Together review

TOGETHER: 

DAVE FRANCO AND ALISON BRIE BODY-HORROR FILM BRINGS PEOPLE TOGETHER…IN THE MOST HORRIFIC WAYS IMAGINABLE! 

By Nico Beland

Movie Review: **** out of 4

NEON

Dave Franco and Alison Brie in Together

 

            Dave Franco (21 Jump Street, Now You See Me trilogy, The Disaster Artist) and Alison Brie (Community,Scream 4, The Lego Movie 1 and 2) get closer together (literally) in Together, the new horror film from Neon and Michael Shanks in his feature film directorial debut. The movie looked fascinating when I saw the trailer especially for someone who’s had a fair share of experience with the bizarre works of filmmakers like David Cronenberg. 

            This definitely seemed like it was going to be in the same boat as many of Cronenberg’s projects or other body-horror like last year’s The Substance. I also figured that before I talk about the new horror movie from the Barbariandirector that just came out, I should give my thoughts on this first and what’s my verdict? It’s fucking great, but holy shit! 

            Together easily takes the cake for the craziest movie I’ve seen all year and this was a year that had demonic monkey toys, Michael B. Jordan fighting vampires, and Robert Pattinson clones and giant worm aliens. It is not for everyone, just warning you now and I strongly recommend watching the trailers to determine whether or not it’s for you (The people behind me in the theater were not happy with it). 

            The film follows Tim (Franco) and Millie Wilson (Brie), a couple who move to the countryside where Millie gets a job teaching at an elementary school while Tim works to pursue his aspiring musician career. But when they find themselves in a cave during a hike in the woods, they encounter a mysterious force that causes changes in their bodies…and by that I mean, they start sticking to each other! 

            The film also stars Damon Herriman (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Bikeriders, Better Man) as Jamie. 

            Overall, Together is unhinged body-horror insanity at its finest while also having a sick sense of humor about the whole thing. I was invested, laughing, and horrified at very sporadic intervals all throughout the film, everything you’d want to feel while watching a movie like this. 

It definitely owes a lot to David Cronenberg and H.P. Lovecraft in terms of the filmmaking and storytelling. Cronenberg for the amounts of body-horror and grotesque makeup effects that look incredible, by the way and Lovecraft for its ritualistic themes and the cave itself often having a monstrous appearance like Cthulhu and the designs of the conjoined people/animals being reminiscent of monsters from Lovecraftian stories. 

The movie also does have some elements of John Carpenter particularly his version of The Thing with a genuinely spine-tingling opening sequence involving a couple of dogs. Despite the comparisons to these other works, there is enough here to make the film feel fresh and new, the premise alone is something you don’t see in movies that much unless it’s from a studio like Neon or A24.

There is a genuinely frightening and brilliantly-executed sequence involving hair that’s one of many big highlights of the film, but what’s so clever about Shanks’ filmmaking is that he keeps many of these freaky moments a mystery and often cut right to the next day without much of a segway. It keeps the pace going and leaves things to the audience’s imagination which I appreciate, not everything needs to be spelled out for the audience. 

Real-life couple, Dave Franco and Alison Brie are excellent in the movie and add a lot of emotional weight to an otherwise chaotic movie. Yeah, they aren’t the most deep or complex protagonists but I cared about them and wanted to see them prevail by the end with Brie I think being a huge standout as a woman nearly at her breaking point. 

Some minor nitpicks I had with the movie were I was able to quickly figure out who was going to be involved with the situation that’s happening to Franco and Brie’s characters and what it was all amounting to, it didn’t ruin the movie for me at all, but you can easily see who the suspicious character is going to be by the end. I’m also torn on how the film ended which I’d rather not discuss here, but maybe upon rewatches or watching YouTube videos that discuss the ending, I’ll be able to understand and appreciate it more. 

Yeah, Together was a blast in the most unexpected of ways, if you’re a fan of movies like Crimes of the Futureor The Substance that you absolutely need to check this out. It is body-horror chaos filled with grotesque yet amazing effects, a sick sense of humor, and solid performances by Franco and Brie, it’s a phenomenal start to a prominent future for Michael Shanks.