Companion

Companion is the type of movie you want to go into as blind as possible. So, I'll do a very short, spoiler-free review up top followed by a full-spoiler review (after a warning) below.

Directed by Drew Hancock and produced by Zach Cregger, much ado has been made of the fact that Companion is "from the people who brought you Barbarian"...a marketing choice to entice people to attend a movie that promises to be full of twists and turns. And although there are many twists (some of them spoiled in the trailers), Companion is more of a dark comedy with horror elements than a wildly tense horror film (as Barbarian was). So for those of you who aren't crazy about horror, but enjoy thrillers, Companion is a safe movie to go see.

In a spoiler-free nutshell, Companion is about Josh (Jack Quaid) and Iris (Sophie Thatcher), a couple who are visiting Josh's friends at a huge lakehouse for a weekend of fun. Iris is insecure because she's met some of Josh's friends before and is convinced they don't like her. Josh brushes off Iris's concerns.

The friends at the lakehouse include aloof Kat (Megan Suri), her (married) boyfriend Sergey (Rupert Friend), who is also the owner of the lakehouse, Eli (Harvey Guillen), and his boyfriend Patrick (Lukas Gage). 

Things go awry. That's it. That's all I can say. I encourage you to go see it without reading anything else. There are some horror/thriller elements, as I mentioned above, but they aren't too gory or intense. Again, it's more of a dark comedy than anything else.

Grade: B+

***

AND NOW FOR THE SPOILERS!

So, people got pissed because the second trailer for Companion (and the poster!) give away the fact that Iris is a robot. A "companion" robot, to be specific. I knew this twist going in and I also knew that she was going to kill someone at some point. 

However, despite knowing the central twist, Companion was still filled with surprises. The fact that Iris is a robot is revealed about 20 minutes into the movie after she stabs Sergey in the neck with a switchblade when he attempts to assault her. Coming back to the lakehouse covered in blood, the rest of the friends freak the hell out while Iris tries to explain that she had to do it. Josh says "go to sleep, Iris" and she...powers down.

From there, we learn that this whole weekend was a setup between Josh and Kat to kill Sergey and steal from his secret safe which is filled with 12 million dollars cash (convenient!). Josh hacked Iris's system and turned her aggression levels way up and then put her in a situation where Sergey would attempt to rape her and she would fight back. All Kat and Josh need to do is turn her in to Empathix (the robot company), make up a BS excuse about how they have no idea what cause Iris to malfunction, take the money and run. Of course, things don't go as planned.

For one thing, Eli wasn't in on the plan and when he finds out what's going on, he demands a cut of the money for himself and a cut for Patrick. Josh and Kat protest, saying that Patrick doesn't deserve a cut...because he's also a robot! This is a twist that I did not see coming despite the fact that Eli and Patrick have a similar "meet cute" story to Iris and Josh (these meet cutes are programmed into the robot's memory to establish a "love link" between the robot and it's owner). Also, Patrick is a bit out of Eli's league. Still, I didn't see it coming.

Iris doesn't know she's a robot until Josh explains to her how they actually met. No, it wasn't a funny story about Josh causing a display of oranges to fall on the floor at a supermarket. In reality, Iris was brought to Josh's apartment and set to his specifications (and then they immediately fucked when Iris came online). Everything Iris knows about herself is just in her programming to make her seem more human. Hell, Josh can even increase and decrease her intelligence levels. An incel's wet dream.

Upon learning the truth, Iris is able to escape and grab Josh's phone, where she immediately goes to her own app and increases her intelligence to 100% (Josh had it set to 40% because he is The Worst). But Josh, Kat, Eli, and Patrick are on her tail, and they have a gun. They also have Patrick, who can be turned into a violent killing machine just as Iris was. Will a self-aware robot be able to outsmart humans? 

I'll stop there, but more twists and turns abound. Companion was a delightfully fun movie and although it doesn't have the weight of Get Out or The Stepford Wives, the toxic masculinity admittedly did hit a little harder given *gestures broadly*. Jack Quaid is excellent as Josh: a sweet, seemingly harmless man on the outside and a loathesome misogynist on the inside. To no one's surprise, he immediately betrays Kat, the only other woman in the movie, the minute she becomes an inconvenience to him.

