Companion (2025)
★★★
This review may contain spoilers.
I love the color palette that is in this movie, the colors found within the film, they are so vibrant and well picked out, I had an incline that this might be the case when I saw the background pink they were using god is that such a great color to use here, contrast so well against the blood, just a great idea.
I do think visually this thing is quite stunning to look at, visual interesting shots are chosen here to showcase this story, really great storyboarding on this one as each shot is chosen carefully, I do find myself wishing that the shots shown were a bit more dynamic, like that that we hung on some shots for longer in some places and that there was more interesting framing used here, I have always thought while it is important to showcase where an object falls within a scene, if you are cutting out of action to a close up of that object it tosses all the pacing and tension that is found within that scene, this happens a couple of times with the knife and a gun, it falls a few times and we get a close up that cuts away from the action, imagine if we stayed in the moment with that cut as the character slowly clambered for something that we are unsure until it was revealed like we would know they were going for a gun or a knife but when it is revealed it would be so great, or when she is cutting herself out of the chair if in that wide we see the knife drop and where it drops but we don’t go to a close up and then we see her moving across the room and scooting and before we cut back to the convo with Josh and Kat we see the knife, she falls over, the cut would feel a bit less jarring imo and would be a bit more seem-less, it’s kind of like the electric corkscrew it is shown in some pretty bold close ups each time it is given the proper length to fill happen before it comes back in a checkovs kind of fashion, we see it used and we know exactly when the cut will happen as a result, simple stuff like that adds some style to the substance here, but it’s not bad it’s better than most movies out, just a suggestion as it’s a first feature.
I think that Jack Quaid and Sophie Thatcher are really great in this film, such great chemistry the two have, how they bounce off each other really works and that is important because it’s kind of the emotional core for the film, I think that obviously Sophie steals the show here, showcasing a more wide range of emotions while under the guise of hiding her true self some of the scene where her hand catches on fire or the last scene where she is her true self are gonna be the scenes that people mention the most but I think the scenes like her in bed with Josh desperately searching for some kind of connection from him that he is just not giving her and the scene where she is sitting on the couch with Kat trying to give her advice while acknowledging how jealous she is of her or the scene where she is grappling with the shatter reality that she is a robot work way more showcasing Thatchers acting chops, same with Quaid while later scenes where he is more manic and insane are excellent talking points people are going to bring up, the scene where he desperately tried to break into his car or the dinner scene, I do think it’s the opening moments for me where his character is clearly showcasing who he is without acting like the stereotype that he is portraying the man who feels like he is owed the world, the scene in the living room where everyone is dancing and Josh realizes that Iris is jealous of him dancing with Kat and he has to play it off, that works infinitely better for me and showcase Quaid’s true talent, when he told Iris to not slouch or be mopey and to smile that was great delivery. While I loved the main actors I actually think the supporting cast does some awesome stuff, I really like Kats final scene and how mournfully tragic it is, for a character who has kind of been a jerk to our main protagonist that last line is actually heart-wrenching as we see her slowly pass god hats off to Megan for this great performance, or Lukas as Patrick, when revealed that he knows he is a robot, you can feel the fear that he has as he reveals that he knows and he is okay with it man that was a great moment, of course Harvey is fantastic in this as well, the terror in his face when he sees that Patrick knows is so palpable but also he’s got this frantic energy about him that just works, that meet cute is so wonderfully funny and light but works so well within his character he is portraying it’s great.
I do think that this film presents some cool exploration of themes like power and control, and what that means in a relationship, how do you reclaim agency and power in your relationship when your significant other talks down to you and demeans you, it showcases here really wonderfully a woman taking power and control and breaking up with a toxic partner which I think works really well here, while not making this subject matter feel not explored well enough or like they were just using it for stakes like that relationship is explored really well, that scene where she says that he will shoot her and Josh confidant walks up and says do it knowing he has all the power was actually haunting and super powerful, I enjoyed the thematic theme of love that they were trying to explore as well, it feels deep and with some a nuance it isn’t just love is good love is like a fire, it burns hot and cold and can feel like it is tearing you apart while it is building you up at the same time, cool stuff, while I like the story as a whole and think it works, it’s when you start putting logic to some event where it kind of starts falling apart or maybe I just missed some explanation for these events but the bot gets jailbroken so essentially she can do things far beyond the safety protocol that the company was preventing her to do, so when she moves her intelligence up to a 100 percent shouldn’t she be able to see the outcome of all scenarios and not just one? Stuff like feels like questions you know we are meant to dwell on, if she could predict that she was going to get capture, wouldn’t she have a plan for that, wouldn’t she be able to tell that she is covered in blood and no hitchhiker would pick her up? She has 40 intelligence and were told her regular intelligence goes up to a hardboard grad so 40 percent of a Harvard grads intelligence puts you at what a community college certificate grad? While these logic holes are fun to think about put logic too, I mostly do this for goofs, overall the story is an escape story that works fairly well, it’s get me away from him he’s psychotic.
One of my true complaints comes from the score, it’s a bit ehh, like it’s doing its job but feels a bit basic, I do like the opening piano and how it contrasts with that opening monologue it makes it feel a bit romantic comedy esq, which is what the film is going to for, i do think acoustic guitar it was the route here to craft a great score, but I think an interesting concept would be to slowly make the guitar sound robotic as she finds out that she is a robot, with amps and filters and as she slowly becomes self reliant maybe the score finds a nice balance in the middle between the two robotic and rom com esc score.
Anyways those are some thoughts about Companion I had, a joke I came up with was I guess Jack Quaid is the only one of us having sex with robots by 2025, I think it’s funny. Thanks for reading.
