Companion

Writer/director Drew Hancock has a solid premise with some smart, pointed themes cooking in this story of a couple who venture out to the remote lake house of a Russian millionaire for a weekend getaway with friends. This is where I would normally try to write something about the film's premise without spoiling any of the key details that make the movie distinctive, but all the marketing, trailers, and even taglines make such intriguing plot details nearly impossible to avoid. (I still did not know anything going on, but this was my first trip to the restored Vista in LA, and the Vista's vintage 35mm trailers—Westworld and The Stepford Wives- clued me in). Even if I were watching a detestable movie, I would still be in heaven at the Vista! 

Companion is certainly not a detestable movie, but it sure falls short of its potential. I can understand why the choice was made not to hold anything back when selling this picture. For one thing, it's not like the key reveal occurs at the end in some big surprise twist. More significantly, this is not the kind of shrewd picture that rewards careful viewing and can become a sleeper hit via word of mouth (yes, those do still kinda exist). This is a dumb popcorn movie even though it tackles significant, timely themes—the out-of-control adoption and normalization of Artificial Intelligence and the way it (and everything else) gets weaponized by pathetic, fragile incels desperate to achieve status regardless of merit.

Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid give solid performances and do pretty well with Hancock's on-the-nose dialogue. The rest of the cast is a bit more uneven. Since there's no room for subtlety or nuance in this picture, those who underplay their roles, like Lukas Gage, fare the best. Hancock and his cast kept losing me with something dumb, poorly written, or oversold, only to win me back with something clever and well-staged. Near the end, when two technology company employees enter the story (or, more specifically, when they exit), the script becomes preposterously stupid, and the movie lost me for good.

Companion is a perfectly enjoyable dumb movie, but coming on the heals of M3GAN, a film that was sold like a dumb popcorn movie but was actually far better, and Black Eyed Susan, Scooter McCrae's little scene but vastly superior picture from 2024 that touches on similar themes, it's hard to think much of this forgettable entry in the robot-girls-gone-wild sub-genre.