Together (2000) is a Swedish comedy drama directed by Lukas Moodyson. It tells the story of a group of individuals living together in a commune, coexisting as a strange pseudo family. The dynamic changes when a character’s sister asks to stay with her two young children after admitting being abused by her alcoholic husband.
Moodyson does an excellent job at creating unlikeable characters with strong ideals, who are fixed in their views and often out for their own gain. For some reason, we still have an affinity towards, perhaps because they are not aware of their shortcomings or the impact they have. Together (2000) is a clever dark comedy which has real authenticity to it. The exploration of social realism really reminded me of This is England (1986-90), and you can see the influence the film has had on shaping family based comedy drama shows with its use of awkward relatable humour.
However, feeling like a TV show is also Together’s (2000) downfall. There are funny, shocking, and heartfelt moments but not enough to maintain my interest for the full run time especially with the lack of cinematic value and singular setting. I enjoyed the ambiguous ending, but also left feeling like relationships between characters still felt quite under explored. It was strange and difficult to judge this film after watching Lilya 4 Ever, and I would open for a rewatch at some stage, but ultimately this film didn’t impress me against my expectations. 4/5.
Together (2000) is a Swedish comedy drama directed by Lukas Moodyson. It tells the story of a group of individuals living together in a commune, coexisting as a strange pseudo family. The dynamic changes when a character’s sister asks to stay with her two young children after admitting being abused by her alcoholic husband.
Moodyson does an excellent job at creating unlikeable characters with strong ideals, who are fixed in their views and often out for their own gain. For some reason, we still have an affinity towards, perhaps because they are not aware of their shortcomings or the impact they have. Together (2000) is a clever dark comedy which has real authenticity to it. The exploration of social realism really reminded me of This is England (1986-90), and you can see the influence the film has had on shaping family based comedy drama shows with its use of awkward relatable humour.
However, feeling like a TV show is also Together’s (2000) downfall. There are funny, shocking, and heartfelt moments but not enough to maintain my interest for the full run time especially with the lack of cinematic value and singular setting. I enjoyed the ambiguous ending, but also left feeling like relationships between characters still felt quite under explored. It was strange and difficult to judge this film after watching Lilya 4 Ever, and I would open for a rewatch at some stage, but ultimately this film didn’t impress me against my expectations. 4/5.
