Review: ‘All Alone Together’ digs its teeth into a mental health crisis

Throughout cinematic history, mental illness has been explored as a conduit to conversation. The more we talk about it, the easier it is to understand. In the vein of Daniel Isn’t Real, Maximus Jenkins’ All Alone Together serves as a character study into the mind of a promising filmmaker as he loses his grip on reality and succumbs to those chain-rattling inner demons. With a script written by the film’s central star, Alex Nimrod, the story feels wholly personal, raw, and vulnerable in a way few others are. Shoestring budget be damned; the film never feels confined to its meager resources, and by all accounts, exceeds expectations in every possible way.

Tormented filmmaker Lincoln (Nimrod) presents his latest film during an exclusive premiere event. In the film-within-a-film segment, Jenkins offers a few skin-scraping scares by way of Insidious. Those tricks set the stage for a frightful journey into the depths of Lincoln’s ghoul-addled soul. He’s totally new to the promotional side of the business, but his new publicist, Sloane (Elizabeth Hadjinian), guides him through the process of setting up interviews and other essential appearances. He’s the very definition of awkward, as we see him interacting with Sloane and his roommate George’s (Trevor VanAuken) abrasive girlfriend Regina (Lexi Minetree). He’s even a bit standoffish when a pair of high-level industry players offer their take on his film; he’s not so keen on others dissecting the material instead of just letting it speak for itself.

As he takes further steps into advertising his film, it becomes a startling reality as a menacing “haunting” (Devin Harris) seeps from the film’s frames and plagues his everyday life. His mental state collapses underneath the pressures of the entertainment business. The more he puts himself out there, the more ominous the phantom becomes until his whole world devolves into a fiery and hellish nightmare.

While the material isn’t necessarily fresh, the execution is. Jenkins takes Nimrod’s script and expertly crafts nail-biting sequences that crawl up the spine and rattle you to the core. It’s not an easy thing to do, yet the creative team offers a setpiece that’s deeply unsettling but equally poignant. Nimrod’s turn as Lincoln is a shell-shocker of a performance, especially as his world mutates into something else entirely. From unshakable rage to blood-bursting fear, he displays a complete rage of the human condition. It’s horrifyingly uncomfortable, but a necessary experience for the audience.

All Alone Together arrives as among this year’s best genre treats. It’s wonderfully scary as it telegraphs its powerful, relentless message about asking for help and reaching out to others in times of psychological crises. It’s not to be missed; a bondafide indie masterpiece.