With 76% on RT, Is David Cronenberg's 'The Shrouds' Worth Your Time?
Vincent Cassel stars in his third collaboration with the director following the stellar Russian mob thriller Eastern Promises (2008) and the Sigmund Freud-Carl Jung biopic A Dangerous Method (2011). Here, the actor is styled to look uncannily like Cronenberg, his white quiff and gaunt features so reminiscent that you may for a moment believe Cronenberg has decided to feature himself on the film's poster, but the choice is appropriately thematic rather than eye-narrowingly metatextual.
Cassel plays Karsh, an entrepreneur with unlimited financial resources who, four years after the death of his wife, Becca (Diane Kruger), from cancer, has established GraveTech, a cutting-edge business which allows relatives to view the decomposition of their loved ones in real time. As is well documented, Cronenberg lost his wife of 38 years, Carolyn, to cancer in 2017. He's spoken at length about how this film is an exploration of his own grieving process, but crucially not an autobiographical one. It goes without saying that The Shrouds is one of the director's most personal and most haunting works. It's also one of his most subdued and thoughtful, which adds to its otherworldly impact.In a brazenly explanatory opening scene, Karsh tells a blind date (an exceptional Jennifer Dale, nearly stealing the picture in two scenes) that when he watched Becca's coffin lowered into the ground, he felt 'an intense, visceral urge to get into the box with her…I couldn't stand it that she was alone in there and that I would never know what was happening to her.' And while it may sound grisly, business is booming. The garden outside of the ritzy restaurant, which Karsh also owns, is dotted with graves affixed with screens which deliver 24/7 video feeds from within the coffins. 'Can I smoke?' Karsh's date deadpans after being shown a live feed of a skeletal, partially mutilated Becca.
As Karsh considers where to open the next GraveTech location, a hack of the company's database and the subsequent vandalism of several graves, including Becca's, sends the entrepreneur reeling. At the same time, he begins noticing new, unexplained growths on Becca's corpse. He enlists the help of both Becca's sister, Terry (also played by Kruger), and her ex-husband, a paranoid techie named Maury (Guy Pearce), who coded GraveTech's security and offers to help Karsh determine from where the hack originated. Karsh shares his theories behind the subterfuge with Terry, who finds herself sexually aroused by the mystery. Meanwhile, Karsh begins an affair with Soo-Min (Sandrine Holt), the blind wife of a CEO who's pressuring Karsh to bring GraveTech to Budapest. There's also the matter of Hunny, Karsh's AI assistant who's designed to resemble Becca and is likewise played by Kruger in a third role.
The Shrouds is Cronenberg's best film since 2005's A History of Violence, and his most classically Cronenbergian film in decades. Beginning with 1996's Crash and culminating with 2014's Maps to the Stars, Cronenberg left behind the scrungy sci-fi conceits for which he's best known and took on a variety of disparate genres onto which he laid his singular stamp. (The sole outlier in this period was 1997's eXistenZ, which was uber-Cronenberg but is regarded as one of his lesser works.) During this time, Cronenberg made some of his most interesting pictures, including Spider (2002), Cosmopolis (2012), and A History of Violence, which is arguably his masterpiece. He returned to his roots in 2022 with Crimes of the Future, and while it was nice to see Cronenberg back in the body-horror saddle, that film felt very much like a retread of ideas he'd explored more furtively in the past. (It was also, narratively speaking, muddled and not particularly gripping.) Even the title and some key elements, though notably not the main plot, were taken from Cronenberg's 1970 second feature.
