Film of the Week: 'Together' - The ultimate date movie?
Still, like many couples, they find themselves at a crossroads.
Having been together for a decade and still smitten about each other, there are some cracks starting to show beneath the lovey-dovey surface. Something doesn't quite stick: they haven't been intimate in months and the unemployed and increasingly distant Tim is still clinging onto his dream of being a rock star.
Millie, on the other hand, is an elementary school teacher who has a lot more figured out. Reaching exasperation point, she suggests that maybe it would be better to split up now rather than later, when it's more painful.
Oh how prophetic those words are... She just doesn't know it yet.
Still, even if they're not on the same page right now, the couple can't imagine a life without each other and Millie has a plan: she's going to relocate the couple for her new job. The countryside, away from the city, should settle Tim down. She even puts him on the spot at their going away party by proposing in front of all of their friends. His hesitation before saying 'Yes' in this excruciatingly awkward moment creates more tension and reveals quite how hesitant the city boy is on the imminent move.
Once they do get to their new and very spacious abode (on a teacher's salary, I'll be damned!), the pair end up going for a hike and find a collapsed structure in the forest. They foolishly get stranded in what can only be described as H.R. Giger's ideal holiday getaway spot and have to spend the night there, where Tim ends up drinking from a mysterious water source. Always a good idea. Parched, Millie does the same.
Then, something shifts overnight... Or rather, fuses. The pair wake up with their legs slightly stuck together, and it's a wee bit painful to unstick. And that's just the beginning, as both Tim and Millie are about to discover what devotion and codependency REALLY mean.
As with any body horror movie, certain references are inevitably going to pop up – chiefly David Cronenberg and more recently Coralie Fargeat, with The Substance having given the genre a rejuvenating squelch. Both comparisons are apt, as Australian first-time writer-director Michael Shanks tips his hat to Cronenberg, as well as John Carpenter in ways which won't be spoiled here.
However, Shanks manages to develop his own lore by crafting something beneficially blunt.
Together is a Twilight Zone-indebted love fable that morphs into a devilish metaphor about codependency and the fear of commitment in romantic relationships. He employs a winning combination of practical and visual effects to bring his satire to fruition, as well as none other than Plato.
You see, Millie's new colleague Jamie (Damon Herriman) quotes the ancient Greek philosopher, who explored love and human desire.
Key to this is the concept of soulmates, with the myth detailing how original humans had four legs, four arms and two faces. Because these original creatures challenged the Gods, Zeus split them in two to create modern, weaker humans. This left each split person wandering the earth, searching for their other half.
This all feeds into the finale, and makes the last act both terrifying yet strangely tender.
Another central element to Together's sticky potency is the casting of Dave Franco and Alison Brie, the real-life husband and wife duo who play Tim and Millie.
Their chemistry is off the charts and the pair fully commit to the escalating physicality at the heart of the increasingly weird scenario, which starts with Tim developing an all-consuming urge to be with Millie at all times. This leads him to break their sexual drought at one point, in what will doubtlessly be 2025's queasiest and most eye-popping sex scene.
You'll laugh, you'll scream, and the gentlemen in the audience will clutch their unmentionables in nightmarish discomfort.
And this is what makes Together such a brilliant addition to an already great year for horror. Like Zach Cregger's Weapons before it, Shanks understands that the line which separates screaming and laughing is a thin one, and he manages to balance the ominous mood and squirm-inducing sound designed scares with enough dark humour to keep things playful.
The superb line deliveries from both Brie and Franco are central to this, with Tim's 'MUSCLE RELAXANTS!!' shout and Millie's almost sung 'Whiskey for the pain' almost designed to be memed. The script is also peppered with obvious but effective comedic foreshadowing. One is Chekhov's electric saw, about which Tim tells Millie: 'Don't let me use this.'
You know it's going to be used. And when it does, brace yourselves.
Additionally, not content with having this year's most harrowing sex scene, Shanks sets the bar high for 2025's best needle drop. It's one of the Spice Girls' best songs, and it's used to perfection.
