Would you date R2-D2? Be honest.
Companion is a gripping thriller about a future where humans can buy robot girlfriends, boyfriends and the like.
We open on six friends at a wooded getaway. They’re smiling, I assume there’s a cheese plate. Things take a sinister turn fast as a fatal accident turns into the blame game – with a twist.
We learn our girl Iris (Sophie Thatcher) is a robot whose every emotion is perfectly calibrated to the needs of her dirtbag boyfriend Josh, played here with aplomb by Jack Quaid, an actor whose star rises with each passing year.
The limits of that allegiance are quickly tested by a sequence of events so unbelievable and yet right in your face that you’ll leave the theater mad at yourself for not seeing them coming.
Director Drew Hancock is as methodical as he is improvisational, leaving room for a very comedic cast of actors to bring levity to what is essentially a horror film about our very near future.
Lukas Cage (Smile) and Harvey Guillén (What We Do in the Shadows) are sensational as the cloying perfect couple with a dark secret. Their chemistry is apparent in both the movie and the interview linked at the bottom of this article.
Those two alongside the terrific Megan Suri (Poker Face) round out a cast that tells the film’s frankly frightening story in a way that’s as light as it is ominous. It’s one of those movies where everyone is technically hateable but you’re rooting for them all.
Companion is in theaters tomorrow – January 31st – and I can’t recommend it enough. Buy yourself a ticket now or have your AI girlfriend do it. Either way is probably fine.
