Sundance review: 'Superior' is a sharp thriller, bolstered by a fascinating turn by twins Alessandra and Ani Mesa

‘Superior’

★★★

Appearing in the U.S. Dramatic competition of the 2021 Sundance Film Festival. Can be streamed through the festival digital portal on Monday, February 1. Running time: 97 minutes.

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Buoyed by riveting performances by twin sisters Alessandra and Ani Mesa, director Erin Vassilopoulos’s feature debut “Superior” is a smart little thriller about identity and wildly divergent lives.

Marian (played by Alessandra Mesa, who co-wrote the script with Vassilopoulos) and Vivian (Ani Mesa) are twin sisters, but the physical similarity is about all they have in common. Marian is a rock musician, on the run from her boyfriend (Pico Alexander), looking for a place to crash. She calls up Vivian, a homemaker whose marriage to the boring Michael (Jake Hoffman) seems to hinge on whether they can conceive a child.

Vassilopoulos mines some comedy out of Marian’s efforts to blend in to her new suburban setting, whether it’s joining Vivian for a water aerobics class or getting a job at an ice-cream shop run by a stoner, Miles (Stanley Simons). Then Marian suggests she and Vivian switch places for a day, and Vivian is surprisingly game to break out of her humdrum existence. Eventually, you know Marian’s boyfriend is going to show up — and all bets are off as to what happens next.

Vassilopoulos has a keen sense of pacing, switching from the comedic to the frightening with expert timing. Her not-so-secret weapon, though, are the Mesa sisters, who explore both sides of the twins’ relationship and the shifting viewpoints of their different but entwined personalities.