Together Review

Together is a 2021 short film directed by Patrick Mamou, written by Travis Maxwell and Braylen Williams.

Together might not always hit a consistent tone throughout, but it certainly delivers one unique twist ending that you certainly won’t see coming.

While certainly keeping the tension high in almost every scene, the parts where we hit some tonal melodrama were a little amiss. There are a lot of moments that felt like they landed in the category of tell don’t show, which let them fall a little flat.

Add to that some moments where things are almost played more comedically and you get a touch too much jumping between serious and comedy. It is hard to know how to take the moments in as they happen for that reason.

Outside of that, though, we have a story that spoon-feeds just enough to the audience to keep an interest going. The opening scene especially does a powerful job of establishing the dilemma for our lead characters and making for a natural intro conversation.

The visuals, though, never falter, giving a great aesthetic and clarity to each scene. The cinematography is strong here and provides for a lot of solid frames to take in. Added to that, the editing as well has a solid tempo in each scene, ramping up when needed but feeling perfect in the slower beats.

Without spoiling the film, the saving grace for the short has to come in the final twist ending, which provides a lot of clarity in some of the scheming moments between all the action. It was something that helps elevate the film past the typical cliché story that this could have been.

Overall, though, Together still walks a line between a mixed bag of naturalistic and strong scenes with more of that unbelievable melodrama that pushes almost to soap opera territory. When it is great though it is really strong, the highs just have a share of lows. Still worth checking out, if not just only for the great ending to everything.

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Cheers!

Daniel Hess

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