But The Shrouds is a seminal Cronenberg movie, one brimming with fresh and unexplored pathologies. It's thrilling to see the 82-year-old filmmaker working at such a high level, producing work that's as compelling and groundbreaking as his most revolutionary projects. His latest flirts tangentially, almost teasingly, with the body-horror genre, but Cronenberg rejects any explicit move into that territory. As ever, the director isn't content to rest on his laurels; he's also not concerned about giving audiences what they're expecting, a blessing in this time of pre-packaged narratives.This is a movie of ideas—it is, almost literally, a movie about theories—and Cronenberg certainly has many he wishes to work out. The Shrouds is about our collective relationship with grief and letting go of lost loves; the current state of digital voyeurism and the moralities thereof; the line between clinical trials and human experiments; and how we deal with the inevitable breakdown of our own bodies. It's also, ultimately, the most demented film ever made about a widower finding another chance at love. The Shrouds is knowingly absurd, but never camp, and it's also very funny in that subtle, macabre way in which Cronenberg so excels.
If there's any fault with the film, it's that it is slightly overstuffed with characters and notions. But that's also something to celebrate, because the precise film Cronenberg wished to make is up there on the screen. Even if that leads to occasional narrative wonkiness, it's far more thrilling to have his vision presented unfettered. It's worth reiterating how remarkably rare it is to have an iconic filmmaker of Cronenberg's vintage still producing work which feels as vital and cutting-edge as his earliest works.
Cronenberg's films have consistently returned to examinations of the human condition—humanity, mortality, love, the soul's relationship with a corporeal being—through body deterioration, from Shivers and Rabid (1977) to The Fly (1986), Crash, and now The Shrouds. He's not a religious filmmaker, but he's certainly a spiritual one. The Shrouds fits snugly in with the director's preoccupations, and it's an exhilarating escalation of his filmography. Here, he's revisiting past ideas with freshened eyes and interrogating new obsessions with a vibrant curiosity which feels like the work of a much younger and hungrier filmmaker. In the fifth decade of his career, Cronenberg is making his most exciting films yet. Here's hoping we get many more.With 76% on RT, Is David Cronenberg's 'The Shrouds' Worth Your Time? first appeared on Men's Journal on Jul 5, 2025
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2 hours ago
- Yahoo
'We Were Liars': First-time actor to fan favourite — how Shubham Maheshwari made Gat unforgettable
The actor went from studying economics in Vancouver to starring in one of the most popular shows of the year Fans of the We Were Liars series on Prime Video are more hopeful about the show's return. While a formal renewal announcement hasn't been made yet, Vernon Sanders, head of television at Amazon MGM Studios, confirmed to Variety that a Season 2 writers room is in the works. But while we keep our fingers crossed that the story, based on E. Lockhart's books, continues, we're all still captivated by the show's breakout star, Shubham Maheshwari, who plays Gat in the series. While the We We Liars cast is filled with veteran actors, including David Morse, Mamie Gummer, Candice King, Rahul Kohli, Caitlin FitzGerald and Emily Alyn Lind, the show was actually Maheshwari's first time ever working on camera. He was so new to the industry that he didn't think he was actually going to book the role, believing that it was a "far-fetched goal." Maheshwari was studying economics at the University of British Columbia, focusing on studying for exams, having a good GPA and applying for business consulting jobs when the possible opportunity to star in We Were Liars came up. And eventually he started thinking about what could happen if he did get the role of Gat on the show. "There was a moment where I stopped applying for jobs, or working as hard on my courses, and my roommates and my friends were concerned, because I didn't tell them that I was auditioning," Maheshwari told Yahoo. "Then I eventually told them about the show and everything, and they just lost their minds completely." 'It was a little bit scary' While Maheshwari is an incredibly impactful actor, he did identify that there was a comfort that came with acting alongside so many experienced costars. 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Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Five side-stage must-see acts at Edmonton Folk Music Festival 2025