Sophie Thatcher is also excellent and is entirely believable as a love doll: she is just so, so adorable, but with a deep, husky voice and a hint of shyness. Truly, any man would want her as an obedient little pet. But the minute her aggression and intelligence levels are turned up, she becomes a resourceful, courageous being. At first, she only wants to escape. But by the end, she wants revenge.

The rest of the cast is great. Harvey Guillen is hilarious as a pudgy nerd who, at the end of the day, is not much different from Josh. And Lukas Gage, similar to Thatcher, swivels from sweet puppy dog to mindless killer the minute his system is fucked with. I've been seeing Gage in more and more movies and TV shows and I'm really impressed with him. And of course Guillen, best known as Guillermo in What We Do in the Shadows, is always a delight.

I had such a fun time watching this movie. Sure, it's not going to win any awards or blow anyone's mind, but it's a fun and dark exploration of toxic masculinity in which the woman (well, robot woman) wins in the end. My only complaint is that Josh didn't suffer enough at the end.

Grade: B+

Stuff I watched in...January, 2025

A Real Pain

Directed by Jesse Eisenberg, I was so very pleasantly surprised at the emotional depth and honesty of this dramedy about two cousins, Benji (Kieran Culkin) and David (Eisenberg), who go on a Jewish heritage tour of Poland to honor their recently deceased grandmother's life.

David is the dorky, anxious guy who always gets to the airport early and likes to go to bed early. He is also married with a cute kid. Benji is the charming, laid back one who is also emotionally chaotic. Watching A Real Pain, I was struck with how I related to both David and Benji in terms of my...less than desirable qualities. I'm anxious and routine-oriented like David, but also charming-in-a-sometimes-mean-or-blunt-way like Benji. My self-reflection while watching this movie was especially potent given that I just got back from traveling and I, like many others, see some of my worst qualities emerge when I travel. It was interesting watching two characters do annoying things that I see in myself, while also seeing them forgive each other for those annoying things. I felt both self-aware, and self-forgiving.

And A Real Pain, which is a play on words (Benji and David are both "a real pain" and are feeling very, very real pain), is the perfect movie to feel your feelings during. The nature of the tour, which involves a trip to a concentration camp, but also personal shit happening in Benji and David's lives, bring out the emotions in the two men. Eisenberg, in particular, gives a deeply emotional performance where you hear the catch in his throat as he describes his love for his cousin and also his anger and bone-deep fear about his cousin's choices. 

I won't say more--just watch it. It's a short (90 minutes) film filled with bittersweet, melancholic feelings. It's also really funny! Culkin and Eisenberg are excellent, as are the supporting actors. A Real Pain is one of the most emotionally honest films I've seen in a while.

Grade: A

***

Sleep

This Korean psychological thriller, written and directed by Jason Yu, follows a couple who are about to become parents. Mom-to-be Soo-jin (Jung Yu-mi) is kicking ass in a corporate office and her husband, the lovable Hyeon-soo (Lee Sun-kyun), is an actor aiming to get bigger and better roles. 

Everything seems hunky dory...until Hyeon-soo begins sleep-walking. It starts off innocently enough, with him sitting up in bed and talking in his sleep, but soon he is eating raw meat directly out of the fridge and nearly throwing himself out of a window. And it only gets more sinister from there. 

Soo-jin is, understandably, terrified. With the help of a doctor, the couple work to make their apartment sleepwalk-proof (pads on the sharp table ends) and their lifestyles more conducive to healthy slumber (no more alcohol). But Hyeon-soo continues to sleepwalk--and get more and more aggressive--after the baby arrives. Soo-jin becomes convinced that there is something supernatural at play.

Sleep holds its cards close to its chest, giving us evidence that the sleepwalking is more than just a natural occurrence, but also pointing out how ridiculous a supernatural explanation is. The film also shows how night after night of interrupted sleep can eventually drive anyone, especially a new mom, crazy. 

Sleep is a fun, thrilling horror movie with a decent amount of comedy thrown in for good measure. Fans of horror will likely enjoy it.

Grade: B

***

Band of Brothers

I heard nothing but raves about this 2001 HBO series which follows the true story of Easy Company, a Parachute Infantry Regiment during WWII. Bookended by interviews with still-living members of the Company, Band of Brothers shows how these man had to essentially become "brothers" in order to survive the war. They had to trust and rely on one another and especially rely on their leaders, some of whom were pretty incompetent. 

