Feb. 16, 2026
Together (2025) Breakdown: Love, Horror & Codependency
What happens when love becomes literal?
In this episode of Parallel Frequencies with Just Blane & Coco, we break down Together (2025), starring real-life couple Alison Brie and Dave Franco. This psychological horror film explores trauma, identity, and codependency through unsettling body horror and symbolic ritual imagery.
From the cave isolation scene to the shocking transformation finale, we examine how Together portrays long-term relationships unraveling under the weight of unresolved trauma. We also unpack the pagan symbolism, twin flame mythology, and the deeper spiritual themes woven into the narrative.
And yes… Just Blane makes his case for why Alison Brie deserved that award over Indy the dog.
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Transcript
Just Blane (00:00)
It's parallel frequencies with JustBlane and Coco. What's up, Coco?
Courtney Pearl (00:04)
Nothing much over here. Feeling the romance of the holiday weekend that we just had and all of February. Love is in the air.
Just Blane (00:12)
Love
is in the air and we just passed Friday the 13th, which is my favorite holiday. Anytime it pops up, that's a holiday. But yeah, we did have Valentine's Day and what did you do for Valentine's Day? What did you get into?
Courtney Pearl (00:28)
Well, you know, we're not the type, I think most most Valentines, most years we've been together for a ⁓ quarter of a century. So we're usually like going, ⁓ crap, is it Valentine's Day today? no. But I will say my husband is probably one of the most romantic things he's ever done. And he didn't even realize it was going to be so romantic.
Just Blane (00:42)
Hahaha
Courtney Pearl (00:54)
I'm really into the romantic novel types. I'm one of those book talk girls. The Court of Thorns and Roses series, Fourth Wing, my book girlies know what I'm talking about. So hit me up on the comments if you've been reading those books like I have. And I pressured him to read it. I said, can you just give it a try? It's really fun. I mean, it's not just smutty. It's romantic. It's a fantasy.
You know, there's fight scenes, there's heroes and heroines. It's really good. And he's he's reading Akatar, a Court of Thorns and Roses series. I'm so excited.
Just Blane (01:35)
That's incredible. And that's just a small thing, a small thing to do. And it made you that happy. That's awesome.
Courtney Pearl (01:40)
You know what? It's gonna make him a better
lover and I highly recommend all men read their girlfriends or their wives books. You'll learn a thing or two.
Just Blane (01:49)
Now the way you were selling
it to us was, you sent it all out like the Princess Bride, like the beginning of that. you were trying to sell me that book, but...
Courtney Pearl (01:58)
I'm telling
you, you'll enjoy it. There's a lot to it and there's a little bit of kissing. Wink, wink.
Just Blane (02:04)
⁓
if you know, you know, if you know, you know, most of our freaks, know, they do, they caught that reference. I love that. I didn't do Valentine's day. We don't do Valentine's day. I'm going tell you why it's because our anniversary is four days later. It's the 18th. So it's like, we're not going to do a back to back deal. So we actually kind of get lucky because we don't get each other.
Courtney Pearl (02:06)
Yeah.
Just Blane (02:29)
the Valentine's day candy until the 15th when it's half off. And then it's still fresh for us, but it still means something. And it's not late because it's our anniversary a couple of days later. So we will celebrate later this week. We'll do something this weekend. I'll let you know next week what we did, what we got off into.
Courtney Pearl (02:39)
Yeah.
Yeah, and you can just
like double it up, make it even bigger and better and more romantic. I mean, you were married in Iceland. What's more romantic than that?
Just Blane (02:54)
That's very true. You know what we did last year for the anniversary and this is wild I didn't even think about this to now and we rotate every year who does it and who does what? Last year we went to a Phantagram concert. Okay in Salt Lake City. We love Phantagram and we're in the line. It's freezing and We're looking around and Lindsey's looking at me. She's like, are you sure these are our people and I'm like
Courtney Pearl (03:21)
Hehehehe
Just Blane (03:22)
Yeah, yeah, yeah,
we're probably just a little bit older or whatever and she makes a joke She's like, you know, what would be real fun is if we just stood in line All night for the wrong concert and then went home and sure enough we get to the front door and it's some goth metal rock and nothing against that but I
Courtney Pearl (03:42)
Not your
scene.
Just Blane (03:45)
She was right. It was not our crowd and i'm trying to be like, yeah I don't judge a book by its cover, but we were in the line for the wrong concert So this year, it's my year To choose what we do this weekend. So I got a lot to live up to. I mean, how can I beat? Standing in line at the wrong concert for
Courtney Pearl (04:01)
I mean, sounds like what
you could potentially do is tell her you have tickets to something, go stand in line and then say, ⁓ actually, this is not what we had tickets for.
Surprise!
Just Blane (04:14)
We had a lot of con we had a
lot of conversations in that line for about two hours in a freezing cold about favorite songs. So it was great. Yeah, it was great. I can't. Yeah. Yeah, I can't really mess. I can't mess it up. I can't mess it up because, well, she loves anything anyway. But you know what I did mess up and got too excited about too soon was I said it last week. Whisple Wednesday, I said Survivor was starting.
Courtney Pearl (04:23)
Get to know you again. That's very romantic.
Mm-hmm.
Just Blane (04:44)
I jumped the gun. I jumped the gun. It's not till February 25th. That's next week or a couple weeks or whenever. I know. So I got all excited. I was trying to catch up, you know, wanted to see it. I'm scrolling forward on Paramount. I'm like, where the hell is Survivor 50? ⁓ February 25th. It starts. So excuse me for the mistake, freaks. I am sorry if I got you excited, but yeah, I had to clear that up.
