TOGETHER (2025)

Once again, in my opinion, we have an example of a movie promotional campaign giving away too much. Now I am one of those people who hates movie trailers. A writer (or writers) often go to a lot of trouble to create a narrative that aims to intrigue us viewers so that we may enjoy how they get to their bloody point! Now I realize moviemakers and marketers don’t care to mislead potential viewers with the encapsulating genre of their wares. And I realize, there are many of you out there who indeed want know exactly what you’re getting into before buying your ticket. I recall the backlash that followed Vanilla Sky (2001). Viewers who hadn’t seen the original Spanish film Open Your Eyes (1997) were angry to find themselves watching a darker and more mind-bendy film than they had come to expect from romance/action star Tom Cruise and dramedy director Cameron Crowe. And the trailer did lead fans astray. I liked the misdirection and found the film interesting and sad. I’d rather go into a film without expectations and I like to be surprised and so I avoid trailers at all costs (even succumbing to plugging my ears and closing my eyes when Youtube injects them into videos), so that I may enjoy films as the writers (and everyone who liked their scripts) had intended. Still, movie posters can be just as bad. Of course it’s a double edged sword, because the Together poster responsibly conveys that it is a horror, I just wish the jist of it wasn’t front and centre (and I won’t go into it as you may be lucky enough not to know anything about this film). What good is a mystery if you already know more than the characters before the first frame? Now that being said, Together brings some surprises, which is why Vanilla Sky came to my mind. It too is about love and relationships, packaged in an alternative genre. Instead of existential art house, it tackles interpersonal dilemmas and complex relationships by way of a horror. And it’s a funny horror, though I’m not entirely convinced it’s supposed to be, but it’s funny just the same. Alison Brie and Dave Franco are a real-life married couple confident enough to play insecure and stressed out commonlaw-ers. Brie is especially good as their union is tested by careers, isolation and a sticky happenstance situation that forces them to contend with their somewhat unconfirmed commitment. Watch for her use of the word “partners”. There is some good commentary about contemporary coupledom and how exactly does one commit in this day and age when marriage and children is becoming less and less of a definitive right of passage. Now I realize the “horror” poster did in fact subvert my expectations about the intermingling categories at play here, still it would have been even more fun to be surprised by all of it.

WATCH OR NOT: WATCH

Additional musings: Currently there is a copyright infringement lawsuit filed against the movie Together by the producers of the indie film Better Half (2023). It alleges Together is a blatant rip-off of a script previously pitched to Brie and Franco who declined the project, only to produce a similar film a few years later. Lawyers for Together argue that the films have different tones: Better Half is light and comedic while Together is a supernatural body horror thriller. Hmmm, guess we’ll see how this plays out.