‘Together’ Review: Dave Franco and Alison Brie Dare and Delight in a Blood-Soaked Flesh for Fantasy [A-] | SXSW
I’ve always been scared my eventual life partner would kill me. Perhaps not in the traditional sense of being murdered, but the loss of life via forging everything I’ve built into someone else’s world. It’s a terrifying thought to presume that a relationship will strip one of their individuality, but the possibility exists — long-term relationships have to be nurtured, tended to like a delicate flower bed to navigate away from toxicity by uprooting weeds of codependency. This isn’t a singular fear, however, as director Michael Shanks proves in his feature directorial debut, Together, as one couple fights to stay together by staying apart.
Millie (Alison Brie) and Tim (Dave Franco) have been together almost a decade, yet remain unwed. After living in the city for their entire relationship, they decide to move to a more rural area a couple hours outside New York City when Millie accepts a position as a schoolteacher for a much smaller school than her current one. After an awkward going-away party that highlights Tim’s insecurities about his relationship and being alone after a misfired proposal, the couple make their move. Their new home is close to wilderness, hiking trails, and Millie’s new coworker, Jamie (Damon Herriman, Better Man), but the lack of warmth in their relationship gives the home an icy chill. Millie and Tim haven’t had sex recently, Tim disengaged from the relationship — and everything else, actually — with a dark cloud hanging over him. The film positions the couple to be easily understood: Millie is trying her hardest to make it work with Tim, even when he isn’t able to express his thoughts to her. There’s a palpable tension inside every frame that has both actors, the flame they once had extinguished and replaced with a chill in the air around them. Casting a real-life couple in Brie and Franco pays off, even the moments of awkwardness still possess a glimmer of the tenderness the couple once felt for each other.
In an attempt at bettering their partnership, Tim offers to go on a hiking trail at the new house that Millie has been wanting to go on. The excursion takes a turn after the couple gets lost in a torrential downpour, unable to navigate themselves back to their home. Tim falls into a sinkhole in the ground going into a cave, Millie going down with him when she tries to save him. Everything initially seems normal until the couple awakes the next morning with their legs stuck together at their calves. Flesh peels back from their legs as they separate, open wounds left on both afterwards. They’re able to make their way back to their home in the new day and sunlight, but strange happenings begin to occur. The film starts to twist the knife of their relationship right into the gut of the audience, an easily understandable feeling of isolation within one’s own relationship with someone else. A psychological horror-comedy that breaks its own tension with hilarious one-liners and physical comedy from both Brie and Franco, Together doesn’t fear going the distance and forcing the viewer to accept their own shortcomings within the intimacies their real life provides. It questions the reality of romance and how easy it is to vanish inside someone else, to be around someone so long that you forget yourself. As they get further away from the incident with the cave, their bodies begin to become closer until they’re fighting to stay away from each other. Something within them wants to be connected through the other’s flesh, literally dragging them towards one another.
The crunch of bones and sound of blood spilling in Together is the soundtrack of nightmares. A superb sound design fills the air with crackling tension that only breaks when director Michael Shanks allows it, nailing jump scares that feel original and earned. The film builds a fascinating mythology around the combination of souls, the endless search for our other half that Plato’s Symposium hypothesizes. What Aristophanes doesn’t present in the myth is what happens after two halves find each other and become whole, the endless struggle for balance in romance after complacency takes hold. The nature of relationships is that we must forfeit some of our individuality, which Together heavily focuses on with the subtlety of a sledgehammer coming down. The film wears its themes on its sleeve and doesn’t attempt to hide them, keeping it blatant how the characters are receiving each other as their torture increases. The more their bodies yearn for each other, the more Millie and Tim fight to get back to what they once were.
The gruesome nature of body horror fits the theme of Together and doubles down on the notion that we’re bound to each other when in relationships. Unconditional love is only part of being in a partnership, there is tending to each other’s needs, wants, desires, and ambitions — the disintegration of one begins the downfall of the others. The originality of some of the more gruesome moments propels the film to new heights and turns the film into one of the most chilling date movies of all time. The film manages to overpower its lack of subtlety with a genuine depth and thoughtfulness relating to relationships and their effects on us. Even scenes that lay out the plot for easy digestion to the audience, the central performances of the film are so dedicated that it never misses a beat nor feels clunky. Hilarity of the situation breaks through the gnarly gore in the most fluid way possible. Brie and Franco’s real life chemistry pours from the screen as blood pours from their bodies, drowning the audience in the asphyxiation of their codependency. Herriman makes a meal out of every scene he’s in, delivering lines like “sometimes complacency just means harmony” with a calm disposition and an intensity lurking underneath. As Millie’s only friend in the new area, Jamie feels responsible for helping her become acclimated to being out of the city. She begins to isolate away from him as things in her relationship get worse, underestimating the knowledge he has of the area and how he could help her. Everything gets sticker as she and Tim get closer to the truth.
Together forces you to understand yourself, whether in a long-term relationship or not, and your position inside the closest bonds you have with others. The codependency Tim feels towards Millie is scary and real, a life of darkness catching up with him as he clings to her for support. The two must fight to stay together by staying apart or they might actually love themselves into each other. Boasting two excellent central performances, it’s a terrifying ride through the scariest parts of ourselves. Being in love is a harrowing experience.
Grade: A-
This review is from the 2025 SXSW Film and Television Festival. NEON will release Together only in theaters on August 1, 2025.
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