Pop Culture Happy Hour - Together

Episode Date: August 6, 2025

Every couple goes through certain rites of passage. You date, maybe you move in together, maybe you get married. And maybe a visit to a mysterious cave makes your bodies start to fuse together. That's what happens in the new horror film Together, starring real-life married couple Alison Brie and Dave Franco. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for sponsorship and to manage your podcast sponsorship preferences.NPR Privacy Policy

Every couple goes through certain rites of passage. You date, maybe you move in together, maybe you get married, and maybe a visit to a mysterious cave makes your bodies start to fuse together. That's what happens in the new horror film Together, starring real-life married couple Alison Brie and Dave Franco. I'm Aisha Harris. And I'm Linda Holmes, and today we're talking about Together on Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. Are. Joining us today to be together with us is Vulture TV critic Roxanna Hadati. Hey, Roxanna. Hey, guys. Thank you for having me.

Absolutely. And we're not, none of us are going to be together like this movie means it. So together, written and directed by Michael Shanks, is about Millie and Tim, played by Alison Brie and Dave Franco. They are long-term partners who move to a house in the country. Very nice house, by the way. Yes. On a hike, they stumble literally on a.

an underground cave, and by the time they get out, a very unsettling process has already begun. It seems they are being physically pulled together. Their bodies starting to stick to each other, and that is just the beginning. The story is not for the squeamish. Together is in theaters now. Aisha, I'm going to start with you. Talk to me about Together. It was fun. I kind of enjoyed it. As someone who herself has been in a long-term relationship, I think some of the ideas that this movie is positing around what it means to be in a relationship and how, you know, you go from being I, I, I, I to wee, we, we very quickly. And that can be very scary.

And you look around, you're like, what's happening. I think that seeing Dave Franco and Alison Brie sort of play this out, knowing that they are a real-life couple and seeing them sort of play this version of a relationship out is very interesting. It's fun. And I think they have really good chemistry. And a lot of cringy moments happen in the first few minutes of this movie that, like, I would never wish upon anyone, public moments of proposals. And I feel like it gets that dynamic right. And once it gets into the body horror aspect, I think it's a very visceral movie, and I liked that.

But yeah, overall, I had a lot of fun with this movie. And I'm sure we'll get into sort of where I think it kind of didn't exactly stick the landing. But I had fun. And I think a lot of people probably will too. Yeah. What'd you think, Roxanna? I think I'm slightly less positive overall, but I'm very pro the relationship stuff. Like when this is like marriage story, I was very into it.

Yes. And that I think it gets a lot of the like microaggressions of long-term relationships, right? Like the little resentments that can build up over time with your partner and like the sacrifices you perceive you have made for them. The sacrifices maybe they didn't make for you. like all of that mess, I think, is very sharply observed and acted very well between the two of them. I think the body horror is gross in a good way. That's like a pro for me. Yeah. But I don't know that the horror idea feels like as well developed as it could have been.

And we're not going to get into spoilers necessarily. But I do think it's a movie that sort of just ends rather than having like a real resolution of like. like its central horror conceit. Yeah. So like I'm fairly mixed, I think. Yeah. I'm a little bit mixed too for I think some of the same reasons. I really like how they sort of assert this metaphor, which is so blunt that it is barely a metaphor.

But, you know, this idea that the fusing of their bodies is, you know, a stand in for the fact that in a relationship, you know, you're sort of always concerned about merging your identity with someone else's and all of that. I'm not sure that they kind of have anything to say about this other than that this dynamic exists and people are nervous about it. I kept waiting for the moment that sometimes happens in my favorite scary movies or horror movies where you kind of go like, oh, I see where they're going with this, right? There was nothing in it that really kind of, you know, felt surprising to me or anything like that. But I do agree with Aisha. I think a lot of the effects are really good. But certainly the body horror is gross. Yes.

