The picture on the front of the box is of a family on a couch, blown up into the air by a tornado. The back of the box bills Twister (1988) as a "gutsy (gusty?) madcap comedy" (hardy, har...). Looked like it might be an '80s dud of grand proportions, but in a Lynchian twist of fate Twister turned out to be a bizarre--though rough around the edges and a little meandering--little gem. Directed by Michael Almereyda (who most recently did Hamlet), it stars Harry Dean Stanton as a soda pop and mini-golf magnate with a retardedly dysfunctional family of serially depressed people. Suzy Amis is the alcoholic, permanently distraught 24-year-old mom of an eight-year-old girl, Dylan McDermott is her on-again-off-again boyfriend and father to her child, and the mesmerizingly bizarre and ingenious performer that is Crispin Glover stars as the ultra-sensitive, disturbed and freaky brother who sleeps in leather and can't stop talking about his "fiance" Stephanie (Jenny Wright). Glover also provides the eerie guitar noodling and intense emotional climaxes. To make things weirder, Stanton is dating a children's TV evangelist (Lois Chiles) who dresses like Little Bo Peep. When Glover and Amis go looking for their long lost mom, they come across William S. Burroughs, who, naturally, is in a barn, gun in hand, doing some target practice. Based on the book OH! by Mary Robison. Worth it for Glover's performance (and haircut) alone. :

--Genevieve Paiement