Courtney Pearl (04:48)
darn!
Hate it when that happens.
I've done that.
Just Blane (05:11)
I had to clear that up because yeah, that's... It hurt me just as much as it'll hurt anybody out there that did the same thing.
Courtney Pearl (05:17)
sure
but it gives me a little more time to catch up it gives me a little bit more time to get ready for it so that's good I wasn't ready
Just Blane (05:23)
That's right. And I'm going to keep amping
that up. I will keep amping it up. But love is in the air on movie Monday here. And what better way to talk about love than one of the greatest romance movies that came out in 2025. Together. And I know everybody out there was like, wait, yeah, together is a horror movie starring Alison Bray, Dave Franco and
Courtney Pearl (05:43)
That's what we're here for.
Just Blane (05:50)
Let's talk about this because it's about couples who actually like each other That's that's wild that's a project in its own day franko and alice and brie are married in real life, too. So watching that movie with knowing that it's like, ⁓ did they actually Run a experiment here within a movie to see how this was going to work out You know right off the bat i'm like could I work with my
Courtney Pearl (05:56)
Mm-hmm.
Just Blane (06:16)
partner every day, you know, like they did like this. Could you, could you and your husband work like this together every day? Even on a movie set?
Courtney Pearl (06:21)
Mm-hmm.
You know,
I don't know about that. We are so different. I mean, I would be, I could see myself on a movie set. I've been an actress. I've, you know, some doing a project like that. My husband's not creative in that way. He's creative in a mechanical sense. He likes to go and tinker in the garage. He's an introvert, doesn't love people. In fact, when you were talking about your date standing in line for two hours, that would have been about 15 minutes with my husband. He would have been like,
Just Blane (06:53)
Yeah
Courtney Pearl (06:55)
I'm done. I don't know what we're standing here for, but I'm not here for it. Let's just go home. It would have been over before it started. But the conversations, yeah. I mean, we have great conversations. So maybe not creative projects. Maybe we would make a movie together, but we've got our own niche. We've got our own thing.
Just Blane (07:14)
Yeah, you know what? I couldn't really see your husband doing the Dave Franco role here. But that's not knocking him because anytime I'm around him, he's the most quiet person in the room. And I just think that the most quiet person in room is the smartest. So I'm just always sitting there thinking, man, he's judging us all. ⁓
Courtney Pearl (07:33)
Well, he's a Scorpio,
so that might be true.
Just Blane (07:38)
But there's something electric about watching Alison Brie and Dave Franco collaborate. Not in like a tabloid kind of way, but in a these two built something kind of way. It's really grounded, intimate, chaotic even in a good way. I love the opening part where they fall into the hole and they sleep there. was like, this is, I'm already feeling kind of like cozy.
Courtney Pearl (07:44)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Just Blane (08:04)
And it's weird to say that, but you're like, all right, I like this couple. I feel like I'm a part of it, which is weird to say too considering what happens down the road. But yeah, it's rare. This is a rare movie to me. And it's almost a different genre of horror. It's a new type.
Courtney Pearl (08:22)
Yeah.
Just Blane (08:23)
What you think about that scene though when they were in the hole?
Courtney Pearl (08:27)
Well, yeah, you could actually sense the chemistry and the familiarity that they have with each other, which works perfectly for the roles that they were playing, how this works. I absolutely related to their characters a lot because my husband and I were together five, six years, I want to say, before we got married, but that's because we met when I was 16. We were very young. So waiting until I was 19 to get married, it's probably a good idea.
Just Blane (08:49)
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (08:55)
but that long-term relationship kind of feeling you get at the beginning and that sort of almost questioning, you can get that like ⁓ so much familiarity that you're trying to figure out who you are in all of it. You feel that with Dave's character, right? Like he's, he's like, when she proposes the awkward like.
Just Blane (09:16)
Yeah?
Courtney Pearl (09:22)
the whole room. And he already was having conversations with friends that was like, yeah, yeah, I'm in, I want to do I want go back on tour. I want to do it while he's also making commitments to her. So yeah, when they were in the cave, it felt like, ⁓ this is them. When they fell into the hole, they were spent the night together, you kind of get the sense of like, this is why they're together. And this is what keeps them together. And there's this
Just Blane (09:23)
Squirming
Courtney Pearl (09:52)
This cadence about the way you speak and those of us who have been long-term relationships, you just get it where you're just like, we're in the flow of our conversations kind of a thing. They did an excellent job portraying that.
Just Blane (10:03)
Yeah, and when they fell into the hole It was the isolation the cutoff from everything else that really showed us who they were and I think that was a big Tip off it was like, all right. We know there's outside forces. We know there's This band situation there's phones. There's this there's that but yeah, they get cut off. They're isolated and that's when this really gets Creative and and we're obsessed with with creative couples There's something
Courtney Pearl (10:24)
Mmm.
Just Blane (10:31)
aspirational about watching this. They survive in there with nothing. They fall. They didn't get too hurt. It's the belief that being together is amplification. They amplify one another in that cave. They're helping one another out. There's no egos. It's like, all right, we got to figure this out. We got to survive. And you don't see one of them being really the leader. It's more of a, I know my role, you know yours. We're going to get
Courtney Pearl (10:56)
Mm-hmm.
Just Blane (10:58)
out of this type of thing. It's incredible to watch that though because it's just a ⁓ hard thing to do. I don't think anybody else cast in this role, I don't think they could have had that chemistry if they weren't married and they didn't know each other and they weren't maybe in this business together. What do you think?
