Two statements made in the opening act from Michael Shanks’ Queasy, mostly smart filmmaking debut “Together” will haunt both their stars and audiences: 1. That “everyone knows” Tim (Dave Franco) need his girlfriend Millie (Franco’s real wife Alison Brie) more than she needs him, and 2. If they are split later it will only hurt more. And, oh boy, do shans – and his lots of game stars and producers – Take the seemingly trite relationship observations to wild ends during the course of this wonderfully uninterrupted spin on the body’s horror joint.
We first meet Millie and Tim when they are moving from Metropolitan Melbourne to the Aussie country countryside. School teacher Millie has been offered a good gig at a cozy, small city school, which apparently marks the first time the long -lasting (but clearly not married) pairs have made some major changes to accommodate Millie’s Dreams. Sure, Tim is still trying to do it as a musician, but his relatively advanced age (rock trips are for the young people or the extremely rich, neither Tim is) does not scream “the next big thing!” longer, and the emotional hangover from the terrible deaths of his parent (real nightmare feed, for him and the audience) does not help questions. Thus: Move to the country!
What Millie and Tim not know-and what, crucial, the audience does, care of a hopeful, sticky opening that lets us into some pre-pipeline events in the couple’s soon-to-be home — that the Bukolian area they will remove is much more , yes, Bubonic. Let’s put it in this way: no one should ever drink stagnant water of any kind, and you are sure hell should not do it at the bottom of a scary cave filled with semi -screed church benches and all kinds of squishy topics. Millie and Tim will learn that the very hard way.
There is something wrong before they come to the caved cave, but since the couple’s first day in their beautiful new house is characterized by the discovery of a fat time, not-dead rat king filled above a moving warm light. Later, Tim will be able to draw a line between the discovery-to be safe, a screaming fucked hungry that should leave the audience to scream and titration to the same extent-and another rodent-based finding from his youth. Franco gives a convincing darkness to Tim, first presented as a bit of a sad boy, before turning into something completely different. And Millie? Brie portrays her as a sensitive, kind soul with a quick nutritional limit. Millie wants answers, and she will get them.
No one imagines that a simple walk through the tracks that dot the countryside behind their house will fix Millie and Tim’s declining relationship problems, but that is a start, right? Shanks’ script, imaginative as it is, is not too captured in hiding what comes (listen, it is right there in the title), instead you put more weight (and joy) to discover how We get there. No, no one should drink stagnant water from a scary cave, but “Together“Don’t work if Millie and Tim do, and then we can continue with the rest of it.
And what one the rest of it It is! Eventually, they are liberated from the cave, a very not good feeling is the first to notice that something is wrong. For the most part, he can’t be away from Millie anymore, literally. He feels sick, jittery, confused, out of the body when she gets too far, and for a guy who saw her parents mix of this deadly coil due to mental illness, it is double scary. He tries everything, a hectic franco zipping between pharmaceutical aids and some very poorly advised Facebook persecution, while an alternately worried and angry brie both monitors the situation and tries to get away from it. Tim needs her more than she needs him. And maybe they should have shared before, because it will only hurt more now.
Of some help: a SLU Damon Herriman, who is thrown here as Millie’s teacher Jamie. Is Jamie interested in Millie Romantic? Is he just a nice guy? What happens to his relationship status? Why does he seem to be the only person who is aware of the new couple? Why does he know so much about the damned dirty cave? And what the hell happens to the wedding photos in his house? The answers to all these questions (and more!) Will, and the fuzzy, gross pleasures of “Together” will also.
Shans’ often transparent stage set acts mostly as an additive for fun with filmFrom the first look to a small electric saw (may as well call it Chekhov’s small electric saw) to the bold opening scenes that will not hide what will come, but that tend to add the joy of watching the movie, the wild expectations, The desire to guess what comes next (and joy when you are right).
And although it is easy to punch holes in some of the logical Shanks script seems to think that it is baked right in – without destroying too much, we have very Of questions about how much the wider community leads to what really happens, plus even more questions about the physical (and, yes, sexual) consequences of much of it – at the moment it is difficult not to draw into the spectacle, get stuck to history , really linked to this audience -so -called (and -creaming) Little Ditty of a midnight treatment.
Rating: B.
“Together” premiered at 2025 Sundance Film festival. Neon bought it for US distribution at the festival.
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