Is Together an icky argument for the perks of being single? Or is it a perversely romantic nightmare that ends up as the ultimate date movie?
Depends on your love life, really... Set up movie night with your partner. You'll soon find out which.
Together is out in cinemas now.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
LeMonde
a day ago
- LeMonde
In 'Together', a codependent couple is put through the wringer of body horror
Le Monde's opinion – Worth seeing On screen, the subject of couples has been tackled in countless genres, from romantic comedies to break-up dramas. For his first feature film, Australian director Michael Shanks chose to explore it through the lens of horror. After all, the anxieties are plenty – finding the right distance from a loved one is often difficult, and the threat of loss looms constantly. Together stands out for its keen understanding that fears are tied as much to separation as they are to merging with another person, and for its ability to walk a tightrope between those conflicting feelings. Tim (Dave Franco), a musician emerging from a long creative slump, and Millie (Alison Brie), a passionate schoolteacher, reach a turning point in their relationship. After being together so long they can hardly remember who they were apart, they prepare to move to a remote small town where Millie has been assigned a new post – far from friends and their old lives. Millie is excited by the change, while Tim is left with more doubts than enthusiasm. Yet Together does not start there. From its opening, the story takes on the tone of a fairy tale. Deep in a forest near where Tim and Millie are about to settle, at the bottom of a chasm, lies a mysterious water source. Dogs – and a vanished couple – have already encountered its strange effects, which Shanks gradually reveals during the film's first half.
Euronews
3 days ago
- Euronews
Film of the Week: 'Together' - The ultimate date movie?
Tim and Millie are very much in love. Still, like many couples, they find themselves at a crossroads. Having been together for a decade and still smitten about each other, there are some cracks starting to show beneath the lovey-dovey surface. Something doesn't quite stick: they haven't been intimate in months and the unemployed and increasingly distant Tim is still clinging onto his dream of being a rock star. Millie, on the other hand, is an elementary school teacher who has a lot more figured out. Reaching exasperation point, she suggests that maybe it would be better to split up now rather than later, when it's more painful. Oh how prophetic those words are... She just doesn't know it yet. Still, even if they're not on the same page right now, the couple can't imagine a life without each other and Millie has a plan: she's going to relocate the couple for her new job. The countryside, away from the city, should settle Tim down. She even puts him on the spot at their going away party by proposing in front of all of their friends. His hesitation before saying 'Yes' in this excruciatingly awkward moment creates more tension and reveals quite how hesitant the city boy is on the imminent move. Once they do get to their new and very spacious abode (on a teacher's salary, I'll be damned!), the pair end up going for a hike and find a collapsed structure in the forest. They foolishly get stranded in what can only be described as H.R. Giger's ideal holiday getaway spot and have to spend the night there, where Tim ends up drinking from a mysterious water source. Always a good idea. Parched, Millie does the same. Then, something shifts overnight... Or rather, fuses. The pair wake up with their legs slightly stuck together, and it's a wee bit painful to unstick. And that's just the beginning, as both Tim and Millie are about to discover what devotion and codependency REALLY mean. As with any body horror movie, certain references are inevitably going to pop up – chiefly David Cronenberg and more recently Coralie Fargeat, with The Substance having given the genre a rejuvenating squelch. Both comparisons are apt, as Australian first-time writer-director Michael Shanks tips his hat to Cronenberg, as well as John Carpenter in ways which won't be spoiled here. However, Shanks manages to develop his own lore by crafting something beneficially blunt. Together is a Twilight Zone-indebted love fable that morphs into a devilish metaphor about codependency and the fear of commitment in romantic relationships. He employs a winning combination of practical and visual effects to bring his satire to fruition, as well as none other than Plato. You see, Millie's new colleague Jamie (Damon Herriman) quotes the ancient Greek philosopher, who explored love and human desire. Key to this is the concept of soulmates, with the myth detailing how original humans had four legs, four arms and two faces. Because these original