'Companion' Review: Robot Girlfriends Just Wanna Have Fun
Sophie Thatcher shines bright in Drew Hancock's fiercely fun android horror
Hollywood has gone all in on the AI revolution, whether it’s actually using it to make movies better or worse or just using it as a horror device, there’s no doubt that the next decade of cinema will be questioning whether we deserve to have the robots take over.
Director and screenwriter Drew Hancock’s feature film debut, Companion, tries to do something slightly different with its demented exploration of a relationship between an person and an android by taking the foundation found in Lars and the Real Girl to ask the question: why don’t we feel bad for the sex robot? It’s a trite question, but Hancock uses it to deconstruct tropes established in the likes of Ex Machina to tell a funny, unpredictable tale of girl meets boy, boy controls girl, and girl decides to save herself.
Josh (Jack Quaid) and his girlfriend Iris (Sophie Thatcher) drop in on their friends who are spending the weekend chilling at a lake house owned by Russian billionaire Sergei (Rupert Friend). When things take a turn, and someone ends up dead, the group quickly turns on each other due to secrets buried in Josh and Iris’s relationship.
It’s a bit irritating that the trailers and posters for New Line Cinema’s latest, Companion, go all in on letting you know Iris is a robot. I’ve urged several people already to go in entirely cold to this movie because the eventual reveal, about 15 minutes into the movie, is so jarring. Hancock even goes so far as to do a similar reveal later on and it still hits in a way that makes you say, “Dammit, he fooled me again!” But considering how unique the marketing for Barbarian was, and how it utilized other films to sell this, it would have been nice to see them have a little faith in their audience.
Regardless, Hancock takes a familiar set-up: a boy and his sex doll, and uses it to not just explore feminine identity and autonomy, but male entitlement which couldn’t come at a more relevant time. We meet Josh and Irish during the ultimate meet cute of them meeting at a grocery store. It’s a very rom-com moment and almost immediately the pair are dropped into the familiar romantic trope of meeting the friends. Iris believes Josh’s friends don’t like her, particularly his friend Kat (Megan Suri). But Josh reminds her to just “smile and act happy.” It’s little moments of dialogue like this that, if you didn’t know who Iris was, would be all the more blackly comic once it’s revealed.
Thatcher and Quaid have such an easy chemistry about them right off the bat. This isn’t a Stepford Wives-esque relationship where he’s not in the same league as her. You could see these two being together. Josh isn’t the perfect guy — a sweet dance moment between the two immediately cuts to a below camera shot looking up at Josh as he orgasms during sex — but it’s only as the movie progresses that you notice the red flags that would make any woman ask some questions. Quaid is great at playing up the trash man archetype between here and Scream VI, by the way. The reveal of where Iris’s name came from is up there with the “Push” singalong in Barbie as one of my favorite ‘90s retcon moments.
But it’s Thatcher, continuing to find new and unique projects (Heretic just a few months ago!) and as Iris she is giving us a woman, yes woman, who is relatable. We’ve seen numerous “women controlled” movies and what Hancock always reminds us is that Iris isn’t superhuman. She tells Josh at one point that she feels pain, something which ends up being used against her as the camera focuses in on her face, trying to suppress the clear pain she is feeling. Thatcher has such an expressive face and the script, which can vacillate between horror, comedy and romance, lets the actress go through a bevy of emotions. Vanessa Porter’s costumes and the hair and makeup team also do a remarkable job of giving her a timeless, Old Hollywood look which adds an additional layer of subtext to Iris and Josh’s relationship.
What stands out about Companion’s theme — and, again, why the robot business should stay a secret — is how much Iris talks in terms of relationship. This isn’t a robot questioning its existence. It’s a woman wondering whether her partner sees her as a person, whether he respects her. When things take a turn the audience understands how quickly characters are willing to foresake a person they love. Person. Not a machine. Iris is an object, not just in terms of being something bought and paid for, but in being in a relationship with a man who only sees her as something to own.
There’s a vibe akin to Ready or Not in Hancock’s script. Josh and his friends are various shades of spoiled and entitled, from the cool Kat who admits she’s dating Sergei strictly for his money, to Eli and Patrick (Harvey Guillen and Lukas Gage), whose dimwitted mien is scrubbed away by their mad love for each other. Guillen and Gage are particular scene stealers because they embrace having fun, whether it’s spontaneous dance scenes or Eli’s frustration at having to wield a gun around the woods. A mid-act twist genuinely saddens the audience when Eli and Patrick are separated, if only because Gage is so wonderful at conveying a look that feels like a lost puppy.
Companion is one of the first great movies of 2025, and a movie that’s only going to get timelier over the subsequent years. If this is what Hancock can deliver with his first feature we should all be excited for what’s next. The look is fresh and vibrant, Thatcher and Quaid are wonderful. This is just pure horror/comedy in the best way possible. Also, you won’t look at an automatic wine opener the same way again.