Together
Director: Michael Shanks
Writer: Michael Shanks
Cast: Dave Franco, Alison Brie, Damon Herriman, Mia Morrissey, Karl Richmond, Jack Kenny, Francesca Waters
Seen on: 8.8.2025

Plot:
Tim (Dave Franco) and Millie (Alison Brie) have been a couple in the big city for a while, and now they are planning a fresh start in a small town where Millie got a job as a teacher. Tim, who has been trying to get his career as a musician of the ground for many years, moves mostly for Millie’s sake, unsure of what he wants to do in the new town or his life. As they start to explore their new neighborhood with a hike, Tim and Millie stumble upon, or rather into a cave. They have to spend the night there, but once they are out, something has changed them. They are literally drawn to each other, with unpredictable consequences.

Together is a relationship film, almost a romance, if you like. It is also a body horror film. And it does both parts of ist story justice in a humorous and unsettling way.

Together depends entirely on Tim and Millie. We have to understand them and we have to believe them, both as a couple and as individuals. I don’t know if it helped that Dave Franco and Alison Brie are an actual couple (I could imagine that it can also get in the way), but in any case, they are more than up for the challenge. Tim and Millie’s relationship is immediately recognizable as something that has been growing for a while and might need a bit of a re-evaluation. They are both all in for the physical parts of the story as well, very important when it comes to body horror.

The script gives them a lot to play with as well. Shanks has a sharp eye for his characters and is really good at giving us off-hand comments that bring entire backstories to life. The way he develops his story is not only fun in a very absurd way and scary in a very real way, but also thought-provoking and insightful, at least regarding co-dependency.

I don’t want to give the plot away because it did head into directions I didn’t expect. But I will say that it is one of the very few times that a casting decision was so good that it actually gave a bit away too early in the film. But I didn’t mind that at all because the plot development was so organic and clear.

It’s a well-made and creative film that actually that made me laugh and made me cringe. Most importantly, though, it made me honestly care about the characters – and for me, that wasn’t all that easy when it comes to Tim. In short, I really liked it a whole damn lot.

Summarizing: very good.