“Together” (2025) is another strong argument to never go hiking with a Franco brother. Tim Brassington (Dave Franco) and Millie Wilson (Alison Brie) decide to move from the city to the Washington countryside, but the move puts more pressure on their relationship, and they try to decide whether to stay together or split. When a hike plunges them into a subterranean hole, it appears that a primal force has elected for the prior without consulting them. Will they work things out? Australian director and writer Michael Shanks’ feature debut proves that married actors can work together in a movie without it ending in a breakup.
Franco and Brie make great onscreen partners taking turns in the spotlight with Franco taking the lead. Like most guys, Tim has misgivings about committing, especially since Millie is the breadwinner, and he is following her. Considering that he already suffers from a bit of Peter Pan syndrome, it does not help that he is acting more distant than usual. À la “Midsommar” (2019), Tim has recently experienced a family tragedy that has thrown him off course, and Shanks’ first act really mines the terror of Tim concerned about following in his family’s footsteps. The oneiric scenes are extremely unsettling, but mostly the spectre of that fated fear disappears once they hit the countryside.
Brie goes through a huge emotional shift throughout the course of “Together” from smitten girlfriend to resentful partner to horrified, repulsed woman ready to run. Millie is not perfect. Even though she defends Tim to her friend, Cath (Mia Morrissey), she lobs a lot of passive aggressive blows at Tim. When a fellow teacher, Jamie McCabe (Damon Herriman), welcomes her to the school and the neighborhood, she appears to prefer his company to Tim’s, which leads to the predictable dynamic of Tim posturing to signal that Millie is taken.
The neighborhood is like a separate character. The subterranean area feels very H. R. Giger with an overall moist, gooey, dark and veiny interior texture. The entire film embodies vagina dentata, the fear of being swallowed up, which explains the gender shift in which partner first figures out that something is off while the other person rationalizes away everything, including when their flesh begins to melt together. The opening scene with the dogs is more reminiscent of John Carpenter’s “The Thing” than a breeding or copulatory tie. It does strain disbelief that no one finds that development worthy of further investigation, but it also speaks to an unnerving, primal force that would make most reluctant to explore further, which also explains the missing hikers, Keri Gilligan (Sarah Lang) and Simon (also Shanks). When the end gets tied together with a neat little bow, it works and is obvious in early scenes, but it is also somewhat disappointing because everything made a visceral sense without the need for any prose dumping. Fortunately, analog horror accompanies the massive explanation and rises to the level of “Bring Her Back” (2025) levels. Along the way, a little trope raises its head, but most moviegoers will be unlikely to notice it as one.
Shanks wins the Ari Aster horror award for going there and exploring every corner of the worst-case scenario. Matthew 1:6 sounds more like the underlying threat of “Together,” “They are no longer two, but one flesh.” Couples are often together which means that there is always the danger that every casual moment could suddenly turn into bone crunching, flesh sticking horror. Without J Horror, what would Shanks do? The contortionists earned their keep as Tim and Millie literally roll down halls drawn to each other. Shanks has experience with practical and special effects, and there is not one moment of body horror that does not feel convincing. If you are squeamish, this is not the movie for you. Tim’s push-pull dynamic is sufficient to clear Millie of any blame if she decided to run far away. One minute, your partner wants to go on tour and never wants to make out, and the next, he is swallowing your hair.
“Together” is the kind of movie that keeps you guessing until the credits roll. The biggest surprise is the variety of possible outcomes explored throughout the story, including some happy endings extoling the virtues of marriage, an unexpected, but pleasant surprise that would make an interesting double feature with “Black Bag” (2025). For some, even the best-case scenario is a great argument to stay single forever. If fundamentalists get wind of this movie, they may feel obligated to shake their first at the screen and protest. A lot of sore winners may get hot under the collar at the final scene. Hint: an Oscar nominated film from 2024 treads some similar territory. This film is actually a big win for them.
The pro-couple propaganda is really getting overtime in the horror genre. “Together” is far less romantic than HorRomComs like “Heart Eyes” (2025) or “Drop” (2025) because Tim and Millie are a long-term couple. They would rather die for each other than spend any time apart. It is almost as if the Giger pool had to clear all the external obstacles, then distill the essence of their relationship. If it was not so pro-pairing, the mythology would have felt stronger, especially since all of society works in an unnerving, spontaneous and now legislative concert to escalate questions from “who are you dating” to “when are you getting married” to “when are you having children.” Because everyone behind and in front of the camera is happy with their choices, it is the lone quiet voices of dissonant that they feel the need to shut out (side note: Millie’s brother hates her) and are unaware that they are part of the cacophony. The mythology feels as if it should be more ancient than Plato’s Symposium putting words in comic playwright Aristophanes’ mouth, maybe primordial, with the entire village in on the Giger well’s side effects. The runes in “Midsommar” had roots in reality, but the bells’ symbol does not ring as true and maybe needed a close up or a more historically and semiotic minded graphic designer.
While watching “Together,” it will strike you that it is such an original movie. Not so fast! Turns out that another first-time feature writer and director of the romance comedy film “Better Half” (2023), Patrick Henry Phelan, and the production company StudioFest filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Shanks, Brie, Franco, Neon and talent agency Endeavor. Phelan alleges that he pitched his movie to the acting couple in August 2020, but Shanks said that it was his brainchild. As Stephen King wrote in “Lisey’s Story” (2006), we all drink from the same stream. It sometimes is a matter of who has the better timing. You will not be able to judge for yourself because “Better Half” does not appear to be available to watch at home, and courts take a long time to adjudicate these matters so you will have to decide for yourself if you feel comfortable supporting the film in the meantime.
“Together” is a strong film debut with about five to twenty percent of it not hitting as hard as the rest of the movie as it approaches the end. It simultaneously makes moviegoers want to look away and stay riveted to the screen. It understands what it is and what it wants to do without losing the quotidian humor of couples communicating under the most absurd circumstances.