Courtney Pearl (11:07)
Yeah.
Yeah, well, and going to that scene of just ⁓ them in the hole, ⁓ even before they fall in the hike, I mean, you can kind of like see it leading up to the way that they interact with each other where she's like, I think we should stay on the trail. And he's like, yeah, this is a trail. I'm seeing these symbols and these ⁓ the bells with the symbols, which we'll get to because we like to throw in some information about the pagan aspects of
Just Blane (11:28)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (11:48)
of what maybe was going on with the so-called hippie-dippy cult is what the guy says when he talks about it. ⁓ So I have a lot to say about that, but the leading up to it, you see their relationship and like, she's the one going, well, I think we should stay back and I don't know. And then he's like, no, it's good. We will be fine. I swear my husband and I have had conversations exactly like that on hikes, because he wants to go look for Bigfoot.
Just Blane (11:54)
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (12:15)
He's like up in the, he's like, got to get into the areas that nobody's been in for a while. And I was like, nah, there's a reason that nobody's been up in there. And there's a reason the hikers go missing. We don't need to do exploring off the path. Let's stay on the path. It was made for us and it's safe. This is where I think we should be. He agrees with me now, by the way. I think we should just always agree with the woman, with the wife. I just think she's got.
Just Blane (12:30)
Yeah.
That's right.
Courtney Pearl (12:43)
Good head on our shoulders. This movie proves it once again, just like all the others. But yeah, ⁓ the paranormal ⁓ aspect of portraying a codependency relationship here. And if anybody's been following any of my stuff, I did several episodes of Practically Magic on codependency specifically because it is such a monumental thing in our society.
Just Blane (12:58)
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (13:13)
among couples and partners. And I love the portrayal of it in this way that's actually dives into like the very uncomfortable, paranormal forces at work kind of thing that they've got going on here. This is probably one of the creepiest movies I've seen in a while, actually.
Just Blane (13:34)
Right, right. It really is. What did you see in the paranormal stuff? Like what was in the symbols? Was this some real based on some real stuff or is this something they made up like what and I'm to tell you this I it didn't spoil it for me, but I did guess That that bell they rang at the neighbor's house. I was like, that's gonna be one of those bells it's gonna be one of those bells and sure enough that was how I kind of Shown later, but yeah, what was what was the what was the real life parallel to?
Courtney Pearl (13:56)
Yeah.
Just Blane (14:03)
Something in there is this is it based on something?
Courtney Pearl (14:05)
mean, there's a lot of cultural aspects to the, ⁓ the idea of blending, especially genders. And I love that in this movie, they actually showed that there was a homosexual couple that also, ⁓ partook, that's a word, partook in the ceremony and ritual of the joining. ⁓ so, you know, it doesn't necessarily have to be opposite genders, but it can be, ⁓
Just Blane (14:26)
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (14:33)
the idea of the blend of masculine and feminine. And I love studying kind of ancient cultures. There's some ancient Egyptian matriarchal cultures that believe that the blending of masculine and feminine makes it so that you are not one or the other, that you are wholly accepting of all those.
genders and parts of you and that you are fully enlightened if you've reached that stage. But in this, it's also bringing in the idea of, I don't know if you've heard of twin flames, kind of like soulmates, or that we have this person that we are meant to find in this life and be partners with, whether we spend our lives with them or not. Sometimes we are married to somebody who's not a twin flame because we were just meant to have this journey
in this lifetime together. But I know a lot of mystical people that really, really believe in the idea of twin flames, that we have another person that is the other side to us, that is the other half of us, that we are two souls ⁓ that came from one soul or came from one particle during the Big Bang. So we're all just finding our parts again or our missing parts in this lifetime.
Just Blane (15:34)
Mmm.
Courtney Pearl (15:57)
So whether you believe in that or not, that's really kind of a callback to all of that kind of history that we've got from spirituality. I don't think the symbol on the bell is specific to anything. I think it was created for this movie, but there are symbols. You'll notice it's like a spiral and it looks like a sun. There's a lot of ⁓ Celtic symbols that come with the spiral. doesn't necessarily mean. ⁓
joining of two people, but that's what they decided to make it for the movie. But there are symbols I've seen looking like the Star of David, where it's the symbol of the ⁓ feminine is the womb, the star pointed down or the triangle pointed down. And then on top of it, the triangle pointed up, ⁓ making it a six pointed star. It's the phallus or the symbol of the men or masculine. So you have that.
and they attach, like they combine or join. So I think it's really fun and fascinating to kind of pull those things into the movie, showing you what that looks like.
Just Blane (17:02)
That's some great insight right there. appreciate that. Talking about the joining part, there's some crazy scenes in this movie that we have not seen anything really similar to it about the joining, the arm growing together, even that massage that he gives you.
Courtney Pearl (17:16)
Yeah, that pool.
Woo.
Just Blane (17:18)
It's
there's some stuff in this movie that it's hard to Like you it's you want to look away and that's rare for me for one of these types of movies The sex scene the sex scene had a very ⁓ Let's just say triple x It showed it showed penis and it was stuck now. I got something to say about that because I Gotta give credit where credit is due here
Courtney Pearl (17:26)
Yeah!
Yes.
Just Blane (17:43)
Michael shanks the director of this which is his directorial debut his significant other worked at a high-end sex shop and Actually got that prosthetic and they and they did a little makeup with it, but that's what that was So that was the only real special effect that was from a High-end sex shop, but then you got these other things where the arms are combining. No, that's what really started getting me
Courtney Pearl (17:59)
Wow.
Wooo!
