The body horror of ‘Together’ and the obnoxious pandering of ‘Happy Gilmore 2’

Real-life married couple Alison Brie and Dave Franco explore relationship codependency with a deliberate lack of subtlety in “Together,” a body horror thriller with bursts of pitch-black comedy.

Stuck in a rut for months, Millie and Tim (Brie and Franco) move to the countryside to reconnect. After a fateful encounter in a secluded cave (never drink the water!), the couple begins to feel a resurgent magnetism toward each other. Literally. When their skin touches … well, superglue comes to mind. Only grosser.

Writer/director Michael Shanks plays the outrageous concept as a serious threat, though Brie and Franco’s established comedic prowess allow for moments of necessary levity. The thematic undercurrent of the film is obvious-but-compelling enough, at least until the film’s third act, when Shanks decides to reveal the origins of the apparent “infection.”

Still, the movie deserves credit for taking its premise to a spectacularly bonkers conclusion, and Brie and Franco sell it for all it's worth.

“Together” is now playing in theaters.

“Happy Gilmore 2” AKA Fan service and hundreds of cameos

At several points in Netflix’s “Happy Gilmore 2,” the new film flashes to footage of the original 1996 film. It then repeats the joke contained in the flashback with little to no variation.

Also, practically every professional golfer on the planet makes an appearance, plus some online celebrities, a few of Adam Sandler’s friends, and, randomly, the rapper Eminem.

To be fair, “Happy Gilmore 2” contains a few sporadic laughs, thanks mostly to the reliable comfort of Sandler raging at a golf ball. But why does the film assume its intended audience needs a visual callback to the original movie, as if nobody would remember Bob Barker’s impressive boxing skills or Ben Stiller’s cartoonish mustache?

“Happy Gilmore 2,” co-written by Sandler and directed by Kyle Newacheck, is overlong and almost exclusively operating on flop sweat. The marketing materials made a big deal to note the return of Julie Bowen as Happy’s love interest, but the film fridges the character almost instantly, using her absence to lazily set the main character on a haphazard redemption arc. Stop killing female characters as screenwriting shortcuts!

The cameos never stop. The jokes mostly riff on humor that worked better in the original. Sandler, to his slight credit, gives a sincere performance amid the story laziness, and, delightfully, Christopher McDonald’s Shooter McGavin returns for a fresh and funny subplot.

I just wish the whole endeavor didn’t come across as just another lazy Netflix platform filler. I’d watch a spinoff of John Daly living in Happy’s garage though.

•••

Tyler Wilson can be reached at [email protected].

    This image released by Neon shows Alison Brie, left, and Dave Franco in a scene from "Together."
  

    This image released by Netflix shows Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio, left, and Adam Sandler in a scene from "Happy Gilmore 2."
  

    This image released by Netflix shows Christopher McDonald, left, and Adam Sandler in a scene from "Happy Gilmore 2."