Headlining Saturday, The Roots are certainly 'the' checklist name at Edmonton Folk Music Festival 2025 — and having seen the hip-hop-R&B rolling juggernaut light up bouncy Calgary last year, I'd say don't miss this if you managed to get now sold-out tickets. For the perhaps less creaky among us, Thursday night's chipper, fist-pumping rock band Rainbow Kitten Surprise and the widespread sonic wings of Mt. Joy closing Sunday are the two major draws for a slightly younger audience. And the quick-turnaround and higher-slotted return of Danielle Ponder Saturday night has basically zero chance of not being awesome. I think we'd all be happy to hear that gods-shaking cover of Radiohead's Creep again, if Ponder's willing. With all that out of the way, the side stages are especially bubbling with must-see concerts and performers this year. 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Haley Heynderickx — 11 a.m. Sat. at Stage 3 + 11 a.m. Sun. at Stage 6 sessions, 4:25 p.m. Stage 5 concert With a whirling guitar-picking finger-style reminiscent of John Fahey and a proclivity for self-care introversion within nature and the ecosphere swimming through her lyrics and album titles, this Portland business-degree holder chose the right path, making seriously beautiful indie-pop music. If you're after a meditative, dreamy performer that makes you appreciate the dandelions, butterflies and clouds, look no further. Mama's Broke — 7:35 p.m. Fri. at Stage 2 + 11 a.m. Sat. at Stage 2 + 11 a.m. Sun. at Stage 7 sessions, 4:15 p.m. Sat. at Stage 7 concert Agnostically imprecise as they wander between bluegrass harmonies, Celtic loops, battlefield graveyard folk, Balkan punk and indeed a wink at Doom Metal, this string-heavy Halifax duo are for those who understand the fiddle is the open door to the devil but jump into the backseat anyway. 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But while Noe certainly explores the darkness, his lyrical sinners also bump into sonic saints, and that cover of the Boss' secretly apocalyptic Born in the USA is perfect for our tense times. Way different, with an old-timey jazzy-country style, but I'll mention the '30s-radio-voiced Melissa Carper here as a sort of swingin'-soul opposite the Noe, though I think anyone with a cowboy shirt would love both. Her solo gig's 12:35 p.m. Sunday at Stage 5. Jesse Welles — 3:05 p.m. Sun. Stage 6 session, 5:40 p.m. Sun. Stage 3 concert For those of us with less reptilian concerns than 'steal power and make money no matter who gets hurt,' this has been an increasingly rough era of delighted, slow-boil rising fascism, endless Karen-gaslighting as pretend heroics. With acerbic satire and straightforward, elbows-up singalong BS-calling, the extremely talented and app-follower-millions-popular Jesse Welles reminds us that the fight to keep humanity human happens on a billion fronts (including you), with his targeted, news-riffing folksinging that feels too strangely rare these days, but I expect we'll see way more of it soon. fgriwkowsky@ @ Related B.C. camper heard yelling in the woods not in distress, just singing Nickelback Here's why these are Edmonton's five best summer festivals You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun. Love concerts, but can't make it to the venue? Stream live shows and events from your couch with VEEPS, a music-first streaming service now operating in Canada. Click here for an introductory offer of 30% off. Explore upcoming concerts and the extensive archive of past performances.