Just Blane (18:10)
all the way to the final ⁓ transformation if you will which they call tilly they call it tilly when they combine each other there's a cool little nod in there too because if you remember back in the beginning of the movie they're basically she says something along the lines of look we're wearing the same thing and he takes his jacket off because he
Courtney Pearl (18:30)
The matching shirts, yes!
Just Blane (18:32)
Tilly at the end's got that outfit on. That they were both, yes. Yeah, so there's little things like that. There's little things that are like fun for me that are in this type of movie. But let me get to this. And you know what I'm about to do. Alison Brie versus Andy the dog. Now.
Courtney Pearl (18:34)
I didn't catch that!
Yeah.
Just Blane (18:53)
Respect
to Andy the dog dogs are adorable. There's cinematic cheat codes. You put them in there Everybody smiles laughs feels happy but Alison Brie should have won that damn award I'm sorry. I love animals. I love dogs. I'll pet your golden retriever I'll compliment you for your rescue mutt. But if we're handing out performance recognition a dog sitting on cue is impressive, but Alison Brie delivering a layered
Courtney Pearl (19:04)
you
Just Blane (19:22)
Emotionally complex, technically sharp acting while holding a project together creatively? That's Olympic level. I'm not anti-dog, I'm pro actor.
That's it. That's my rant. I'm gonna end it right there because I don't have to say anything else. But that's my feelings on Alison Brie. I just, I just, I just don't. I just can't.
Courtney Pearl (19:33)
Yep.
Yep.
Yeah, I was hesitating and waiting until I got all, you know, all my judgment, all of the observations, all of the angles until I could really get a piece of this out. But I stand by my statement that I think that the dog, ⁓ Good Boy, when we talked about that movie a few weeks back, ⁓ not necessarily the dog's award it should have been, but the editor. I truly think it was the editor that deserved that award.
Just Blane (20:07)
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (20:11)
for editing it in such a way that gave us the feeling that we needed to have from the dog. It wasn't really the dog. The dog did great. And we are, and ⁓ I give all the, all the patience awards that there could possibly be to the owner and director of the movie who sat with that dog and worked with them for three years to get that movie made. But ⁓ yeah, I'm with you. I think even above Ethan Hawke, I would put Alison Brie at top.
Just Blane (20:32)
Yeah!
Courtney Pearl (20:39)
I gotta say it, she deserved that award over everybody.
Just Blane (20:39)
Absolutely, absolutely
And you said it too like they got the dog to give the feeling to us I'm gonna tell you this if we start giving away trophies for vibes instead of performances What are we doing? This is all in chaos. Like this is crazy. Can't do that. But again No disrespect to Andy, but Alison Brie did the work. I think why it Didn't land as hard for audiences, maybe
or maybe the award givers because we see it, but it was because she made it look effortless.
Courtney Pearl (21:14)
Mm-hmm.
Just Blane (21:15)
That's the big thing. That's the good thing about great actors. The better they are, the less notice the scaffolding around them. The less you notice it, the the timing, the restraint, calibrated movements in this movie. Like she made all that happen, but it was effortless. She deserves her flowers. That's why I'm trying to lift it up here. You know, not not just.
Courtney Pearl (21:18)
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm
not here to argue with you one bit.
Just Blane (21:43)
Yeah, but what's your final thoughts on together?
Courtney Pearl (21:45)
man, I just want people to understand when they watch this movie and know that when you're in relationships, especially long-term relationships like shown here in such an extreme way, which by the way, I just have to say, did hope nobody kills me for this, but I did just skip over the sex scene just a little bit. I saw what happened as I was skipping, but there was just too many moments in this movie that I was physically
Just Blane (21:58)
Mm-hmm.
Courtney Pearl (22:14)
feeling what they were going through and I was like, nope, I just can't, I can't. It was that uncomfortable. Favorite moment, favorite scary, like actual creepy moments, and this is a nod to Midsummer when we covered that in the Witch Movie Project, was the parents in the bed, the dreams and the flashbacks of him. ⁓ man, I just gotta give huge props, horror movie props to those moments. Those were the.
Just Blane (22:18)
yeah!
Courtney Pearl (22:42)
Best moments of the movie, I think, is when he would see, and those of you who watched it, you know what I'm talking about? His trauma of recalling what he saw when he found his dad after his dad had passed and his mom kind of lost her mind and went crazy. ⁓ those images will be burned in my brain forever. And aside from that, from a healing aspect, I just have to point out the codependency patterns. I absolutely
understand what this movie was representing in the relationship between these two people, and that sometimes you get so intertwined with each other and you hold each other's stuff so much, you make it your responsibility to hold all of their things. And you can see it here, he's been through something really traumatic. He's going through something hard. And he's also kind of trying to figure out who he is.
Just Blane (23:28)
Mm-hmm.
Courtney Pearl (23:40)
aside from or a separate from her. While she's trying to make her dreams come true, she wanted to move out to the country and live in this cute little quaint dream house cottage and teach school. She doesn't have dreams of being a rock star and going, you know, being in the city like he does, but then they're trying to navigate each other's things, figuring out who are they as individuals while being so intertwined and wrapped in each other's stuff. And
heart of healing work is kind of unraveling that and figuring out how are we two people who share our lives and love, but also remaining respectful of each other's paths in what we're each doing. So I love that in this movie.
