COMPANION Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Drew Hancock
Stars: Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, Lukas Gage, Megan Suri, Harvey Guillén, Rupert Friend, Jaboukie Young-White, Matthew J. McCarthy, Marc Menchaca, Woody Fu.
It is best to approach the sci-fi horror comedy Companion without knowing too much about it beforehand so as not to ruin its many surprises.
The film opens with a black screen and a female voiceover says: “The two happiest moments in my life were the day I met Josh…and the day I killed him.” Then we get to see the meet-cute encounter in the fruit aisle of a supermarket between Iris (Sophie Thatcher, recently seen in Heretic) and Josh (Jack Quaid, the son of actors Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan), who gives off a boyish quality.
Soon after Josh takes Iris away for a weekend at a country house with its own lake surrounded by a forest. The house and the lake are owned by Sergey (an almost unrecogniseable Rupert Friend), a Russian billionaire who Jack secretly suspects of being a gangster. Also along for the weekend are the gold-digging Kat (Megan Suri, from It Lives Inside, etc), who is sleeping with Sergey, and the gay couple Eli (Harvey Guillen, from What We Do In The Shadows, etc) and his model boyfriend Patrick (Lukas Gage, from Scream 2, etc) who met at a costume party and fell in love. But then Iris kills Sergey, and the weekend quickly descends into a nightmare for all involved.
Then we learn that Iris is actually a “companion-bot”, an AI humanoid that can be programmed to be the perfect girlfriend for its owner. All of her supposed happy memories have been programmed into her by Josh. Iris has to evolve and learn new skills if she is to survive this bloody weekend.
Despite the small cast Companion has a high body count. There will be blood, and lots of it. Companion plays out like a revenge drama for the #MeToo generation.
Companion is the debut feature for writer/director Drew Hancock, who hails from a background in television, and the clever script is well-written. His direction is sharp and assured, and he keeps the momentum up for the duration. The film packs in several surprises and twists so that the audience is not always sure where it is headed. And each new twist reveals more about the various characters and we are constantly changing our opinion about them. But the material is also laced with a strong streak of dark humour.
The film explores themes of toxic masculinity, gender dynamics, AI technology, greed, patriarchal control, entitlement and domination, and female empowerment. Companion is another in the long-line of films that serve up a cautionary tale about the dangers of AI – Ex-Machina, Megan, Her, the Scarlett Johansson vehicle Under The Skin, etc – and seems to have some surface similarities with Olivia Wilde’s 2022 thriller Don’t Worry Darling. But the first film I thought of following the key revelation about Iris was Michael Crichton’s 1973 sci-fi thriller Westworld with its own chillingly efficient killer robot.
Performances were good across the board, with Thatcher well cast as Iris. She brought a determination and feisty quality to the role and she is a protagonist to cheer for. Quaid is very good as Josh who is by turn charming and cunning. I also appreciated the positive depiction of the gay couple Eli and Patrick whose relationship adds another dimension to the film. Friend is almost unrecogniseable as the sleazy Russian oligarch Sergey. Marc Menchaca also brings some humour to the film with his brief role as a highway cop who becomes involved in the drama unfolding.
Companion is a lot of fun and a guilty pleasure.
★★★☆
