Together (2021 film): A-
Not sure how to grade this yet. At first I wasn't sure I'd stick with it, like I didn't stick with Elementals. It's a British made-for-TV film that should've been a play, is absolutely written and acted as though it were a play (the writer previously won a Tony for a musical). Everything happens on the first floor of a townhome, between a woman, man, and their kid, over the course of a couple years.
It reminds me of Larry Kramer's play The Normal Heart, which I saw performed on stage in Durham back in 1987. That play was about the AIDS epidemic, which wasn't over yet, so there was no nostalgia, no distance, it was about people dying and the denial that kept them dying and the emotions people had about them dying, yet it was written as a comedy at times, and one of my friends turned to me and asked, "Why is everybody laughing, this isn't funny."
Well, Together ... isn't funny either. But I laughed. Instead of about the AIDS epidemic, this film is about the COVID epidemic, about a family undergoing lockdown in the UK. You might be thinking, "too soon", and it definitely feels too soon, but in the same way that The Normal Heart did back in the 1980s.
I feel like renaming this play "On The Nose", like we say something is too on the nose, when it isn't even trying to be subtle or dressed up or metaphoric or allegoric but -- punching you on the nose.
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As with a lot of plays, the characters talk not only to each other, but to the audience, they "know" the audience is there, so they talk directly to you. This feels weird for a TV show, but not so weird for a play. Also like a play, the story is carefully constructed so that everything that sounds innocuous during the first act will become EXTREMELY IMPORTANT later. There are no wasted lines. But at first they feel like wasted lines, which is why I almost gave up on watching this.
But give it some time and shit gets very real. But --> On The Nose, much like Larry Kramer would about AIDS. You're gonna get speeches about how we fucked up with COVID. I don't disagree with the speeches at all, but they're speeches to the audience. No, the virus didn't kill so many of us. Our stupidity and carelessness killed so many of us.
But it's not just about the virus, it's about the relationships we had with the people we lived with when the lockdown started and then the vaccines came out and then we had to wait for the vaccines and meanwhile there were people at the grocery store who wouldn't wear masks, and ...
For some of my friends, this shit ain't over yet, like AIDS wasn't over yet in 1987. For other people, they simply wouldn't tune in for a play like this, why be reminded of all this shit that we just "escaped" (I mean, I didn't escape it, I have COVID right now). Or that was "fake".
This film starts out inane, and then becomes excruciating, as we watch grieving people act horribly toward each other. Maybe I like these kinds of films, where people act horribly toward each other, because we do. They feel more real to me. Not like a fucking superhero film.
I give it an A- because it's too fucking tightly scripted, and because it has them [spoilering] at the end LOL. They should've [spoilered] instead LOL.
I'd probably give it an A as a play but as a TV film they're going to lose some of their audience during the first act like they almost lost me.
It reminds me of Larry Kramer's play The Normal Heart, which I saw performed on stage in Durham back in 1987. That play was about the AIDS epidemic, which wasn't over yet, so there was no nostalgia, no distance, it was about people dying and the denial that kept them dying and the emotions people had about them dying, yet it was written as a comedy at times, and one of my friends turned to me and asked, "Why is everybody laughing, this isn't funny."
Well, Together ... isn't funny either. But I laughed. Instead of about the AIDS epidemic, this film is about the COVID epidemic, about a family undergoing lockdown in the UK. You might be thinking, "too soon", and it definitely feels too soon, but in the same way that The Normal Heart did back in the 1980s.
I feel like renaming this play "On The Nose", like we say something is too on the nose, when it isn't even trying to be subtle or dressed up or metaphoric or allegoric but -- punching you on the nose.
-----
As with a lot of plays, the characters talk not only to each other, but to the audience, they "know" the audience is there, so they talk directly to you. This feels weird for a TV show, but not so weird for a play. Also like a play, the story is carefully constructed so that everything that sounds innocuous during the first act will become EXTREMELY IMPORTANT later. There are no wasted lines. But at first they feel like wasted lines, which is why I almost gave up on watching this.
But give it some time and shit gets very real. But --> On The Nose, much like Larry Kramer would about AIDS. You're gonna get speeches about how we fucked up with COVID. I don't disagree with the speeches at all, but they're speeches to the audience. No, the virus didn't kill so many of us. Our stupidity and carelessness killed so many of us.
But it's not just about the virus, it's about the relationships we had with the people we lived with when the lockdown started and then the vaccines came out and then we had to wait for the vaccines and meanwhile there were people at the grocery store who wouldn't wear masks, and ...
For some of my friends, this shit ain't over yet, like AIDS wasn't over yet in 1987. For other people, they simply wouldn't tune in for a play like this, why be reminded of all this shit that we just "escaped" (I mean, I didn't escape it, I have COVID right now). Or that was "fake".
This film starts out inane, and then becomes excruciating, as we watch grieving people act horribly toward each other. Maybe I like these kinds of films, where people act horribly toward each other, because we do. They feel more real to me. Not like a fucking superhero film.
I give it an A- because it's too fucking tightly scripted, and because it has them [spoilering] at the end LOL. They should've [spoilered] instead LOL.
I'd probably give it an A as a play but as a TV film they're going to lose some of their audience during the first act like they almost lost me.