Alternate Best Actor 2025: Dylan O'Brien in Twinless

Dylan O’Brien did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying Rocky and Roman in Twinless. 

Twinless follows two men who meet in a support group for twins who have lost their siblings. 

That is the theoretical setup and spoiler alert right away that is fashioned as a false start for the film on purpose by writer/director and co-lead James Sweeney as Dennis, a man who claims to have a dead twin in order to meet Roman the twin of the man he had a brief romantic fling with Rocky. Dylan O’Brien obviously plays both brothers, an actor who thankfully, as I’ll always celebrate an upswing for a performer,  has steadily grown in my estimation in the past few years. As he started for me as a bit of a non-entity performer until I found him a decent likable lead in Love & Monsters, then was impressed by his take on a young Dan Aykroyd in Saturday Night with an even greater step up here in the twin roles.  The briefer of the two being Rocky which O’Brien’s work very much works in contrast to Roman who meet technically first though second chronologically and O’Brien excels in creating that contrast. His performance as Rocky is technically working within the frame of generalized traits of a homosexual character, however an instance where this approach does wholly work. The big reason why not only does O’Brien make even the certain flamboyance within his physical manner and voice feel natural to the character he also makes it extend within the overarching traits of the character. The traits being that character’s popularity and confidence. Where O’Brien carries that so innately and you get the sense of the almost breezy approach to life where Rocky can casually approach every relationship, even dealing with the result of ghosting, O’Brien brings a callous but also carefree reaction of someone who just knows he’ll be able to charisma his way out of it. O’Brien convincingly created the “legend” of Rocky as the brother who is so self-assured and seemed to be walking on air…well until being accidentally run over during the confrontation by Dennis. 

O’Brien’s work as Roman then is the “other” brother and O’Brien performance is distinctive in creating a combination of elements in Roman. His whole manner is of the submissive second combined with someone also being a bit lost in his grief and losing his twin. O’Brien has a natural sullen manner he realizes and even more so archives the difficulty which is managing to play a not particularly bright character in a way that doesn’t fall into easy stereotype. O’Brien finds a convincing delay in his speech and manner of someone who just has to think about everything with a bit more time and a little harder to get anywhere. Combined with a convincing sense of the emotional state of someone just a bit lost in life. O’Brien finds an emotional nuance because he’s able to convey the shy, almost beaten down state of being told his whole life that his brother is better, while also able to create genuine empathy for the character who really is lost and without purpose as he’s not with his brother for any kind of guidance. He makes it convincing when Dennis approaches him lying about his own brother in a strange form of trying to continue the relationship with Rocky by spending time with the not at all homosexual Roman. O’Brien excels though in the quiet warmth he gets just from seeming to have some kind of sounding board of any kind, combined though with the general sloppiness of the person. Such as when Roman even says some potentially insensitive questions and statements about homosexuals, O’Brien is able to deliver them with a convincing naivety of someone who truly just doesn't really know how to speak for himself. 

Within the relationship O’Brien is very effective in showing this quiet bit of growth in the relationship with Dennis, but just eking out this believable sense of Roman coming a bit out of his battered shell which unfortunately for Dennis leads him to connect to Dennis's coworker Marcie (Aisling Franciosi). Dennis tries to push his fantasy continually on Roman, and again a lot of these scenes wouldn’t work at all if not for how convincing O’Brien is in the role. The setups where Dennis basically wants to touch Roman potentially suggestively shouldn’t work, but O’Brien is so convincing in the certain simplicity of Roman that in his slightly confused but passively accepting manner he convinces you that Roman would allow Dennis to touch his feet…up until a point when Dennis tries to suck on them. Even then O’Brien reactions are less straight anger but rather naturally weaved in with confusion before Dennis admits to his whole deception. Where again O’Brien’s performance is key to the resolution of the entire film because even in his violent reaction the fundamental choice is that of an instinctual reaction of a man who takes things very much on the surface and the reaction is a betrayal of the man’s nature to be so trusting. An extension of this with his relationship with Marcie where the two of them mostly just work as two people loving each other in their mutual simplicity in a way. The only break in Roman letting out his frustrations with the situation with Dennis and Rocky, again as just very genuine frustrations of someone who really doesn’t even know how to broach someone trying to trick him. O’Brien makes this feel so natural just as natural as his wholly earnest apology to her when she calls him on his anger. O’Brien’s realization of the nature of Roman is honestly the only thing that at all earns the ending of Dennis and Roman becoming friends through it all. As O’Brien throughout the film has convincingly shown someone who would just let such betrayals just breeze by him at a certain point given his attitude towards life. O’Brien delivers two strong distinctive performances which facilitates the film effectively and finds genuine emotion consistently. Even more so it is a continuation of exhibiting a greater talent and growth as a performer.