Companion (2025)

Score: 2.5 / 5

Marketing can really spoil a film. If you've seen any trailers or posters for Companion, this year's supposedly twisty, genre-bending thriller, then you already know everything of substance that happens in the film. It's a disappointment because if I had known nothing going in, I'd have been stunned into submission multiple times. As it is, having seen the trailer a couple times, I viewed the proceedings with expectation for a little more than what was already promised; that expectation was dashed, and the story wallows by its midpoint.

I won't bother recounting the plot here, except to point out what might have worked better (other than sacking the marketing team and starting over). Because we already know that Iris (Sophie Thatcher, burgeoning scream queen from The Boogeyman, Heretic, and Yellowjackets) is an android, a humanlike robot programmed for human companionship, the reveal of her as such is quite boring. But had you not known, things would have felt much creepier as her owner/boyfriend Josh (Jack Quaid, still making his case for a serious leading man in Hollywood) casually orders her to do things she then proceeds to do. Exactly what kind of relationship is this, we'd ask ourselves, and, despite its frothy surface charms, why does their relationship put undue burdens on Iris?

But their getaway to an isolated lake house with rich friends isn't quite the same as in Blink Twice, though the sexual politics seem aligned with that (or shows like The White Lotus). There doesn't seem to be hidden criminal intent here, though the assembled friends could easily pop into an Agatha Christie whodunnit; they're all quirky but somewhat tame, like spoiled rich kids whose only real problems are the relational ones they create on a whim. Or, of course, when their fancy electronic toys go haywire.

A brutal act of sexual violence occurs that changes everything, turning the film from a satire poking holes in heterosexual dating and socialization to a thriller interested in posthuman agency and female liberation and sadistic violence. Locating this shift can be easy in films like this, as it's usually an older white guy making things weird in a group of younger people: think Lee Pace in Bodies Bodies Bodies as a counterpoint, though here it's Rupert Friend doing a very Russian thing. By the time a malfunctioning Iris -- driven to do the theoretically impossible as a result of a human's violence -- is sat down and told the reality of her existence, the film instantly changes. This is the moment we're supposed to be as shocked as Iris. Instead, it just feels a bit silly, like we're waiting for her to catch up and do something about her predicament.

It's an unfortunate tonal choice for more reasons, too. The early scenes set up a sort of nouveau spin on The Stepford Wives as we wonder precisely how perfect Iris really is, and what particular purposes Josh has in mind for her. We're meant to wonder if their relationship is purely sexual -- there is frank discussion of "sex bots" and the like -- and if the charming Josh is really no more than an incel needing to control the only kind of female that could have him (one, that is, without a soul). By the time another couple on this getaway -- mismatched but annoyingly cute Lukas Gage and Harvey Guillén -- is revealed to be a similar owner/companion duo, the thread of entitled "stupid rich" young adults overwhelms the movie. The characters all feel they are owed whatever they desire without penalty for their actions regarding those things. Worse, they feel entitled to not be held accountable, to not have to make tough decisions or do any internal work. In this way, Companion's messaging is actually quite timely and pointed.

The shame is that it never leans fully into that headspace, preferring to flirt on the brink of meatier metaphysics while safely and predictably featuring chase scenes and gory violence and a few quiet moments of Iris discovering her full capabilities. But even those scenes meant to tie us emotionally to Iris are ham-fisted, lazily riffing on more effective similar sequences in films like Her (2013) or Ex Machina (2014). When characters started talking about limits to Iris's brain power and how she increased it to its fullest potential, I was ready for the monstrous-feminine to erupt in glorious horror and for Iris to pull a Lucy (2014), Transcendence (2014), or even an Ultron (2015). Instead, she just gets a little smarter, I guess? The film's tenuous grip on science fiction and robots clearly pulls from several referents a decade ago, which seems indicative of the film's shaky and slightly out-of-touch ideas. How much more thrilling might it have been as an erotic horror film about the kinkier side of its inherent relational dynamics? Or more about the power moves by owners and androids to establish dominance without the violent bloodshed?

A convenient and simple plot, as we are given here, could make room for more cerebral ideas, but Companion is happy to not do that. Skirting more interesting ideas like the most extreme and overt commodification of technology for pleasure, the implications of built-in misogyny in a robotic age, and an industry built on slave labor by non-consenting humanoid beings, the film relies instead on tired tropes of abusive, spoiled men melting plastic by candlelight. Really, you could say this is a dramatic thriller based on Toy Story's villain Sid in an adult setting. Convenient plot points and a strange emphasis on a couple violent encounters reveal this film's more entrenched interest in keeping its audience satiated on genre-based moments of frisson. Writer and director Drew Hancock has some really cool ideas here, but, much like Don't Worry Darling, it just doesn't know what to do with them in any fresh or meaningful way.