study of the two central characters, sadly, it lacks the same level of vision."	NEU
United Kingdom	Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"This is an engrossing, well-acted story –disturbing but also tender and sad (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Guy Lodge Variety	"Agnieszka Smoczyńska defies movie-of-the-week cliché in this uneven but boldly expressive biopic of troubled twin writers June and Jennifer Gibbons."	NEU
United States	Pete Hammond Deadline	"Working from a complex and compelling screenplay by Andrea Seigel, Smoczynska finds just the right tone and artistic path right to get visually inside the heads of June and Jennifer"	POS
United States	Jason Gorber rogerebert.com	"The story is totally lost in its telling (...) There's just so little to recommend this film, one that even taken by its own rules fails to go beyond its quirky exterior (...) It's as if empathy is expected rather than generated"	NEG
United States	Adam Solomons IndieWire	"The truth is so appalling that you’re left asking why the previous two hours have been so inert."	NEU
United States	Chase Hutchinson Collider	"It attempts to both trace the tragic story of its characters and come to understand them along the way via a more multifaceted presentation (...) It often lacks depth, but still has flashes of brilliance that shine through"	POS
United States	David Robb Slant	"Relatively flat characterizations elsewhere prevent the film from really coming to life, even if the two leads are mostly successful at depicting insular girls living in a world of their own creation (...) Rating: ★★ (out of 4)"	NEU
United States	Katie Walsh Los Angeles Times	"Let us celebrate the odd, heartfelt gem that is 'The Silent Twins' (...) A unique viewing experience rendered in Smoczynska's singular cinematic vision"	POS
United States	Rafael Motamayor SlashFilm	"This is a rare film that is about the struggle of wanting individualism and also belonging. Though that is not enough to make the film great, Smoczyńska's directing is enough to make this a compelling and entertaining viewing"	NEU
United States	Peyton Robinson rogerebert.com	"There's a glaring neglect in the power needed for this film to find its own voice (...) Rating: ★ (out of 4)"	NEG
Canada	Mel Valentin Screen Anarchy	"Uniformly strong performances (...) 'The Silent Twins' is never less than worthwhile"	POS
Canada	Brittany Witherspoon Screen Rant	"Wright and Lawrence give tremendous performances (...) However, the script simply lacks the foundation it needs to explore their internal struggles with themselves and each other (...) Rating: ★★½ (out of 5)"	NEU
United States	Marjorie Baumgarten Austin Chronicle	"The twins' compelling story is one that touches on artistic impulses, racial division, female identity, idiopathic psychology, the inadequacies of our educational and psychiatric institutions, and so much more (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Richard Roeper Chicago Sun-Times	"For all its stylistic flourishes, 'The Silent Twins' winds up a relatively superficial entry in the genre of mental health biopics (...) Rating: ★★½ (out of 4)"	NEU
	Marta Bałaga Cineuropa	"It's a weird movie, going from arthouse to genre and back, and one that proves that Smoczyńska can bring something new to the table: emotion, sure, but also whimsy and playfulness"	POS
United States	Beandrea July The New York Times	"The events of the plot barely register and the girls still feel like strangers by the movie's conclusion. Yet Smoczynska and her cast still manage to conjure something somatically beguiling, akin to being put in a trance"	NEU
United Kingdom	Amon Warmann Empire	"Some wonderful visual flourishes and two brilliant central performances by Wright and Lawrence (...) But without important context, true insight and understanding remains elusive (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United States	Andy Crump Paste Magazine	"There's solace to take in the realization that in another director’s hands, 'The Silent Twins' would have been completely standardized (...) But the film doesn't capitalize on her vision"	NEU
United Kingdom	Robbie Collin Telegraph	"Unevenly intriguing (...) it leaves you just visiting, and peeping confusedly into its sealed-off world (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU

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