creatures challenged the Gods, Zeus split them in two to create modern, weaker humans. This left each split person wandering the earth, searching for their other half. This all feeds into the finale, and makes the last act both terrifying yet strangely tender. Another central element to Together's sticky potency is the casting of Dave Franco and Alison Brie, the real-life husband and wife duo who play Tim and Millie. Their chemistry is off the charts and the pair fully commit to the escalating physicality at the heart of the increasingly weird scenario, which starts with Tim developing an all-consuming urge to be with Millie at all times. This leads him to break their sexual drought at one point, in what will doubtlessly be 2025's queasiest and most eye-popping sex scene. You'll laugh, you'll scream, and the gentlemen in the audience will clutch their unmentionables in nightmarish discomfort. And this is what makes Together such a brilliant addition to an already great year for horror. Like Zach Cregger's Weapons before it, Shanks understands that the line which separates screaming and laughing is a thin one, and he manages to balance the ominous mood and squirm-inducing sound designed scares with enough dark humour to keep things playful. The superb line deliveries from both Brie and Franco are central to this, with Tim's 'MUSCLE RELAXANTS!!' shout and Millie's almost sung 'Whiskey for the pain' almost designed to be memed. The script is also peppered with obvious but effective comedic foreshadowing. One is Chekhov's electric saw, about which Tim tells Millie: 'Don't let me use this.' You know it's going to be used. And when it does, brace yourselves. Additionally, not content with having this year's most harrowing sex scene, Shanks sets the bar high for 2025's best needle drop. It's one of the Spice Girls' best songs, and it's used to perfection. Is Together an icky argument for the perks of being single? Or is it a perversely romantic nightmare that ends up as the ultimate date movie? Depends on your love life, really... Set up movie night with your partner. You'll soon find out which. Together is out in cinemas now.
AFP
31-07-2025
- AFP
AI images of Holocaust violin players circulate online
"Henek, a violinist, was forced into the camp orchestra. His role: to play music as fellow prisoners were led to the gas chambers. He played 'Schubert's Serenade' with tears streaming down his face, bow trembling in his hand," a July 4, 2025 post on Facebook says. "One girl turned and whispered, 'Your music is the last thing I'll hear. Thank you.'" The post shows an image of a gaunt man playing the violin with emaciated figures standing behind him. "Henek survived the war. He never touched a violin again," the post, which generated more than 12,000 likes and 5,000 shares, claims. Image Screenshot of a post on Facebook taken July 31, 2025, with red cross added by AFP The image was shared across numerous other accounts on Facebook, as well as on X, Instagram, Threads and YouTube. ad in multiple languages including Greek, French and Bulgarian. arches reveal that "Henek" is just one of many fake characters featured in fabricated narratives about violin players including "Eliska Varga," "Miriam Grünbaum," "Eliezer," "Jakob," "Eli Grunfeld," "Leon," "David Morgenstern" and multiple images of men apparently nam." Image Screenshots of multiple posts on Facebook taken July 31, 2025, with red cross added by AFP The images follow an alarming trend of content creators churning out AI-generated content for money, targeting Westerners' emotional reactions to the Holocaust, in which six million Jewish people were killed (archived here). The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum repeatedly condemned the content (archived here) -- also lodging complaints with Facebook owner Meta over the posts. But it said the technology giant did not respond. Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) warned of the dangers of false Holocaust content in a 2024 report, which said AI-generated posts can warp historical narratives and fuel anti-Semitism (archived here). While music was an integral part of everyday life in almost all the Nazi-run camps, with prisoners being forced to either sing or play instruments (archived here), both the image and the story shared on social media are fabricated. Visual inconsistencies ntified several visual inconsistencies in the image of "Henek." The violinist seems to have square-like knuckles that are disproportionate in size. One figure in the background only has three fingers. Image The image shared on social media, with visual inconsistencies highlighted by AFP The fourth string of the violin also disappears at the bottom part of the instrument. Image The image shared on social media, with visual inconsistencies highlighted and magnified by AFP His appearance is also inconsistent