Just Blane (24:28)
I'm right there with you. think together works because it doesn't pretend that partnerships are perfect. It shows the humanity, the humor, the horror. Maybe that's the frequency we need right now. You know, not glossy, not algorithm chasing, just honest. Let me ask the freaks out there. I wanna know this. Could you create something like this with your partner? You think it would strengthen your bond or would it?
expose all the Genuinely curious. I think Coco'd want to know the answer to DM us that comment it let's talk about it because It's this this is not just about Allison and Dave It's about all of us trying to figure out what together actually means So that's parallel frequencies with just playing and Coco. We'll see you on the other side
It's parallel frequencies with JustBlane and Coco. What's up, Coco?
Courtney Pearl (00:04)
Nothing much over here. Feeling the romance of the holiday weekend that we just had and all of February. Love is in the air.
Just Blane (00:12)
Love
is in the air and we just passed Friday the 13th, which is my favorite holiday. Anytime it pops up, that's a holiday. But yeah, we did have Valentine's Day and what did you do for Valentine's Day? What did you get into?
Courtney Pearl (00:28)
Well, you know, we're not the type, I think most most Valentines, most years we've been together for a ⁓ quarter of a century. So we're usually like going, ⁓ crap, is it Valentine's Day today? no. But I will say my husband is probably one of the most romantic things he's ever done. And he didn't even realize it was going to be so romantic.
Just Blane (00:42)
Hahaha
Courtney Pearl (00:54)
I'm really into the romantic novel types. I'm one of those book talk girls. The Court of Thorns and Roses series, Fourth Wing, my book girlies know what I'm talking about. So hit me up on the comments if you've been reading those books like I have. And I pressured him to read it. I said, can you just give it a try? It's really fun. I mean, it's not just smutty. It's romantic. It's a fantasy.
You know, there's fight scenes, there's heroes and heroines. It's really good. And he's he's reading Akatar, a Court of Thorns and Roses series. I'm so excited.
Just Blane (01:35)
That's incredible. And that's just a small thing, a small thing to do. And it made you that happy. That's awesome.
Courtney Pearl (01:40)
You know what? It's gonna make him a better
lover and I highly recommend all men read their girlfriends or their wives books. You'll learn a thing or two.
Just Blane (01:49)
Now the way you were selling
it to us was, you sent it all out like the Princess Bride, like the beginning of that. you were trying to sell me that book, but...
Courtney Pearl (01:58)
I'm telling
you, you'll enjoy it. There's a lot to it and there's a little bit of kissing. Wink, wink.
Just Blane (02:04)
⁓
if you know, you know, if you know, you know, most of our freaks, know, they do, they caught that reference. I love that. I didn't do Valentine's day. We don't do Valentine's day. I'm going tell you why it's because our anniversary is four days later. It's the 18th. So it's like, we're not going to do a back to back deal. So we actually kind of get lucky because we don't get each other.
Courtney Pearl (02:06)
Yeah.
Just Blane (02:29)
the Valentine's day candy until the 15th when it's half off. And then it's still fresh for us, but it still means something. And it's not late because it's our anniversary a couple of days later. So we will celebrate later this week. We'll do something this weekend. I'll let you know next week what we did, what we got off into.
Courtney Pearl (02:39)
Yeah.
Yeah, and you can just
like double it up, make it even bigger and better and more romantic. I mean, you were married in Iceland. What's more romantic than that?
Just Blane (02:54)
That's very true. You know what we did last year for the anniversary and this is wild I didn't even think about this to now and we rotate every year who does it and who does what? Last year we went to a Phantagram concert. Okay in Salt Lake City. We love Phantagram and we're in the line. It's freezing and We're looking around and Lindsey's looking at me. She's like, are you sure these are our people and I'm like
Courtney Pearl (03:21)
Hehehehe
Just Blane (03:22)
Yeah, yeah, yeah,
we're probably just a little bit older or whatever and she makes a joke She's like, you know, what would be real fun is if we just stood in line All night for the wrong concert and then went home and sure enough we get to the front door and it's some goth metal rock and nothing against that but I
Courtney Pearl (03:42)
Not your
scene.
Just Blane (03:45)
She was right. It was not our crowd and i'm trying to be like, yeah I don't judge a book by its cover, but we were in the line for the wrong concert So this year, it's my year To choose what we do this weekend. So I got a lot to live up to. I mean, how can I beat? Standing in line at the wrong concert for
Courtney Pearl (04:01)
I mean, sounds like what
you could potentially do is tell her you have tickets to something, go stand in line and then say, ⁓ actually, this is not what we had tickets for.
Surprise!
Just Blane (04:14)
We had a lot of con we had a
lot of conversations in that line for about two hours in a freezing cold about favorite songs. So it was great. Yeah, it was great. I can't. Yeah. Yeah, I can't really mess. I can't mess it up. I can't mess it up because, well, she loves anything anyway. But you know what I did mess up and got too excited about too soon was I said it last week. Whisple Wednesday, I said Survivor was starting.
Courtney Pearl (04:23)
Get to know you again. That's very romantic.
Mm-hmm.
Just Blane (04:44)
I jumped the gun. I jumped the gun. It's not till February 25th. That's next week or a couple weeks or whenever. I know. So I got all excited. I was trying to catch up, you know, wanted to see it. I'm scrolling forward on Paramount. I'm like, where the hell is Survivor 50? ⁓ February 25th. It starts. So excuse me for the mistake, freaks. I am sorry if I got you excited, but yeah, I had to clear that up.
Courtney Pearl (04:48)
darn!
Hate it when that happens.
I've done that.
Just Blane (05:11)
I had to clear that up because yeah, that's... It hurt me just as much as it'll hurt anybody out there that did the same thing.
