Ah, the season of love – what better time for a high-concept sci-fi horror-thriller?
That is, I think, the logic behind Companion, Drew Hancock’s latest. A pre-Valentine’s Day release whose marketing has been draped in soft pinks, ribbons, and blood spatters since day one, it might not seem like the easiest sell for the season, but it’s certainly a new take, at least. The movie follows Iris (Sophie Thatcher), the titular robot companion and pre-programmed perfect partner to Josh (Jack Quaid), as they take a trip to stay with a few of his friends – only for the truth behind their apparent relationship to rise to the surface after a shocking death on a beautiful rural estate.
Perhaps Companion’s biggest strength is how playfully and adeptly it uses the tropes and fripperie of the classic romantic comedy to frame this story. From the brilliant marketing campaign to the nostalgic love song soundtrack to the meet-cutes to Thatcher’s soft old-school styling to the casting of Jack Quaid (son of legendary romcom actor Meg Ryan), Companion uses that dreamy, swooning romcom feel as a slyly incongruous backdrop to the sci-fi thriller that dominates much of the movie’s runtime.
And that thriller, in and of itself, is reason enough to watch Companion. It’s tight, it’s propulsive, it makes inventive use of the sci-fi premise to tell a unique crime story that’s compelling in its own right. If that was all the film was, I’d be happy with it – but it’s where it pushes past that and into a genuinely subversive story about love, control, and obsession that I think it rises to brilliance.
Because the trappings of the romance are not just there as a fun jab at a genre that so often succumbs to tropes and toxicity, but to explore the fantasy of a perfect partner and the way abuse and control serves as its own form of programming. It’s not a super subtle metaphor – Iris is literally a robot, programmed to serve and adore Josh – but Companion surprised me with just how sharp and thoughtful it was with its deconstruction of the coercively controlling relationship. The genuinely sensational performances from Quaid and Thatcher turn it into something with serious bite. Quaid in particular has never been better – or scarier – as this particular blend of pathetic and entitled, while both Lukas Gage (fresh off our beloved Smile 2) and Thatcher as the companion robots find a space between the inorganic and the compellingly human that’s downright brilliant.
Companion is an excellent film, and one that works on multiple levels – as a take-down of the romance movie, as a taut crime thriller with a sci-fi twist, and as a story of abuse and personhood after coercive control. It’s the perfect anti-Valentine’s movie, and one that’s got legs far past the lovey-dovey season is sets out to skewer.
If you enjoyed this article and want to see more stuff like it, please consider supporting us on Ko-Fi. You can check out more of my work on my personal blog, The Cutprice Guignol!
By Lou MacGregor
(header image via IMDB)
No But Listen 