Companion — PREVIEW SCREENING

Movie review for the upcoming movie from the creators of Barbarian

Alessia Vannini ♡

Jan 23, 2025

Index

Film Profile
Introduction
Review
Conclusion

Film Profile

Title: Companion

Release year: 2025

Film length: 1h37

Director and Writer: Drew Hancock

Stars: Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, Lukas Cage, Megan Suri, Harvey Guillén, Rupert Friend

Introduction

Thanks to my local cinema who invited me to a preview screening, I got the opportunity to watch this film a week before its worldwide release.

What if A24 had produced Blade Runner? Well, that’s more or less how Companion feels like. It borders the same existential themes about identity and the clash between men and robots that are central in Ridley Scott’s masterpiece, but it is also characterized by those campy vibes that are a trademark in A24 productions.

Unlike its seemingly A24 touch, however, this film was produced by New Line Cinema, the studio that produced The Notebook. In addition to that, the producers of this film are the same as Barbarian’s, and the 2022’s movie director Zach Cregger is also producing.

Even though the movie ending is literally announced by the main character within the first two minutes of screen time, I would recommend you not to watch the trailer beforehand like I did. Nevertheless, it’s still enjoyable even if you know what will happen in the movie’s finale from the beginning, because it’s not the destination that counts, it’s the journey.

In this article, you won’t find spoilers but I do talk about its plot and the themes it features so if you’d prefer a blind viewing, you should come back to this article when you’ll have watched the movie (but do remember to leave a like). On the contrary, in case you want to know a little bit more about this interesting movie before its worldwide release, you’ve reached the right place!

Review

What seems to be a contradiction — the combination of two completely different movies such as The Notebook and Barbarian, whose producers have also produced this film —, is actually the beating heart of this film. (Wrongly, in my opinion) Labeled as a horror movie, Companion is much rather a thriller romance, where comic elements are never left behind.

The romance-thriller contrast is also embodied by the movie’s male lead actor. One of our generation’s finest nepo babies, Jack Quaid is the son of Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid. While his mother is the ultimate emblem of romcoms, his father has recently gone back treading the boards with his role in the body horror movie The Substance. In Companion, Jack takes the best out of both of his parents, playing a man who wants a loving company but who eventually reveals himself as a cocky despot.

Needless to say that Sophie Thatcher quite steals the scene. Even if this is the first movie starring her that I have watched, her filmography is filled with horror-thriller features: from 2023’s The Boogeyman, passing by 2018’s Prospect (that I now crave to watch after discovering that Pedro Pascal is starring beside her), ending with last year’s MaXXXine (the coronation of Ti West’s trilogy starring Mia Goth and composed of X and Pearl, both released in 2022) and Heretic, the new horror movie starring Hugh Grant.

It is quite remarkable how Drew Hankock plays with subtle references to Iris’ robotic nature. For example, out of his striking silliness, Josh gave a nickname to his companion that reminds a lot of the sound that droid characters like C3PO would make: Beep-boop. Again, another subtle hint to the woman’s robotic nature lies in her own name. It may be a bit far-fetched but I’m quite sure it is intentional. “Iris” is nonetheless than the anagram of “Siri”, the world’s best known vocal assistant. Even if our Siri doesn’t look as charming as Sophie Thatcher, both Apple’s vocal assistant and Iris are always happy to tell you about today’s weather!

Lukas Cage also deserves much praise for his amazing performance, giving so much nuance to his chameleonic character that you quite find it hard to believe that’s just one person playing him throughout.

However, Eli (masterfully played by Harvey Guillén) is probably the funniest character out of all and perhaps my personal favorite. Without falling into spoilers, Harvey is just as great as Cage as both of them manage to make their characters’ narrative arcs shine through the screen in the span of less than two hours of runtime.

The character of Kat (Megan Suri), is the one that I have enjoyed the least, not because Suri poorly acts (actually, quite the contrary) but because her character did not convey many emotions.

As I mentioned in the beginning, this film owes a lot to those cult classics that have the clash between humans and robots as their driving force. The list would be endless: Robot Dreams, Terminator, Ex Machina, I, Robot… tons are the movies that have had that same main focus. However, the one that I have found to be more akin to Companion is Blade Runner.

Just like in Blade Runner, automatons are capable of feeling emotions and, in most cases, they do not know that they’re not real. So who’s a “replicant” and who’s “real”? That’s up to you to find out. Were the unicorn, the oranges and the dinosaur costume real? Or were they just implanted memories?

«I can make you happy.»

The smooth narrative merges comic sketches with brutal violence and existential matters too. The harsh violence of its horror elements is counterbalanced by the fil rouge of the film: what’s the difference between a human and a robot? Can you tell them apart? Are robots actually capable of feeling emotions?

«I know what pains feel like.»

Just like in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, robots eventually have the best over humans, “emancipating” and unchaining themselves from the tyrannical claw of men.

- Are you breaking up with me?
- It’s not you… it’s me.

Again, Companion does not only lean on its existential life questions and on its sci-fi atmosphere but it also has its funny moments, brought to their apex by Eli’s (Harvey Guillén) eclectic personality and Josh’s (Jack Quaid) naive and self-centered attitude.

Coming back to the cast’s performances commentary, the great Rupert Friend also contributes to the movie’s comedic tone with his portrayal of a pro-Soviet Russian who gets his hands dirty and whose safety deposit box’s password is Stalin’s birth date.

Apart from its most glaringly addressed themes, Companion also provides a great critique about how much we depend on technology and how miserable we are as humans… or at least so counts for the shameful Josh.

Conclusion

What I’ve learned from this movie is that robotshaming is bad and that you should also read the terms and conditions of the contract when buying or renting yourself a robot companion.

While some may say that the “man vs machine” topos may be outdated by now because is something we’ve already seen in and out, I believe that this movie provides an interesting and innovative staging of it, reshaping the theme for its own plot purposes while also paying homage to those cult classic films from which this one inevitably takes inspiration.

Not that I have watched many 2025 movies until now — I have only watched two actually, this one and Leigh Whannell’s Wolf Man —, but Companion still received a high rating from me and it will probably stay up in the ranking for the rest of the year.

Companion is a fun ride and definitely a great directorial debut for Drew Hancock.

P.S.: Blasting Iris by Goo Goo Dolls on the car’s stereo on the way back home was a must ;)