The 2025 dark comedic thriller Companion is an odd yet brilliantly prophetic film about man’s inability to communicate with man. At first glance, the film is all about a twisted plot of murder via sexbot; albeit a very modified one, that is, kind of clever.
The Story
Josh and the love of his life Iris go to a party in the country. It is not the run of the garden variety of get together. Everyone there has money and an inordinate amount of time on their hands.
Two of the party participants have sexbots.
Once the couple arrive, things go south fairly rapidly. Josh tries to reign things in, there is a plan to follow after all. But, mods, it seems, can spawn other mods and the companion that Josh personalized, takes over.
main cast
Sophie Thatcher is Iris.
Jack Quaid is Josh.
Lukas Gage is Patrick.
Megan Suri is Kat.
Harvey Guillén is Eli.
Rupert Friend is Sergey.
No small parts
A resounding shout out to Woody Fu as Mateo the technician who explains how the new Iris works. This, otherwise, throwaway character stands out because of the authenticity Fu emanates here.
behind the camera
Writer/Director Drew Hancock. Companion feels somewhat like M3GAN 2.0. A tad more grown up; well a lot more grown up since in this iteration M3gan is a sexbot. The film, and the press allude to Iris being an accessory that no one realizes is a robot. In the film, however, we all know once the opening “meet cute” sequence ends.
It all works
Companion plays on our inability to communicate with one another. Social media, something that predates Covid-19, started this trend where people found it difficult to accept people as people. Dealing with images on a screen removed that “human touch.”
Covid – 19, with the resultant enforced isolation added to this alienation. People suddenly are very inept at dealing with each other successfully.
Crimes against people have risen as a result:Road Rage, felonious assault, domestic violence, et al. On top of these criminal crimes folks are also struggling to deal with everyday issues.
Hancock gives us very “human” looking protagonists in Companion. With the exception of Megan Suri, everyone is pretty normal looking. Suri is stunning. *Although these “normal” appearing folks are darned attractive, they are real looking. Quaid has made a pretty impressive career playing “everyman” roles.*
it is funny
The dark humour is there. Laughs are present in all the right places, no matter how blackly comic the sequences are. All the issues work brilliantly. An AI getting annoyed at being programmed to murder, has to be the pinnacle of comedic circumstance.
The fractured nature of Josh, and his fellow humans, allows this entire comedy of horrors to come about. It is karma at its most fetching.
The Verdict
Companion earns a solid 4 stars. Josh and his ranting compliant about being the average Joe, and his sexbot setting him straight, is worth the price of admission alone. That and the excellent twist in the tale.
It is streaming on Max right now.
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