Together – Film Review
Reviewed by Harris Dang on 8 June 2025
Neon presents a film by Michael Shanks
Written by Michael Shanks
Produced by Dave Franco, Alison Brie, Mike Cowap, Andrew Mittman, Erik Feig, Max Silva, Julia Hammer, and Tim Headington
Starring Alison Brie and Dave Franco
Cinematography Germain McMicking
Edited by Sean Lahiff
Music by Cornel Wilczek
Rating: TBA
Running Time: 102 minutes
Releases Date: TBA
Together tells the story of young couple, Tim (Dave Franco) and Millie (Alison Brie). They are both city people and have decided to move to the countryside as the next step in their relationship. Millie is a schoolteacher who has taken a teaching job in the country while Tim is an aspiring musician who dreams of being a rockstar. Their relationship is quite on the rocks when Tim is seen to be meek, timid, and withdrawn while Millie is emotionally volatile, extroverted, and demands change.
Their relationship takes the plunge (literally) as the two fall into a chasm while hiking in the forest. Since experiencing the adventurous fall and surviving the night, they experience supernatural occurrences that lead to physical changes that threaten their bodies, their lives, and worse…their relationship.
The great thing about the body horror genre in live-action is how it can make metaphors into nightmarish plastic realities. Whether it is the encapsulation of anger festering as feral children in The Brood (1979) or conveying the struggle of beauty standards in the Oscar-winning film The Substance (2024), body horror is the subgenre that appeals to audiences on both a commercial level and a thematic level. The same is true for Together, which marks Michael Shanks’ feature-length directorial debut.
As with every relationship, there are ups and downs. As for the downs, the film’s narrative is very predictable. With the concepts of co-dependence, the body horror tropes, and the film’s title, the narrative can only lead to one satisfyingly commercial conclusion. Another drawback is the lack of depth in the main relationship. Granted, the chemistry between Franco and Brie is more than stellar. However, the lack of backstory and convincing reasoning as to how they are still together makes the film lack an emotional punch.
Even with all the downs, the film is an entertaining ride that manages to scare, delight, and gross out successfully. Alongside cinematographer Germain McMicking and editor Sean Lahiff (a filmmaker in his own right), Shanks sells the supernatural connection between Tim and Millie through challenging perspectives and disorienting, frenetic camerawork. In one fantastic scene, we see Tim showering while the story crosscuts back and forth from him to Millie driving away. The editing, cinematography (particularly the use of God’s Eye View), and framing sells the connection and introduces the stakes of the story effectively.
Props should also go to the make-up team of Scarecrew Studios led by Larry Van Duynhoven (who has also worked on Aussie genre films like Upgrade (2018), Lake Mungo (2008), The Moogai (2024) and most recently Bring Her Back, 2025. Their work in portraying our characters (and creatures) in body horror circumstances are frightening, grotesque, and ironically funny in their ugly unity. In addition, the stunt-work in portraying bodies moving in an abnormal fashion would make contortionists blush, adding adds punch to the horror.
It also helps that the film’s message about co-dependency is clear, and its presentation never resorts to being preachy or pretentious. The film only seeks out to entertain and it does very well in that regard. The lack of pretention also filters into the performances. Franco sells the emotional vulnerability and neediness extremely well while Brie manages to convey anger through passive-aggression to a disarmingly great performance. They have worked extensively in comedy so their deadpan seriousness in the heightened situations provides lots of laughs. Franco’s line-delivery of the term “muscle relaxant” goes into Bruce Campbell B-movie territory. Finally, Damon Herriman makes the most out of a role as the supposed third wheel who may or may not want to get together with one of the leads.
Overall, Together does not take its premise of co-dependency as a body horror motif as far as it could. However, with the real-life pairing of Franco and Brie, Shanks’ sharp horror instincts in delivering scares and laughs in great harmony, and a refreshing lack of pretension, Together is better than the sum of its parts and has a solid foundation in creating a cinematic relationship that works.
Summary: Together is better than the sum of its parts and has a solid foundation in creating a cinematic relationship that works.
4
Impressive
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