150 Word Review: 'Together' (2025)
Imagine me and you, I do
Together juggles dark comedy, romance, and body horror, and, for the most part, writer/director Michael Shanks keeps all the balls in the air. It's an entertaining trick. Unfortunately, this also means Together never fully coheres into a single, satisfying story. It's funny, not hilarious. Creepy, not scary. There are a few genuinely disturbing special effects and jump cuts, but just as many underwhelming ones.
Together is about a sexless relationship slowly coming undone. The most horrifying scenes are those in which our couple struggles to connect or stew in resentment. Shanks may have bitten off more than he could chew, conceptually, but Dave Franco and Alison Brie tie everything together. They're terrific. Franco's loser is damaged. Brie's goody-goody is passive-aggressive. She forces him to move to the country. There's evil in the yonder spooky woods! The themes? Trauma. Co-dependence. Modern love. They both get under each other's skin (literally).
Wonderful review of "Together" and a subtitle that made me do a coffee spit-take. Not the place I would have dreamed of for a Turtles reference, but kudos. Where would you put this with "The Substance" in the apparent race for Best in Body Horror? Am I supposed to recoil in disgust with a tinge of pity at the last scene or laugh at its black humor? I'm afraid I did the latter, but wonder if it was supposed to be the former.
Looking forward to this. But might not watch with the wife...