Dave Franco and Alison Brie have never collaborated quite like this…
The real-life partners lead Michael Shanks’ Sundance hit “Together” which subverts romantic drama conventions thanks to a body horror twist. Franco and Brie play Tim and Millie, a couple who relocate across the country only to find themselves more reliant on each other than ever. Damon Herriman also stars.
The official synopsis reads: “Years into their relationship, Tim and Millie (Franco and Brie) find themselves at a crossroads as they move to the country. Abandoning all that is familiar in their lives except each other. With tensions already flaring, a nightmarish encounter with a mysterious, unnatural force threatens to corrupt their lives, their love, and their flesh.”
Franco, who previously directed wife Brie in the horror movie “The Rental” and the 2023 romance “Somebody I Used to Know,” told IndieWire that “Together” was a first for them. The duo also produce the film, along with Mike Cowap, Andrew Mittman, Erik Feig, Julia Hammer, Tim Headington, and Max Silva.
“This was like the most full-on thing we’ve ever done together,” Franco said. “We’re very picky about what we choose to do, especially when we’re onscreen together, just because we don’t want to burn people out on us.”
“Together” premiered at Sundance, where it was acquired by NEON. The IndieWire review by Kate Erbland deemed the film to be a “delightfully unhinged spin” on genre features. Erbland teased the “giddy, gross pleasures” of the “crowd-pleasing (and -screaming) little ditty of a midnight treat.”
The review reads, “Shanks’ often transparent scene-setting mostly serves as an additive to the fun of the film, from the first appearance to a tiny electric saw (might as well call it Chekhov’s Tiny Electric Saw) to those bold opening scenes that don’t hide what’s to come, but that tends to add to the joy of watching the film, those edgy expectations, that desire to guess what’s coming next (and the delight when you’re right). And while it’s easy to poke holes in some of the logic Shanks’ script seems to think is baked right in — without spoiling too much, we’ve got a lot of questions about how much the wider community is clued into what’s really happening, plus still more queries about the physical (and, yes, sexual) implications of much of it — in the moment, it’s hard not to get pulled into the spectacle, stuck to the story, really connected to this crowd-pleasing (and -screaming) little ditty of a midnight treat.”
Neon will release “Together” in theaters on Friday, July 30. Check out the trailer below.
