Twisted: A Balloonamentary (review)

For Vera, a fifteen-year-old girl growing up in a Phoenix trailer park, it was a way out: a way to pay for braces, for her first car, and eventually for college. For John, institutionalized as a boy and imprisoned for multiple felonies as a man, it was a way to start his life over as the founder of an unlikely, but highly successful, Christian ministry. For Marvin, present at the creation, it became the foundation of a lucrative career as an author, teacher, and entrepreneur. It gave Sheree to an outlet for her competitiveness, brought Michele a six-figure income, and led Laura and Don to each other. "It" is balloon twisting, and Twisted is an affectionate portrait of the quirky subculture to which they belong.

The most striking revelation in Twisted may be the fact that a balloon-twisting sub-culture even exists. The twisted balloons that most of us encounter—at children's parties, at street festivals, at family restaurants—are, it turns out, the tip of a very large iceberg. Twisted is about the other nine-tenths of the iceberg. Using the 2005 Twist and Shout convention in Las Vegas as a lens, it reveals a world where balloon twisting crosses the line from casual entertainment to—literally and figuratively—serious business. Balloon twisters meet, socialize, learn new techniques, exchange business ideas, and compete for best-design prizes. They construct a six-foot Trojan horse for the hotel lobby, hold races in which the competitors wear balloon Formula One cars the size of small tables, and tell stories about working on even larger projects: a pair of forty-foot-high soccer players and a flying octopus. The filmmakers follow eight of them, and those eight become the viewers' window on the balloon-twisting world.

Filmmakers Sarah Taksler and Naomi Greenfield, balloon-twisters themselves, have deep affection for their subjects and let them tell their own stories. There is no voiceover narration, and no real attempt to impose a narrative through camerawork or editing. The film begins when the convention begins, ends when it ends, and cycles between the eight principal characters as it goes on. From time to time it pulls back to show one or another of them at home: running their businesses, twisting balloons at parties, or enjoying the fruits of their adventures in twisting (an expensive home, a college degree, a happy marriage). The subjects' view of the balloon-twisting world thus becomes the film's: relentlessly upbeat and joyously enthusiastic. Television series that take viewers inside small, insular subcultures (lumberjacks, fishermen, chefs) typically spotlight scenes of anger and discord. Even when it briefly depicts the results of the hotly-contested design competition, Twisted focuses instead on friendship, camaraderie, and unfeigned affection. It is the story of a subculture told, from the inside, by True Believers.

What keeps Twisted from sinking into cloying earnestness is the filmmakers' ear for a good story. Some tales from the principal characters lives—particularly those of Vera the trailer-park kid and John the ex-con evangelist—add real-world grit and seriousness to the frothy atmosphere of the convention. Others tap into the essential goofiness of balloon twisting. Don and Laura recount their courtship, which involved a balloon rose and a balloon wedding ring. John, displaying an elaborate crucifix made entirely of balloons, lifts the loincloth of his balloon Jesus to show that He is both anatomically complete and "circumcised, like a good Jewish boy." Michelle, who teaches an 11:00 PM class in how to make balloon sculptures for adults-only parties, observes that there is a parallel session on Gospel balloon-twisting. "There are," she observes, "some people who believe you shouldn't make a [giant] balloon penis for other people."

Twisted, though not amateurish in any sense, is clearly an independent production, and the lighting and sound lack the sleek perfection of films with TV-network budgets behind them. This...