Companion
Director's satirical sci-fi debut decidedly feminist.
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The less you know about the satirical sci-fi/horror flick “Companion” (in theaters Friday, Jan. 31) the better, so I’ll try to tread lightly in the following review.
We’re introduced to Iris (Sophie Thatcher) and Josh (Jack Quaid) as they meet cute at the grocery store. She catches him staring at her. She smiles. He smiles in return. He clumsily knocks over a display of oranges. They both laugh and begin talking and connecting.
We flash forward a few months. Josh and Iris are now living together and are leaving for a weekend away at a lavish lake house belonging to Sergey (Rupert Friend), boyfriend of Josh’s friend Kat (Megan Suri). Iris has some trepidations about the trip as she knows Kat doesn’t like her. Also along for the ride are Josh and Kat’s pal Eli (Harvey Guillén) and his boyfriend Patrick (Lukas Gage). Things quickly turn weird and violent.
“Companion” is the feature debut of filmmaker Drew Hancock (he previously served as a writer on the awesome series “Blue Mountain State”). It’s an amalgamation of lots of other movies – among them “The Stepford Wives,” “The Terminator,” “Don’t Worry Darling” and “Blink Twice” – while also very much being its own thing. It’s somewhat curious that a male writer/director is riffing on material so similar to actresses-turned-directors Olivia Wilde and Zoë Kravitz, but it’s also cool that a guy is making a movie that’s so openly and outwardly feminist.
The performances are pretty good across the board. This is Thatcher’s film first and foremost and she gives a great physical performance. She’s been solid in genre fare over the past few years, i.e. “Heretic” and “The Boogeyman,” and this is easily the best she’s been to date. I like Quaid a lot as an actor even when I don’t like his character and he’s consistent as ever here. Friend entertainingly rocks a mullet and a trash ‘stache. Suri is saddled with a bit of a one-note role, but she plays it pretty well. Guillén is arguably the picture’s comedic relief and does a decent enough job doing so. Gage gets to engage in more horror iconography after memorably smashing his face in with a weight plate in last fall’s “Smile 2” and even gets to recall a certain villain from an early 1990s blockbuster when donning police duds.
“Companion” is a funny and freaky flick with twists and turns that should appease genre fans … especially if they’re gals or gays, which is sort of refreshing when straight men are so often the ones being catered to.