Courtney Pearl (05:17)
sure
but it gives me a little more time to catch up it gives me a little bit more time to get ready for it so that's good I wasn't ready
Just Blane (05:23)
That's right. And I'm going to keep amping
that up. I will keep amping it up. But love is in the air on movie Monday here. And what better way to talk about love than one of the greatest romance movies that came out in 2025. Together. And I know everybody out there was like, wait, yeah, together is a horror movie starring Alison Bray, Dave Franco and
Courtney Pearl (05:43)
That's what we're here for.
Just Blane (05:50)
Let's talk about this because it's about couples who actually like each other That's that's wild that's a project in its own day franko and alice and brie are married in real life, too. So watching that movie with knowing that it's like, ⁓ did they actually Run a experiment here within a movie to see how this was going to work out You know right off the bat i'm like could I work with my
Courtney Pearl (05:56)
Mm-hmm.
Just Blane (06:16)
partner every day, you know, like they did like this. Could you, could you and your husband work like this together every day? Even on a movie set?
Courtney Pearl (06:21)
Mm-hmm.
You know,
I don't know about that. We are so different. I mean, I would be, I could see myself on a movie set. I've been an actress. I've, you know, some doing a project like that. My husband's not creative in that way. He's creative in a mechanical sense. He likes to go and tinker in the garage. He's an introvert, doesn't love people. In fact, when you were talking about your date standing in line for two hours, that would have been about 15 minutes with my husband. He would have been like,
Just Blane (06:53)
Yeah
Courtney Pearl (06:55)
I'm done. I don't know what we're standing here for, but I'm not here for it. Let's just go home. It would have been over before it started. But the conversations, yeah. I mean, we have great conversations. So maybe not creative projects. Maybe we would make a movie together, but we've got our own niche. We've got our own thing.
Just Blane (07:14)
Yeah, you know what? I couldn't really see your husband doing the Dave Franco role here. But that's not knocking him because anytime I'm around him, he's the most quiet person in the room. And I just think that the most quiet person in room is the smartest. So I'm just always sitting there thinking, man, he's judging us all. ⁓
Courtney Pearl (07:33)
Well, he's a Scorpio,
so that might be true.
Just Blane (07:38)
But there's something electric about watching Alison Brie and Dave Franco collaborate. Not in like a tabloid kind of way, but in a these two built something kind of way. It's really grounded, intimate, chaotic even in a good way. I love the opening part where they fall into the hole and they sleep there. was like, this is, I'm already feeling kind of like cozy.
Courtney Pearl (07:44)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Just Blane (08:04)
And it's weird to say that, but you're like, all right, I like this couple. I feel like I'm a part of it, which is weird to say too considering what happens down the road. But yeah, it's rare. This is a rare movie to me. And it's almost a different genre of horror. It's a new type.
Courtney Pearl (08:22)
Yeah.
Just Blane (08:23)
What you think about that scene though when they were in the hole?
Courtney Pearl (08:27)
Well, yeah, you could actually sense the chemistry and the familiarity that they have with each other, which works perfectly for the roles that they were playing, how this works. I absolutely related to their characters a lot because my husband and I were together five, six years, I want to say, before we got married, but that's because we met when I was 16. We were very young. So waiting until I was 19 to get married, it's probably a good idea.
Just Blane (08:49)
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (08:55)
but that long-term relationship kind of feeling you get at the beginning and that sort of almost questioning, you can get that like ⁓ so much familiarity that you're trying to figure out who you are in all of it. You feel that with Dave's character, right? Like he's, he's like, when she proposes the awkward like.
Just Blane (09:16)
Yeah?
Courtney Pearl (09:22)
the whole room. And he already was having conversations with friends that was like, yeah, yeah, I'm in, I want to do I want go back on tour. I want to do it while he's also making commitments to her. So yeah, when they were in the cave, it felt like, ⁓ this is them. When they fell into the hole, they were spent the night together, you kind of get the sense of like, this is why they're together. And this is what keeps them together. And there's this
Just Blane (09:23)
Squirming
Courtney Pearl (09:52)
This cadence about the way you speak and those of us who have been long-term relationships, you just get it where you're just like, we're in the flow of our conversations kind of a thing. They did an excellent job portraying that.
Just Blane (10:03)
Yeah, and when they fell into the hole It was the isolation the cutoff from everything else that really showed us who they were and I think that was a big Tip off it was like, all right. We know there's outside forces. We know there's This band situation there's phones. There's this there's that but yeah, they get cut off. They're isolated and that's when this really gets Creative and and we're obsessed with with creative couples There's something
Courtney Pearl (10:24)
Mmm.
Just Blane (10:31)
aspirational about watching this. They survive in there with nothing. They fall. They didn't get too hurt. It's the belief that being together is amplification. They amplify one another in that cave. They're helping one another out. There's no egos. It's like, all right, we got to figure this out. We got to survive. And you don't see one of them being really the leader. It's more of a, I know my role, you know yours. We're going to get
Courtney Pearl (10:56)
Mm-hmm.
Just Blane (10:58)
out of this type of thing. It's incredible to watch that though because it's just a ⁓ hard thing to do. I don't think anybody else cast in this role, I don't think they could have had that chemistry if they weren't married and they didn't know each other and they weren't maybe in this business together. What do you think?
Courtney Pearl (11:07)
Yeah.
Yeah, well, and going to that scene of just ⁓ them in the hole, ⁓ even before they fall in the hike, I mean, you can kind of like see it leading up to the way that they interact with each other where she's like, I think we should stay on the trail. And he's like, yeah, this is a trail. I'm seeing these symbols and these ⁓ the bells with the symbols, which we'll get to because we like to throw in some information about the pagan aspects of
Just Blane (11:28)
Yeah.
