Sophie Thatcher. She holds her own in Yellowjackets, but after Heretic, I’m sure you’ll understand that my damn near Pavlovian response to her face in a horror movie is skepticism. For Companion to work, you needed a lead who could really carry the weight of the movie. To her credit, she did that. I won’t say she blew me away, but she did a good enough job to wash the stench of Heretic off of her. Hats off, this is the last I’ll say about her because I’m in love with this story.
I want to talk about Josh and what a perfect villain he is. I feel like studios have recently figured out that “nice guys” are, in fact, the villain. I’m blanking right now, so I’ll revisit this because FUCK WHAT MOVIE DID I WATCH AND NOT PUT IN HERE. But I’ll give Companion more credit than the others because they do actually “show” instead of “tell.” Having watched the trailer beforehand, I already had my eye on that guy because, hi, you purchased a girlfriend. The novelty, the entire premise of “owning” a girlfriend is, of course, about control. And they show that to viewers the first time in the app settings for Iris. Throughout the movie, we’re watching his controlling nature evolve and intensify, but it was there from the start.
(Also lol @ them playing “Iris” by the Goo Goo Dolls when she’s first delivered. Smh.)
I think Patrick and Eli are a lovely wrinkle when it comes to the premise of control, where Eli is presented as Josh’s opposite because he has absolutely and genuinely fallen in love with his robot. Still, at the end of the day Eli has ultimate control. It feels like a genuine love because Eli promises Patrick that he would never control him in that way, but at the end of the day, it’s obviously still not a level playing field.
I was also pretty into the heist element of the movie. It’s not a bad plan, and that Russian dude ultimately being a sod farmer is hilarious. Third act blah blah blah blah blah.
Companion ended up being a fun way to spend 90 minutes. Slightly better than average, hats off all around. 3.5 stars out of 5.
