Directed By Drew Hancock

Starring – Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, Harvey Guillen

The Plot – A weekend getaway turns bloody and violent when a subservient android (Thatcher) that’s built for human companionship goes haywire.

Rated R for strong violence, sexual content, and adult language throughout.

Companion | Official Trailer

POSITIVES

On its surface, “Companion” represents a cutthroat revenge thriller of a directorial debut for Hancock, that effortlessly breeds tension and brutality with unrelenting consequences, but diving into this movie’s programing helps unlock a profoundly rich and even thought-provoking commentary on everything from existentialism to relationship gaslighting, making this one of those experiences that sneaks up on an audience, even in already showing so much of its hand during overly revealing marketing. As a guiding force, Hancock elicits a tastily sinister essence of twisted humor to the movie’s decadent personality, both in openly embracing the wildly deranged factor of the film’s off-the-rail developments, but also candy-coated color coordination of production designs and even uniquely choreographing wardrobe choices that each fed into the artificial world conjured for unknowing protagonist. However, its Drew’s work as a writer that might be his single greatest quality to the movie’s integrity, entailing the material not only with a caustic wit that pays off incredibly towards the effectiveness of the film’s devilishly delicious gags and off-beat observations, but also a constantly evolving story in the struggle for power between sides within the narrative that wasn’t afraid to dissect the legitimacy of manufactured emotions and implanted memories. While the script never loses sight of the all-out brawl that it advertised, it’s nice to experience a film that evokes such a personal introspection to gender dynamics and control, pondering a greater responsibility towards reaching directly out to the audience than most horror, thriller or science fiction films feel typically interested in pursuing. The storytelling does a lot of things, but its single most unique aspect is in inscribing an endearing essence of humanity to Thatcher’s Iris’, which appraises empathy in being a survivor instead of a battered victim, while ironically taking Quaid down darkly depraved roads of indistinguishable familiarity that lacked a single semblance of empathy that defined him as human. As expected, the performances from both of these commanding presences are quite remarkable, beginning with Sophie Thatcher, whose arresting dynamic as Iris captures so much pain and internal anguish from an android absolved of such possibilities. Thatcher’s intentional monotony in delivery constantly breeds an air of reminder to the soulless interior of her consciousness, with stone-face expressions and boldly blossoming windows to the soul conveying something deeper persisting than what she’s letting on, however externally tapping into overwhelmingness as a means of awakening to a world that seemingly doesn’t feel as big as it once was, when she discovers the truth. She’s complimented endlessly by the frazzled dynamic that she shares with Quaid, who once again taps into a deeper and darker place than we deemed possible, before “Scream 5”, all with a manically supercharged energy growing from sarcastically dry origins that pieces together the kind of sociopathic spouses that so many women unfortunately deal with on a daily basis. Hancock constructs a stage big enough for each of them to shine with their respective roles, and though they’ve each already garnered so much success in their careers, I think their work in “Companion” serves as the single greatest that either of them have elicited, to this point, with Hancock pushing each of their characters to such unfamiliar territory by film’s end than where they initially began. Aside from spectacular writing, direction and acting, the editing is quite remarkable in the psychological sting that it’s constantly asked to unlock, stitching together these various memories for motivations to the characters occasionally sudden and unforgiving actions. What’s most impressive is how the cuts shift back to a simpler time for the characters, with subtle deviations of special effects in the visuals that reflect the air of integrity to the shifts in development taking shape in the foreground of the narrative, making them feel like we’re experiencing them all over again for the first time, regardless of repetition in the outline basically articulating the same experiences. Because we’re living the story through the eyes of an android protagonist, the transitions away from the narrative to these tender memories come as sudden and sporadic as anyone seeking comfort from the past, but never in ways that directly halt the momentum of developments playing out in the forefront of the storytelling, instead coinciding with the growing conflicts in order to make us question the legitimacies of what we’re being shown and told, like Iris’ newfound eye-opening wisdom is granting her. The computer-generated special effects also grant an equally subtle and believable hold on the designs of Iris’ artificial properties, primarily in the use of shifting eyes and skin deterioration that represent the ringer that this poor girl has gone through, all in showing the effective and minimalized uses of C.G in ways that can legitimately be valuable to even a story as isolated and claustrophobic as this one.

NEGATIVES

Though “Companion” is a vital breath of fresh air to January releases, two underwhelming aspects ultimately and unfortunately kept this from being the film to beat heading to February, beginning with its overly revealing marketing ads that viciously spoiled what is easily the single biggest twist to this movie. For my money, if the audience experiencing Iris finding out her own artificiality at the exact moment that she does, would’ve elicited a ground-rattling twist of Shyamalan scale, however the trailers and even the movie’s opening act mistakenly give this away irresponsibly, and the result is waiting for a film to catch up the knowledge of the audience, who immediately feel five steps ahead from the movie’s opening scene. What’s even stranger is that the big delivery at around the film’s 20 minute mark even treats it like this monumental moment that changes the stakes and circumstance of Iris’ life completely, so spoiling them so nonchalantly feels like a forced request from the studio, who forced Hancock to give away his ace in the hole, before he ever had a chance to. There are other twists in the movie that did accurately catch me off guard, but none that even come close to the scene where Iris is living with her eyes open for the first time in her short-but-meaningful life, and I find myself curious with how impactful such a twist would’ve landed with an unsuspecting auditorium, especially considering it takes the relationship of Iris and Josh down such darkly demented corridors. My only other issue with the film is with its 92-minute run time, which might seem perfect to anyone with a limited patience for movies, but lacking for the abundance of exposition and direction elicited to this script, which certainly deserved more time to naturally flesh out. Part of me definitely wishes the script would’ve dived deeper into the operation of this android company and certain unanswered questions left unfulfilled, but my bigger problems persist from the backstory of Iris and Josh’s relationship, which I wish we lived in a bit more for a scene or two, before turning it on its head, as well as the entirety of the third act, which steamrolled over these conflicts like a full-steamed locomotive, which required conveniences to conjure resolutions. Sometimes it leads to the movie breaking rules that it sets for its own android, while others never push the long-term vulnerability factor of Iris’ captivity, and while I thoroughly enjoyed the film, it leaves me wishing for a 110-minute director’s cut out there somewhere to satisfy someone like me, who appreciates natural progression over sequencing compression.

OVERALL
“Companion” brings all of the chaotic comedy and cutthroat carnage that was promised in overly revealing trailers but delivers on so much more merited meaning on gender roles and power dynamics within toxic relationships that take it to uncharted territory rarely seen for January releases. With deliciously demented turns from Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid enacting a chilling chess battle to the bitter end, as well as darkly twisted direction from Drew Hancock, the film stays together through the woes of spoiled twists and abridged storytelling, enacting a film that wants to entertain you as much as it wants to make you challenge conventions.

My Grade: 8.0 or B