Particularly with her, the effects of how they indicate that her body is being pulled against her will, I think are very interesting at times and very kind of balletic and cool looking. I had a lot of respect for that. And I do think, like, a lot of times in a movie, like the people, either both of them or one of them is so great, it doesn't really seem plausible that they have. serious doubts about the relationship. But both of these people, I kind of understand how they would get on your nerves. And I kind of understand how you might decide not to end up with them. Yeah. Both of them. Yeah. And both of them relatively equally in some ways, just in different, like it plays out differently, but kind of to the same degree, they're not that good at being in this relationship a lot of the time. Yeah. So I liked that. It's always difficult when you get a

relationship where it's like, oh, we're all really nervous about how things are going to go, but it's very clear that either you have one great person and one jerk or you have a couple of perfect people who are destined to figure it out. Yeah. I mean, Dave Franco kind of, his career has been very interesting to watch especially, just because, you know, he started off as the younger brother of James Ranko and the sort of afterthoughts. And he was usually playing a dirt bag. Like, he's got that voice. It needles you. I think for some people, they will find that incredibly irritating.

For me, it usually works. It's not a typical leading man voice, and I like that. Right. And he doesn't usually play a leading man. He's usually a side character. Or he pops up, like, he popped up in the studio playing a version of himself. He's very funny in the studio. Yes.

And he's truly in Love Lies Bleeding, the very fantastic. Another great body horror movie. Well, a much better body horror movie, I think. But, like, he in that movie is playing an absolute terrible person. There is no gray area. He is horrible. And I think it's interesting to see him here still playing a version of that character, but he's not a villain.

And I think that this is kind of one of the best roles I've seen him in and the most sort of media roles, no pun intended. But, like, it does feel very, like, lived in in a way. And I do wonder how much of that has to do with both of them actually being in a relationship together. And it's like watching, you know, I don't know, Angelina Jolie and Bradbitt, like, you can't help putting that sort of aspect on to it. And I wonder how much of that also affects the way we watch the movie. At least for me, it's like impossible to forget that they are, you know, in real life a real couple. And they've said in interviews, like they actually couldn't imagine doing this

with someone who wasn't because it is such an intimate movie. You have to be, all body parts are at some point being fused together. And by all, I mean all. Yeah. Probably the most effective use of fusing together is the scene that we're sort of alluding to a little bit. But yeah, I mean, sex, it's sex. Like you can imagine how for a couple. We're NPR, but we can still, it's a thing. Yeah. I still acknowledge that this couple at one point is having sex and which is a problem. If you're going to stick together and not be able to pull it again, it's going to come up in that context a little bit. Yes. But yeah, I do think that he. Hers is not a bad performance. She's great, but I think he gets the more interesting character.

I think that's true. Yeah, we get some of his backstory. I mean, the backstory is very like Ariaster influenced. Like I think in an interview, Dave Franco talks about hereditary and it's like, oh, yeah, I get it. You love hereditary. I understand. But his is sort of the like more classic like horror story backstory, which I think was used really well. Like all horror movies these days, you're doing a trauma thing, but the entire movie isn't about trauma, which I thought at least was like a nice little break from the rest of the genre at this point. Yeah, yeah. And I think the movie is not trying to draw too straight of a line between every single thing he does in this movie and that trauma. I think that trauma clearly informs the way he approaches the relationship. It affects how he approaches the idea of love and the idea of.

of giving yourself over to another person, but they're not the bullet and board with the red yarn kind of pointing from this event to this event to this event, showing you exactly how they work together. And I mentioned how really funny I think he is in the studio. It was interesting to me. I expected this to lean into the comedy of it a little bit more than it did. There's sort of, to me, kind of one sequence that's kind of at the beginning of when

they're sort of both coming to terms with what's happening, where they suddenly seemed to me to lean more into, the black comedy of it with some just straight up comedy beats in the way that the scenes are written. And I really welcome to that. I thought that was cool. I was like, oh, I see. So we're going into more of a comedic thing in this third act. But then it kind of felt like they pulled back from that and there wasn't much more of that. It's really only a couple of minutes in this scene with the two of them where they seem to be playing it as comedy. And it's not that there's nothing else that's darkly funny in the entire movie. But I kind of was there for this.

kind of, it felt like a tonal shift to me, and then it felt like they undid it. And I was a little bit bummed because I also would have watched a version of this that played more into that, more directly. I saw this at its premiere at Sundance earlier this year, and that scene got a huge audience reaction. And that, to me, was the highlight of the film. It struck the right balance between body horror and comedy and many comedies involve drugs. And it involves drugs in a way that I think elevates that the typical way that we see these things employed. But I agree with you that once it pulls back from that, and then even though, you know, we're saying like the direct line is not like trauma, trauma, trauma, there is a way more sort of like pat way that this film reveals why this is

happening where I was just like, again, this is not every, but a lot of horror movies of the last few years, including Ariasra movies, feel like they are playing with the same, like, this is the explanation, like, this is what it is, and I'm like, this is boring. And I think the problem with over-explaining, which I think we all agree that the third act tends to do, is then it makes me think about all the other stuff you haven't explained. So it's really just like, it's a problem with the script where I'm like, oh, so I get it. But now you've opened up this world that you've told me has a certain justification, but you're not justifying everything. And a set of rules. And then you go back and say, well, I don't feel like it did follow those rules all the time.

