Mr Twister (Clay Westervelt 2013) USA

Reviewed by Lynn Montgomery. Viewed at Santa Barbara International Film Festival

Take a paper clip and straighten it out so one end  is pointing up, leave a little kink in the other end about the size of a small pea. What do you see?

If you are Brian Tolley you see “a man with a scorpion stinger sticking out of his head.” Thus was his inspiration to begin a very twisted life. When Brian stared at that first accidental paper clip creation, just like Exupery’s Little Prince, Brian saw beauty, art, and an animated world of infinite potential. He saw the boa constrictor digesting the elephant. And if that sentence makes no sense, I will pass on a secret that changed my life: Read Antoine de Exupery’s The Little Prince. You too, will see the boa constrictor and not the hat.

Exupery writes, “A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.” A twist tie ceases to be a twist tie, the moment Brian Tolley contemplates it, bearing within it the image of a radioactive zombie, or a fangle-toothed cyclops riding a skateboard.

Clay Westervelt’s five minute documentary takes us inside this fantabulous world of “twisted” reality. The artist, Brian Tolley, starts with a simple twist tie. And then he starts bending. Brian proudly relays in the film, “A creative twist is what makes me, me.” He  says sometimes he knows what he is going to make and other times he just lets the fire breathing centaur evolve into the quadruped monstrosity it wants to be.

Brian is a teenager with autism. Just like many people with autism, he can have difficulty processing intense, multiple sensory experiences at once.  Making twist tie creatures is a sort of therapy to him. He can put all his focus on one object. When explaining his process, Brian says, “It all depends on the thing you put focus on.” He adds, “I feel quite fascinated with myself.”

And the audience feels equally fascinated. Indeed, Tim Burton would be quite fascinated with Brian’s creations. They have a Nightmare Before Christmas quality to them. Westervelt’s film is a fairly straightforward portrayal of this remarkable teen. We appreciate Westervelt’s decision to let Brian’s work speak for itself and be the miraculous aspect of the film.