with the other figures in the "Henek" has a head full of hair while those in the background have their heads shaved. A shirt clings to the violinist's torso while the majority of the prisoners are shirtless and wearing pants with a belt. Both modes of dressing, however, differ from the blue and and jacket required in the Nazi-run camps (archived here). Sybille Steinbacher, professor of contemporary history at the University of Vienna (archived here), said her doubts about the authenticity of the image were reinforced by the shirtless men depicted. s had to be clothed; there was no such thing as standing for roll call with a naked upper body," she said on July 23 to AFP. Pawel Sawicki, deputy spokesperson for the Auschwitz Memorial (archived here), said in a July 24 email that prisoners "did not have belts and camp numbers were also sewn onto their trousers." pointed out that in 1943 prisoners would have had tattoos with their numbers on their arms. Image The image shared on social media, with visual inconsistencies highlighted by AFP AFP also analyzed a video posted on Facebook, which pointed to further visual inconsistencies. The InVID Verification Plugin magnifier tool reveals frames in the clip where the faces in the background appear The person to the left of the musician also looks as if he has no sternum or stomach, with ribs showing down to his belt. Image Screenshot of a keyframe with results from the InVID verification tool taken July 21, 2025, with visual inconsistencies highlighted by AFP Historical inaccuracies Researchers other historical inaccuracies pertaining to the story of "Henek." On July 6, the Auschwitz Memorial account posted a screenshot of a false post on X, saying: "Publishing fake, AI-generated images of Auschwitz is not only a dangerous distortion. Such fabrication disrespects victims and harasses their memory" (archived here). In a comment below the post, it pointed to inaccurate details in the story, including that it was improbable for a girl to have walked past a male violinist as the "men's orchestra played in the men's camp." Publishing fake, AI-generated images of Auschwitz is not only a dangerous distortion. Such fabrication disrespects victims and harasses their memory. If you see such posts, please don't share them. Instead, follow the official @AuschwitzMuseum, where every name, every photo, and… — Auschwitz Memorial (@AuschwitzMuseum) July 6, 2025 Auschwitz-Birkenau museum historian Jacek Lachendro (archived here) said that some historical accounts mention the men's orchestra in Birkenau playing while newly arrived Jews were being led to the gas chambers or while "prisoners were being led to the place of their execution by hanging or shooting (but not during the execution itself)." However, he emphasized that the musicians did not play in these situations "as a Elise Petit, whose research focuses on music within the Nazi camp system, agreed, telling AFP on July 21 that musicians mainly "played close to the gate when prisoners were marching in and out of the camp to work," (archived here, here and here). The Auschwitz Memorial concurred with Petit's analysis, writing in a comment on the July 6 post that "Orchestras at Auschwitz did not play 'while men, women, and children were marched to their deaths'. Their main job was to play when columns of prisoners walked out to work and marched back to the camp." ed the Arolsen Archives -- a containing victims and survivors of the Nazi regime -- for the name "Henek" and individuals mentioned in other posts, using a filter for "Konzenstrationslager Auschwitz" under "Place of Incarceration." But the search results do not match the identity of "Henek" or others depicted in the images and stories shared online. AI Detectors AFP analyzed the image developed by cybersecurity company GetReal Lab, which the image was synthetic. Image Screenshot taken July 18, 2025 showing the results of synthetic content analysis done using GetReal Lab AFP through the Hive Moderation AI detection tool, which found that the image is highly likely to contain AI-generated or deepfake content, with a 99.9 percent confidence level. Image Screenshot taken July 21, 2025 showing the results of analysis using Hive Moderation first concentration camps, established in 1933 shortly after Adolf Hitler became chancellor, were primarily used to imprison opponents of Nazi policy. By the end of 1942, six extermination camps were in operation, including Auschwitz-Birkenau, following the Wannsee conference that formalized the Nazis' policy of extermination of Jews in occupied Europe. Around 1.1 million people were systemically murdered in Auschw it the largest death camp. Approximately one million of those killed at Auschwitz were Jews, with Roma, Russian prisoners of war and Poles among the rest murdered. AFP fact-checked other claims related to AI here.