Right. Right. The thing that is sort of a bummer to me is that they start this film with a little prologue sequence in which you watch two dogs go into a cave, drink some water in the cave, come out and then fuse together into one like dog monster. To me, there's no reason for that. Just let me watch them go into the cave. I basically know the conceit of the movie. And what it reminds me of is all the TV shows that like start with a dead body and then they're like, like six weeks earlier. It's very law and order. I think you could have just had them start to stick together and not explain why it's happening. I think that would in some ways be more interesting

because it's how I think it feels to people sometimes in relationships like this is that it just one day you feel it happening and it's very unnerving. I don't know why you couldn't just do it that way. Well, this feels like classic first time director problems, right? Like Michael Changs is his first feature films. So I give him a little bit of leeway of there was enough in this movie for me that shows promise that like, oh for sure. If he's going to, you know, over-explain sometimes. And I was less bothered by the prolong than I was just by the way it ends. But it's an absolutely valid criticism. And at the same time, just like, this is kind of what usually happens with first time films. I will say one other point that I loved, but I can also see other people kind of

bristling at or being like, oh, really? This is so obvious. is like, at the end, there is a musical cue that is both very on point and obvious, but it worked on me. And, you know, your mileage may vary. That's all I'll say. Excellent musical cue. Yeah. Because if I said the artist, anyone who knows the artist would obviously know what

the cue is, and I think it's better as a surprise. But it tickled me. It pleased me. Yeah. I think that cue works. I also think that as much as I have issues with the prologue scene, I ultimately take it as like a we wanted to do an homage to the thing. And I guess I can't be too mad about anybody wanting to do an homage to the thing.

And I will say, great dog performances. Those dogs really stared at each other in a very unsettling way. Yeah, if those are real dogs, they did a great job. They did great work. And I think you're right, Aisha, that it often takes confidence as a director, not just confidence in yourself, but the confidence of the people you're making the movie for and with, not to explain, right? Yeah.

Like to be able to say, no, they're going to get it. It's my decision and belief that they're going to get it. You have to kind of maybe get a little bit farther into your career before that's going to work as well. But like I feel like I'm coming off like I didn't like this movie. And I did. I will say I wore a baseball cap to this movie and I pulled it down over my eyes. I was looking away a lot during this movie. At certain moments, I was like, oh, no, not going to look.

It does have jump scares. It does have some really scary stuff in it and some gross stuff. stuff in it. I recommend, like, just bring a baseball cap and you can kind of pull it down low, and then you can kind of see the bottom of the screen. And, like, if you're overwhelmed, you can just stay under there, and then you can just kind of peek out a little bit. I think the people down the row from me thought I was a very strange person, but sometimes that's what I need with horror movies. It's not that there's no blood in it, but, like, it's not because it's bloody. It's just gross. It's just gross. It's just, the way that I talk about body horror sometimes is

I'm like, what is the goop factor? And the goop factor is very high on this film. And the squelching factor? Yeah. The sound design is really good. Yeah. Like there's so many of these nowadays where the CGI effects are not working and it's just, this doesn't feel real. And I don't know how much of this is CGI versus practical effects, but you will feel this movie.

And even though it was a lot, I welcome anything that feels real, even if it's very gross. It is gross. Okay. Tell us what you think about together. Find us on Facebook at Facebook.com slash PCAJ and on Letterbox at letterbox at letterboxed.com slash NPR Pop Culture. We'll have a link in our episode description. That brings us to the end of our show.

Roxanna Hadati, Aisha Harris. Thank you so much for being here. Talking to you is never gross. Thank you, Linda. Thank you. This episode is produced by Carly Rubin, Jenei Morris, Liz Metzger, and Mike Katzoff, and edited by our showrunner, Jessica Reedy. Hello, Come In, provides our theme.

music. Thanks for listening to Pop Culture Happy Hour from NPR. I'm Linda Holmes, and we'll see you all next time.