Geek Girl Authority
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TOGETHER Spoiler Review
Major spoilers ahead for Together. You've been warned. * * Although it's never really gone out of style, body horror is enjoying a reemergence that's coming with some critical respect. With flicks like The Substance (2024) winning major awards, and recent entries like Bring Her Back (2025), Nightbitch (2024) and body horror master David Cronenberg's Crimes of the Future (2022), the sub-genre that makes us cringe and squirm the most only continues to draw us in. Together tries throwing relationship drama into the mix. Does it create a successfully scary story? Read on to find out. RELATED: Superman Spoiler Review Together begins with the search for a couple of missing hikers. As a search party combs a heavily wooded area, some of the volunteers with dogs find a strange cave with furniture in it and a pool of water. The dogs drink from the pool before continuing to search. That night, the dogs' owner puts them in their kennel, noticing that they're acting strangely, just lying across from each other, staring. Later on, the owners hear what sounds like the dogs fighting and go in to find that the two dogs have somehow fused. Two dogs act strangely after being in an underground cave in Together Meanwhile, in Seattle, a couple named Tim (Dave Franco) and Millie (Alison Brie) are hosting a going-away party, preparing to move out to the country. A musician who's flailing about without direction (and employment), Tim talks to his friends, Jordy (Karl Richmond) and Luke (Jack Kenny), who try to talk Tim into going on the road with their band, so he'll at least have a steady gig. Millie's a teacher, and they're moving out to a small town where she has a new job waiting. Millie's girlfriend, Cath (Mia Morrissey), kind of trash-talks Tim to her, knowing he's dragging her down with his aimlessness and unwillingness to commit. Dude can't even drive. But Millie won't hear it. In fact, she makes a grand gesture of proposing to Tim in front of everyone, even though she doesn't have a ring. But Tim doesn't really respond; he just stands there flummoxed for an embarrassingly long time. By the time he blurts out an anxious 'Yes,' it's too late. Millie's mortified. RELATED: Movie Review: Osiris Later that night, as they try to sleep, Tim apologizes, but Millie's understandably angry. Tim sees a creepy-looking woman sitting in a bed, smiling at him while a dead man lies next to her. Tim pulls his covers up only to see the creepy woman crawling toward him, then he wakes up from his nightmare. Millie and Tim decide that they'll stay together despite the obvious issues they're having. They arrive at the new house, and Tim playfully carries Millie inside. Then, he notices a rancid smell that leads him to a light fixture. He pulls it apart to find what he thinks is a dead rat, but it turns out to be a live one with other rats fused to it. Tim takes it outside and chucks the horrid mess into the woods. Millie starts her teaching job, and in the staff lounge, accidentally takes a tea bag from a teacher's stash. She apologizes to the crusty old guy and then meets another teacher named Jamie (Damon Herriman). They find out they live in the same neighborhood, and he offers to show her around. Alison Brie and Dave Franco in Together The next day, Tim and Millie decide to go hiking to check out the area. They find weird bells tied up in some of the trees. Then, it starts raining pretty hard, and they get lost. Tim then slips into a hole, and when Millie tries to pull him out, they both end up falling in. It turns out to be the same hole that the searchers and dogs were in. They decide to stay put until the rain stops. They build a fire with a lighter Tim has, and Millie realizes he's still smoking even though he said he quit. But then Millie has cigarettes on her, even though she said she quit. They end up drinking from the same water hole the dogs drank from. Millie asks Tim how he was able to smell the rats. RELATED: Thunderbolts* Spoiler Review Tim tells her that when he was a kid, his dad made him look for the source of a bad smell coming from his room. Tim couldn't smell it, but his dad tore his room apart and found a dead rat. The smell had built up gradually so that Tim couldn't detect it. Later, when his father died, his mother suffered a psychotic break and sat in bed next to his rotting corpse for days. This explains the source of Tim's nightmares and a lot of his issues. Tim and Millie wake up the next morning to find their legs stuck together. They figure it's some kind of weird substance, like maybe mildew (as little sense as that makes). They painfully pull their legs apart and then climb out of the hole. When they get back home, Millie decides she'll go to the grocery store since they have no food. Tim gets in the shower, and as he stands under the spray, he goes into a weird trance. As Millie drives, turning the car this way and that, Tim also turns in the shower, smacking into the wall and the door. Jamie drops by the house later on and