Displaying items by tag: Michael Shanks

TOGETHER 

Australia/US, 2025, 102 minutes, Colour.

Dave Franco, Alison Brie, Damon Herriman.

Directed by Michael Shanks.

The couple, played by Americans Dave Franco and Alison Brie, actually married for many years in real life, are together in this film in more ways than we might have imagined. Together is being categorised as an example of Body Horror, audiences noting the success of 2024’s Oscar-nominated, The Substance, with Demi Moore.

It is probably more than prudent to state that some of the sequences later in the film, especially a prolonged and intense encounter between the couple in a corridor, are certainly not for the fainthearted. Nor the climactic bodily togetherness that might make audiences aghast. In fact, for this reviewer, they are sequences so visceral that one finds one’s feet pressing towards the floor to get some steadiness and balance. Which, probably, is a compliment to the director and the creator of the special effects.

While the couple seems ordinary enough, both in their mid-30s, he a would-be musician, she a teacher, they move to a country town so that he can compose and go on tour and she will work in the local school. In fact, the writer-director of the Michael Shanks, is Australian and the film was made in the Dandenong ranges at the edge of Melbourne. There are some attractive forest sequences until they become quite sinister, a frightening pit where a local church for a kind of cultish group sank and disappeared under the ground.

But, there is something askew with Tim, Dave Franco, not quite right, dependent on Millie, Alison Brie. And, when they fall down the pit by accident, and he drinks the water, there are strange transformations and nightmares that he experiences. Milly, on the other hand, his practical but is wary that there is something definitely role with Tim.

A teacher at the school, also a neighbour, Jamie, played by Damon Herriman (who has played some sinister characters in his day, including Charles Manson) who offers support – and, finally, some frightening revelations.

The first part of the film intimates some psychological disturbance which will lead into horror experiences. The second part of the film puts the characters and the audience on edge, especially when the first intimations of the bodies basically connecting and needing to be pried apart. The third part of the film brings in the religious and superstitious beliefs and behaviour behind the horror - with some speculation is based on Plato’s philosophy of human beings, and references to his shadows in caves.

Rather different in story and treatment than might have been expected – and, once again, the caution for audiences that some of the sequences are more than disturbing.

1. The title, love, partnership, marriage? And physically literally interpreted?
2. Themes of body horror, religious cults? Supernatural themes?
3. The setting, the mountains and forests, the opening and the forest and search, the pit in the mountains, the submerged Chapel, the interiors, the religious symbols, the paintings and icons, together?
4. The ordinary settings, house, streets, school, railway station, railway lines…? The musical score?
5. The situation, Tim, age 35, his musical ambitions, moderate success, tours, playing the guitar, technical equipment, lack of self-confidence, depending on Millie? Millie, love for Tim, leaving the city, the on-line chat with her sister giving the situation? Her teaching?
6. Indications of tension, Tim and his mental health, dependence, the party, Millie and the proposal, Tim’s hesitation, embarrassment, indication of things to come?
7. Settling into the house, the decision to go for a hike, getting lost, falling into the pit, the injuries, spending the night, drinking the water, the religious symbols, getting out the next day? The consequences for Tim, at home, the sudden fits, spasms, loss of consciousness, nightmares?
8. Millie, at school, meeting Jamie, pleasant friendship, his visit to the house, the drinks?
9. Tim, Millie driving him to the station, the overwhelming experience, leaving his gear, wandering the streets, to the school, the toilet sequence, the little boy, Jamie, the embarrassment? Millie arriving to apologise?
10. The indication of the physical and psychological togetherness, the lakes together in the pit, the pain of separating, the gashes in their legs, the psychological consequences nightmares?
11. Millie, going to Jamie’s house, for the car keys, talking with him, his knowledge of togetherness, the story of his marriage, the photos of the couple, the video, the pastor, the ceremony, then the reality of the merging, Jamie as the combined couple? Billy and her fear, escape?
12. The physical and psychological impact of the merging into one sequences, in the corridor, the two fighting to keep separate, visuals, visual, the effect on the audience watching this merging?
13. Tim, going to the pit, going down, searching, the together icon on the wall?
14. The two returning, trying to remain separate, hanging on, gradually coming together, their willingness to blend, the visuals of their becoming one character?
15. The parents arriving, the one character coming to the door? The future?