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (11:48)
of what maybe was going on with the so-called hippie-dippy cult is what the guy says when he talks about it. ⁓ So I have a lot to say about that, but the leading up to it, you see their relationship and like, she's the one going, well, I think we should stay back and I don't know. And then he's like, no, it's good. We will be fine. I swear my husband and I have had conversations exactly like that on hikes, because he wants to go look for Bigfoot.
Just Blane (11:54)
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (12:15)
He's like up in the, he's like, got to get into the areas that nobody's been in for a while. And I was like, nah, there's a reason that nobody's been up in there. And there's a reason the hikers go missing. We don't need to do exploring off the path. Let's stay on the path. It was made for us and it's safe. This is where I think we should be. He agrees with me now, by the way. I think we should just always agree with the woman, with the wife. I just think she's got.
Just Blane (12:30)
Yeah.
That's right.
Courtney Pearl (12:43)
Good head on our shoulders. This movie proves it once again, just like all the others. But yeah, ⁓ the paranormal ⁓ aspect of portraying a codependency relationship here. And if anybody's been following any of my stuff, I did several episodes of Practically Magic on codependency specifically because it is such a monumental thing in our society.
Just Blane (12:58)
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (13:13)
among couples and partners. And I love the portrayal of it in this way that's actually dives into like the very uncomfortable, paranormal forces at work kind of thing that they've got going on here. This is probably one of the creepiest movies I've seen in a while, actually.
Just Blane (13:34)
Right, right. It really is. What did you see in the paranormal stuff? Like what was in the symbols? Was this some real based on some real stuff or is this something they made up like what and I'm to tell you this I it didn't spoil it for me, but I did guess That that bell they rang at the neighbor's house. I was like, that's gonna be one of those bells it's gonna be one of those bells and sure enough that was how I kind of Shown later, but yeah, what was what was the what was the real life parallel to?
Courtney Pearl (13:56)
Yeah.
Just Blane (14:03)
Something in there is this is it based on something?
Courtney Pearl (14:05)
mean, there's a lot of cultural aspects to the, ⁓ the idea of blending, especially genders. And I love that in this movie, they actually showed that there was a homosexual couple that also, ⁓ partook, that's a word, partook in the ceremony and ritual of the joining. ⁓ so, you know, it doesn't necessarily have to be opposite genders, but it can be, ⁓
Just Blane (14:26)
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (14:33)
the idea of the blend of masculine and feminine. And I love studying kind of ancient cultures. There's some ancient Egyptian matriarchal cultures that believe that the blending of masculine and feminine makes it so that you are not one or the other, that you are wholly accepting of all those.
genders and parts of you and that you are fully enlightened if you've reached that stage. But in this, it's also bringing in the idea of, I don't know if you've heard of twin flames, kind of like soulmates, or that we have this person that we are meant to find in this life and be partners with, whether we spend our lives with them or not. Sometimes we are married to somebody who's not a twin flame because we were just meant to have this journey
in this lifetime together. But I know a lot of mystical people that really, really believe in the idea of twin flames, that we have another person that is the other side to us, that is the other half of us, that we are two souls ⁓ that came from one soul or came from one particle during the Big Bang. So we're all just finding our parts again or our missing parts in this lifetime.
Just Blane (15:34)
Mmm.
Courtney Pearl (15:57)
So whether you believe in that or not, that's really kind of a callback to all of that kind of history that we've got from spirituality. I don't think the symbol on the bell is specific to anything. I think it was created for this movie, but there are symbols. You'll notice it's like a spiral and it looks like a sun. There's a lot of ⁓ Celtic symbols that come with the spiral. doesn't necessarily mean. ⁓
joining of two people, but that's what they decided to make it for the movie. But there are symbols I've seen looking like the Star of David, where it's the symbol of the ⁓ feminine is the womb, the star pointed down or the triangle pointed down. And then on top of it, the triangle pointed up, ⁓ making it a six pointed star. It's the phallus or the symbol of the men or masculine. So you have that.
and they attach, like they combine or join. So I think it's really fun and fascinating to kind of pull those things into the movie, showing you what that looks like.
Just Blane (17:02)
That's some great insight right there. appreciate that. Talking about the joining part, there's some crazy scenes in this movie that we have not seen anything really similar to it about the joining, the arm growing together, even that massage that he gives you.
Courtney Pearl (17:16)
Yeah, that pool.
Woo.
Just Blane (17:18)
It's
there's some stuff in this movie that it's hard to Like you it's you want to look away and that's rare for me for one of these types of movies The sex scene the sex scene had a very ⁓ Let's just say triple x It showed it showed penis and it was stuck now. I got something to say about that because I Gotta give credit where credit is due here
Courtney Pearl (17:26)
Yeah!
Yes.
Just Blane (17:43)
Michael shanks the director of this which is his directorial debut his significant other worked at a high-end sex shop and Actually got that prosthetic and they and they did a little makeup with it, but that's what that was So that was the only real special effect that was from a High-end sex shop, but then you got these other things where the arms are combining. No, that's what really started getting me
Courtney Pearl (17:59)
Wow.
Wooo!
Just Blane (18:10)
all the way to the final ⁓ transformation if you will which they call tilly they call it tilly when they combine each other there's a cool little nod in there too because if you remember back in the beginning of the movie they're basically she says something along the lines of look we're wearing the same thing and he takes his jacket off because he
Courtney Pearl (18:30)
The matching shirts, yes!