has dinner with them. But the conversation between Millie and Tim is contentious, no matter what they talk about. Jamie decides to leave, and afterwards, Tim is convinced that Jamie has the hots for Millie. Tim passionately kisses her, and she eagerly responds, there having been a lack of intimacy in their relationship. But when they pull apart, their lips stick together. Dave Franco in Together Later that night, Millie wakes up to tell Tim that he's lying on her hair. But when she turns over to look, she's horrified to see Tim swallowing her hair. She has to forcefully pull her hair out of his throat, and Tim wakes up, having no idea what he was doing. The next day, Tim's supposed to head back to the city for a gig, but Millie doesn't think he should go, given what's happened – and he doesn't look good. But Tim says he can't afford to miss it and needs her to drive him to the train station. Millie reluctantly goes along and leaves him at the station. But it isn't long before Tim starts feeling weird again. He leaves his gear at the station and walks to the school. RELATED: Movie Review: Jurassic World: Rebirth Millie spots Tim when he gets to the school and grabs him, rushing him into a bathroom. Tim passionately kisses Millie, saying he has a thirst for her, and they end up having sex. But then, when they try to separate, they find they're stuck together. Yeah. Eww. As Tim painfully pulls himself out of an agonized Millie, a student comes into the bathroom. Tim and Millie stay quiet until the student leaves, then they finally separate as the student returns with a teacher. Tim jumps up onto the toilet so he won't be seen as Millie stumbles out of the stall. The teacher turns out to be Jamie, and Millie just stands there like a deer in headlights as Jamie lets her know she's in the boys' bathroom. And that she should clean up, noticing the blood running down her leg. On his way out, Jamie sees Tim's feet inside the stall, stepping off the toilet. Later, Millie goes to Jamie's to apologize for what happened. Jamie plays it off as a non-issue, chalking it up to 'lady problems.' Millie expresses sadness about her relationship with Tim. Jamie talks about Plato and his story about the origin of love, how humans were originally born with two faces and two sets of limbs, but were split apart by Zeus. Hence came the eternal search for our soulmates. Damon Herriman in Together Then, they end up talking about the area, and Millie mentions the cave that had what looked like church pews in it. Jamie says there used to be a chapel there that collapsed. Apparently, it was some kind of cult into weird rituals. Millie then spots a dazed-looking Tim standing outside and quickly excuses herself. They rush back home, where Millie yells at him for putting her job in jeopardy. That night, while Tim's reading messages from his bandmates berating him for missing the gig, Millie shows up outside the door. But she seems to be stuck to the glass in the door, moving whichever way Tim does. When he opens the door, Millie's hovering off the floor in a trance, and he has to slap her awake. RELATED: 28 Years Later Spoiler Review Tim goes to a clinic to get checked out, and the doctor assumes it's panic attacks. He prescribes a muscle relaxant, diazepam, and sends him on his way. On his way home, Tim notices the flyers for the missing hikers from the beginning. He looks up their Facebook pages and discovers that the last photos they posted also had those bells in the background. Tim finds that the location of the photos is close to the house. He tries to tell Millie, but she doesn't believe it's relevant. They decide to sleep in different rooms to keep anything else weird from happening. But then Tim wakes up later and realizes that something is dragging him across the floor. He manages to stick his feet out and catch the door frames, just as Millie's door tears open and she comes sliding out. Millie contorts and flips over as she slides towards Tim, who flips himself over. Their hands join and start to fuse, moving up each other's arms. Tim gets the idea to use the diazepam to keep their muscles from working and knock themselves out. They rush to chew and crush and snort the meds and pull their arms apart before they pass out. Alison Brie and Dave Franco in Together When he wakes up, Tim finds Millie has taped him to a chair. She sits on his lap, feeding him whiskey, and Tim realizes that their arms are stuck together again. Looking crazed, Millie uses a reciprocating saw to slice their arms apart. Yow. Then, they bandage up and sit at opposite ends of the kitchen from each other. Millie decides they need to go to the hospital, but then realizes she left the car keys at Jamie's. Millie leaves Tim behind, telling him not to do anything stupid. But as soon as she leaves, he goes back to the cave. Once back inside the cave, he looks around to see other fused monstrosities, including the hikers, who come out of the shadows and attack. Tim fights it/them with a knife, cutting off its/their fingers before escaping. RELATED: Bring Her Back Spoiler