Companion ★★★

Iris (Sophie Thatcher) is madly in love. Following a quintessential meet cute at a grocery store, she and Josh (Jack Quaid) embarked upon a relationship. As Iris will tell others, seeing him, even as a perfect stranger, made something inside her feel as though it suddenly clicked into place. A part of her that was broken was mended. Unfortunately for Iris, things in her life are not as they seem. She is a companion robot, a “fuckbot” as some derisively refer to her, and fully under the control of Josh. With the command, “Iris, go to sleep,” she shuts off. “Iris, wake up,” brings her back to life, ready to serve Josh and ensure he is as happy as can be. Everyone in Josh’s life knows of Iris’s situation, except for Iris who, thanks to her programming, has full outlines of memories (including that meet cute) that never alert her to the reality that everything about her life is a fabrication. When she and Josh head to a friend’s remote cabin for a fun getaway, everything comes crashing down.

Writer and director Drew Hancock breaks little new ground with Companion. One can immediately start to identify a litany of similar recent films. It is a story of a woman with an awful “boyfriend”, blending in science fiction/artificial intelligence themes and social commentary on incels and the objectification of women. Companion never beats around the bush as Iris is literally designed to be a companion robot with men all around her remarking that sex is “what she was made for.” They show no hesitation in trying to take that from her, while even women like Josh’s friend Kat (Megan Suri) show her resentment for making her feel “replaceable.” She may be a robot but she feels things and has feelings, but because of her differences, those around her feel entirely free to discount her and not view her as anything other than something they can use. These companion robots feel remarkably akin to women in the science fiction classic Soylent Green, who are referred to as “furniture”, are attached to the apartment they live within, and exist to serve the men who occupy those residences. Iris is, as Josh notes, a “rental” from the company that made her and she is just one of many models they create with customers able to swap them out for newer, upgraded ones as if they were a new iPhone.

Companion finds plenty of success in watching the chaos that is unleashed. Though this getaway seemed normal with Josh and Iris meeting up with Josh’s old friends and their partners – Kat and her married Russian boyfriend Sergey (Rupert Friend), who owns the cabin, and Eli (Harvey Guillén) and his boyfriend Patrick (Lukas Gage) – it is all a set up. Josh has “jailbroken” or modified Iris to give her aggression to use her in an elaborate robbery scheme. He is dissatisfied with his life and like many incels, feels the world owes him more so he is out to claim what he believes he deserves. Naturally, things do not go to plan. Companion leans into classic genre appeals with gnarly kills, goopy effects, and a final girl lathered in blood and dirt who is truly put through the ringer of trying to break free of the chains placed upon her by the world. Hancock’s script nimbly handles exposition, handling the more nuanced elements of its story in a way that never slows it down too much. It all builds to a brilliant final encounter between her and Josh that expertly capitalizes on smart foreshadowing of the weapon, indicative of Hancock’s overall directorial guile. Everybody and everything in the story has a role, and Companion knows how and when to put it all together in a highly satisfying fashion.

Companion benefits from a strong cast, especially Sophie Thatcher. She follows up her impressive performance in last year’s Heretic with an even better turn in this film. Tasked with embodying the settings changes, the repressed or somewhat stilted facial expressions of a robot, and a switch triggered by coded language (i.e. seamlessly moving from frantic explanations of what happened to delivering the weather in a flat, monotone voice when prompted), Thatcher embodies a robot’s vocal intonations and mannerisms. Companion further introduces some neat visual effects with Iris that, too, are well realized whether related to those settings changes or, by the end, some more structural adjustments. Thatcher, as Iris becomes more self-aware and self-determined, really dials up the stone cold delivery of this highly motivated character. She has a cutting delivery that really works here, while standing in stark contrast to the more bubbly and romantic energy that Thatcher exudes earlier in the film, making for an impressive display of her range. Though Iris may be a robot, Thatcher’s performance creates considerable empathy with this being who is confronted by a false reality, having lived with a man who does not value her beyond sex, and now being set up to take the blame to allow that man to self-actualize. Her journey feels truly liberating, matched by a satisfied and knowing smirk on Thatcher’s face.

Thatcher’s strong performance is matched by Jack Quaid’s embodiment of a familiar everyman who sees himself as a good guy, but whose every action belies this with cruelty and a complete lack of empathy. He is a wholly contemptible figure. The dialogue for him and his interactions with Iris are quite impressive, even down to his pet name for her of “Beep-Boop.” Initially a cutesy name that carries great meaning after Iris is revealed to be a robot (in a way, it feels like he lorded that over her, knowing she would likely never know the truth) and then continuously used even after things go awry, it becomes a great representation of how little Josh thinks of her and that she never registered as a real being to him. His emotional manipulations of her, knowing that she is programmed to serve her, make this into a very insidious character and one that Quaid plays with a devious smile. Harvey Guillén steals scenes left-and-right as Eli, serving as comedic relief (and having great chemistry with Lukas Gage there) with many of the film’s funniest lines coming from Guillén and benefitting from his expert comedic delivery.

Companion is not particularly original. With bits of The Stepford Wives, Gone Girl, Ex Machina, Ready or Not, The Menu, Don’t Worry Darling, Blink Twice, and so many more, while adhering to classic thriller and horror tropes at every turn, it is fair to say that Companion is both on trend and often cliché. But, in the hands of Drew Hancock, a sharp script, and a terrific lead performance from Sophie Thatcher, it carves out its own place in this crowded field of films. Delivering good genre thrills, plenty of laughs, and shocking twists, Companion is a good time with enough on its mind to pair with its engaging science fiction plot.