Just Blane (18:32)
Tilly at the end's got that outfit on. That they were both, yes. Yeah, so there's little things like that. There's little things that are like fun for me that are in this type of movie. But let me get to this. And you know what I'm about to do. Alison Brie versus Andy the dog. Now.
Courtney Pearl (18:34)
I didn't catch that!
Yeah.
Just Blane (18:53)
Respect
to Andy the dog dogs are adorable. There's cinematic cheat codes. You put them in there Everybody smiles laughs feels happy but Alison Brie should have won that damn award I'm sorry. I love animals. I love dogs. I'll pet your golden retriever I'll compliment you for your rescue mutt. But if we're handing out performance recognition a dog sitting on cue is impressive, but Alison Brie delivering a layered
Courtney Pearl (19:04)
you
Just Blane (19:22)
Emotionally complex, technically sharp acting while holding a project together creatively? That's Olympic level. I'm not anti-dog, I'm pro actor.
That's it. That's my rant. I'm gonna end it right there because I don't have to say anything else. But that's my feelings on Alison Brie. I just, I just, I just don't. I just can't.
Courtney Pearl (19:33)
Yep.
Yep.
Yeah, I was hesitating and waiting until I got all, you know, all my judgment, all of the observations, all of the angles until I could really get a piece of this out. But I stand by my statement that I think that the dog, ⁓ Good Boy, when we talked about that movie a few weeks back, ⁓ not necessarily the dog's award it should have been, but the editor. I truly think it was the editor that deserved that award.
Just Blane (20:07)
Yeah.
Courtney Pearl (20:11)
for editing it in such a way that gave us the feeling that we needed to have from the dog. It wasn't really the dog. The dog did great. And we are, and ⁓ I give all the, all the patience awards that there could possibly be to the owner and director of the movie who sat with that dog and worked with them for three years to get that movie made. But ⁓ yeah, I'm with you. I think even above Ethan Hawke, I would put Alison Brie at top.
Just Blane (20:32)
Yeah!
Courtney Pearl (20:39)
I gotta say it, she deserved that award over everybody.
Just Blane (20:39)
Absolutely, absolutely
And you said it too like they got the dog to give the feeling to us I'm gonna tell you this if we start giving away trophies for vibes instead of performances What are we doing? This is all in chaos. Like this is crazy. Can't do that. But again No disrespect to Andy, but Alison Brie did the work. I think why it Didn't land as hard for audiences, maybe
or maybe the award givers because we see it, but it was because she made it look effortless.
Courtney Pearl (21:14)
Mm-hmm.
Just Blane (21:15)
That's the big thing. That's the good thing about great actors. The better they are, the less notice the scaffolding around them. The less you notice it, the the timing, the restraint, calibrated movements in this movie. Like she made all that happen, but it was effortless. She deserves her flowers. That's why I'm trying to lift it up here. You know, not not just.
Courtney Pearl (21:18)
Yeah.
Yeah.
I'm
not here to argue with you one bit.
Just Blane (21:43)
Yeah, but what's your final thoughts on together?
Courtney Pearl (21:45)
man, I just want people to understand when they watch this movie and know that when you're in relationships, especially long-term relationships like shown here in such an extreme way, which by the way, I just have to say, did hope nobody kills me for this, but I did just skip over the sex scene just a little bit. I saw what happened as I was skipping, but there was just too many moments in this movie that I was physically
Just Blane (21:58)
Mm-hmm.
Courtney Pearl (22:14)
feeling what they were going through and I was like, nope, I just can't, I can't. It was that uncomfortable. Favorite moment, favorite scary, like actual creepy moments, and this is a nod to Midsummer when we covered that in the Witch Movie Project, was the parents in the bed, the dreams and the flashbacks of him. ⁓ man, I just gotta give huge props, horror movie props to those moments. Those were the.
Just Blane (22:18)
yeah!
Courtney Pearl (22:42)
Best moments of the movie, I think, is when he would see, and those of you who watched it, you know what I'm talking about? His trauma of recalling what he saw when he found his dad after his dad had passed and his mom kind of lost her mind and went crazy. ⁓ those images will be burned in my brain forever. And aside from that, from a healing aspect, I just have to point out the codependency patterns. I absolutely
understand what this movie was representing in the relationship between these two people, and that sometimes you get so intertwined with each other and you hold each other's stuff so much, you make it your responsibility to hold all of their things. And you can see it here, he's been through something really traumatic. He's going through something hard. And he's also kind of trying to figure out who he is.
Just Blane (23:28)
Mm-hmm.
Courtney Pearl (23:40)
aside from or a separate from her. While she's trying to make her dreams come true, she wanted to move out to the country and live in this cute little quaint dream house cottage and teach school. She doesn't have dreams of being a rock star and going, you know, being in the city like he does, but then they're trying to navigate each other's things, figuring out who are they as individuals while being so intertwined and wrapped in each other's stuff. And
heart of healing work is kind of unraveling that and figuring out how are we two people who share our lives and love, but also remaining respectful of each other's paths in what we're each doing. So I love that in this movie.
Just Blane (24:28)
I'm right there with you. think together works because it doesn't pretend that partnerships are perfect. It shows the humanity, the humor, the horror. Maybe that's the frequency we need right now. You know, not glossy, not algorithm chasing, just honest. Let me ask the freaks out there. I wanna know this. Could you create something like this with your partner? You think it would strengthen your bond or would it?
expose all the Genuinely curious. I think Coco'd want to know the answer to DM us that comment it let's talk about it because It's this this is not just about Allison and Dave It's about all of us trying to figure out what together actually means So that's parallel frequencies with just playing and Coco. We'll see you on the other side