Review When Millie gets to Jamie's, she finds the door open. She sees a video playing on a monitor, some kind of wedding of two young men. One of them sort of looks like Jamie. Millie recognizes the setting being the same setup as the cave. Then, Jamie pops up behind her, revealing himself to be the completely fused version of both men. The cult's whole purpose was to bring people together to become whole, which is what Jamie wants for Tim and Millie. Jamie then slashes Millie's arm across the artery, telling her it will speed things along. Millie gets back to the house as Tim does, and they try their hardest to resist the pull to join together. Tim's prepared to slit his throat to stop the merge and tells her how much he loves her. But by the time they come together, Millie's lost too much blood and dies in his arms. Alison Brie in Together But wait! Millie then wakes up to find herself back in the house, still alive thanks to Tim fusing his arm to hers. Exhausted, but unwilling to be parted from each other, they decide to accept their fate. Tim puts on Millie's favorite album – the Spice Girls' debut. As '2 Become 1' plays, they strip naked and embrace, letting the full fusion happen. The next day, Millie's parents (Tom Considine, Melanie Beddie) arrive for lunch. The door opens to reveal the androgynous person who is the fully integrated Tim and Millie. *** I have kind of a love/hate relationship with indie flicks. Regarding indie horror specifically, for every Hereditary (2018), The Witch (2015) or It Follows (2014), there are dozens more like Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey (2023) or Skinamarink (2022 — many have called it genius, I call it 100 minutes of my life I can't get back). More often than not, indie horror is an absolute field of crap you can spend days sifting through to find the rare gem. RELATED: Sinners Spoiler Review Relationship drama is something else I stay far away from when looking for something to watch, especially if I'm spending theater money. So, needless to say, I went into Together with trepidation. The trailer drew me in, but I was fully prepared to be disappointed and wouldn't have been too surprised if I outright hated it. Thankfully, none of that happened. While it's far from perfect, Together has just enough of what it needs in each genre to make it work. Alison Brie and Dave Franco do a terrific job handling most of the story's heavy lifting. They work hard to make their characters at least somewhat sympathetic, if not likable. And while their codependent relationship gets tiring to watch, by the time it becomes truly annoying, the horror aspect of the story kicks in. While the body horror in Together pays homage to the greats that have come before it, especially David Cronenberg's version of The Fly (1986) and John Carpenter's version of The Thing (1982), it also has its own take that helps it stand out. The stretchy way their Tim and Millie's lips stick to each other, the way Tim swallows Millie's hair, it's harrowing. Props to the visual effects team for creating a unique, especially fleshy look to the gore. Alison Brie and Dave Franco in Together I was especially impressed by the scene where Tim and Millie get pulled toward each other in the hallway. Alison Brie's unnatural contortions as she flips and twists her way along the floor are chilling. But then there's some comedy thrown in as Tim tells Millie to take the medicine. 'Valium?' she says. 'It's called Diazepam now!' he replies, as they're both in agonizing pain. The unexpected humor takes you off guard and makes you laugh despite the situation, which is pretty genius. I have to credit writer/director Michael Shanks for keeping moments like that in the mix to keep both the relationship drama from getting too aggravating and the horror from getting too oppressive. RELATED: Final Destination: Bloodlines Spoiler Review Together does have its issues. As with many other flicks, its last act goes a bit off the rails and loses the focus it managed to maintain in the race to wrap things up. We learn almost nothing about the cult, one of the most intriguing ideas. What little you do find out gets dropped on you at the last minute because they wanted to guard Jamie's identity. It wasn't worth it. And like many other flicks, Together's ending leaves a lot to be desired. The flick doesn't end so much as it just stops, leaving you with no resolution. I mean, Millie's parents are standing there looking at who they think is a stranger. How does that work out? Most of all, there's no answer as to whether Tim and Millie are happier as an integrated being because you don't get to see it. That said, as indie horror flicks go, Together works better than most. Alison Brie and Dave Franco's strong performances draw you into a crazy-scary world where it's physically possible to join with your soulmate. But of course, the real question is: Would you really want to? Written and Directed by: Michael Shanks Release date: Jul 31, 2025 Rating: R Run time: 1hr 42min Distributor: Neon THE FANTASTIC FOUR: FIRST STEPS Spoiler Review
