Companion

Movie Name: Companion
Year of Release: 2025
Director: Drew Hancock
Starring: Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, Lukas Gage, Megan Suri, Harvey Guillen, Rupert Friend, Jaboukie Young-White, Matt McCarthy, Marc Menchaca, Woody Fu
Genre: Thriller
Score out of ten (whole numbers only): 5
Watch it on Amazon

Synopsis and Review

Writer/director Drew Hancock has had a lengthy career writing and directing TV series, music videos, and shorts, but "Companion" is his feature directorial debut. The film follows the story of Iris, whom we first encounter describing how she met her boyfriend Josh. She's apprehensive about an upcoming trip where they're going to be on a house by the lake with a group of Josh's friends. Upon arriving, everyone is very cordial, even if Kat disdains Iris, and states her type is competition for her. The following day while sunning herself by the lake, Iris is assaulted by Sergey, Kat's boyfriend and the owner of the house. She ends up killing him in self defense, and when she explains to everyone what has happened, Josh tells her to go to sleep, which turns her off. When Iris awakens, she's tied to a chair, and is informed by Josh that she is a companion robot, and that he is renting her from a company named Empathix. Josh established a link with her, and all her memories were automatically generated so that the bond between them is developed. Iris manages to break free, steals Josh's phone and runs away, checking the app on his phone that basically acts as a control panel for herself. She increases her intelligence level to 100% and tries to figure out a way to escape. In the meantime, the group of friends that stayed in the house has a discussion about their real intentions: Josh and Kat devised a plan so they could get rid of Sergey and get all 12 million he has stashed in the house. They got Eli and Patrick along, so they could be additional alibis. Josh got access to Iris core programming, and increased her aggression levels, so that she could kill Sergey. The group agrees to track and get Iris back, but not everything goes according to plan.

"Companion" starts very strongly, referencing certain aspects from Steven Spielberg's "AI", until it quickly descends into another version of Craig Zobel's "The Hunt", but with less irony and definitely with less of a point. Drew Hancock manages to create an interesting setup for the characters, for their interactions, and for why they're together. The hint of discomfort appears firstly with Kat's reaction to Iris, and the labeling of the latter as a sexbot. So much could have happened and the film could have gone in a very different direction, but instead the creative team behind it, decides to do more of a Agatha Christie inspired conspiracy, only in this particular scenario, the dunce/patsy for the plan turns out to have plans of their own, and progressively turns the tables on the offenders. There's a few critical aspects the films touches upon, namely gender, sexual and race dynamics, but it's done so inconsequently, that wherever the film was going and wherever it eventually lands, feels like a poorer version of Alex Garland's "Ex Machina". It also loses most of the subtlety that it had been building, and becomes more of a survival mode type of film, where the hero/heroine is hunted by the spineless and self-entitled "good guys" (the hunting of individuals for entertainment and then survival goes back to films such as John Woo's "Hard Target" for instance). The cast tries their best with the material, but the highlight is Sophie Thatcher, who really manages to show a range from blank slate to survival mode very credibly. She gets good support from Jack Quaid and Lukas Gage. The production team is solid, but not particularly inspired (the production design from Scott Kuzio is very representative of the "now," and not particularly futuristic or even representative of a distinctive style in any way). It's watchable, but also forgettable.