There is a lot going on in this series, and what kept it from being an "A" rating for me was, as dumb as it sounds, too many combat sequences. Yeah, duh, it's a series about the frontlines of WWII...but action has never been my thing and I really don't need 20 minutes of bullets to get the point. It's also very difficult to tell the men apart, especially during the combat sequences.

The scenes that were meaningful for me were ones were the men are just hanging out and shooting the shit, whether in the trenches or in the safety of their bunks. These are the scenes where to get to know these guys so that when the combat does start, you can see how their personality traits come into play during warfare.

I have a soft spot for WWII media (although I'm more interested in the daily lives of those on the home front than those in battle), so I enjoyed Band of Brothers quite a bit. It's not an "A" series for me, but I can see how it would be for many, many viewers and it's definitely worth the watch.

Grade: B+

***

Smile and Smile 2

I first saw Parker Finn's unrelenting horror film Smile in 2022 and did not care for it (here's my review). In particular, I was pissed about the ending. Also, it's just a really feel-bad movie. And it's weird because I don't mind feel-bad movies, but for some reason Smile didn't do it for me at the time.

However, I rewatched it recently, along with its sequel, Smile 2, and I have to say that going into these movies knowing what they're like makes them way more enjoyable. They are movies that feel very aggressive to me, and very scary. They both have a ton of jump scares and you feel tension throughout the entire movie. Like the main characters, Rose (Sosie Bacon) in Smile and Skye (Naomi Scott) in Smile 2, you feel like you are slowly going crazy while watching these movies.

I particularly remember a scene from Smile where Rose, the victim of a curse that makes her see terrifying smiles everywhere, attends her nephew's birthday party and extremely upsetting things happen at the party that lead to her scream-crying in front of a gaggle of shocked partygoers. I found this scene unbearably cruel and melodramatic when I first saw it...but on a second watch I kind of like it. Both movies are about trauma (and mental illness and addiction) and how people basically get mad at other people for being "overly emotional" and avoid them, isolating them when those people need help the most. When Rose has her breakdown at the party, she is not treated as someone who needs help and care, but as a terrible person who ruined a party. There is a dark, sad truth about this that I now appreciate.

In Smile 2, Skye Riley (Scott) is a pop singer on tour after recovering from a car crash that killed her boyfriend (played by Ray Nicholson, son of Jack...and they look and act so much alike) and a subsequent addiction to painkillers. She is not well, but is pressured to perform by her stage mother, Elizabeth (Rosemarie DeWitt). When Skye begins to unravel (due to the curse, of course), she is not told to rest and cancel all her public engagements, she is pushed harder and harder until she breaks...and then she is blamed for her very public breakdown. 

So, I am changing my opinion about the first Smile and giving it a B+ (instead of the C+ I gave it originally) and I am giving the same grade to its sequel. Yes, these movies are incredibly intense (and genuinely scary), but they have an honesty about the way we treat victims of trauma that I find very compelling. 

Grade: B+

***

Juror #2

Say what you will about Clint Eastwood, but the guy is still cranking out decent movies at age 94, which is a remarkable feat. Juror #2 is a solid courthouse thriller about a man, Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult), who finds himself serving on the a jury for a murder trial...and he has information that would blow the case wide open. 

I feel like there are some plot holes in the movie that keep it from hitting as hard as it could, and the ending feels a little undercooked, but overall it's an entertaining legal thriller for a nice evening at home. Nicholas Hoult is good in everything, and he does well here as a man struggling with his conscience. If he reveals the information he knows, it will impact his life in a negative way. But if he holds his tongue an innocent (maybe?) man will go to prison. It definitely made me reflect on what I would do in a similar situation and there are no easy answers.

Grade: B

***

It's What's Inside

This mind-bending comedy-thriller directed by Greg Jardin practically requires note-taking in order to follow the plot. Whether that's a good or bad thing, I'm still not sure.

A group of college friends reunite for a pre-wedding party for Reuben (Devon Terrell). Surprisingly, Forbes (David Thompson) also shows up. Forbes is a weird dude who got expelled from university after bringing his sister, Beatrice (still in high school at the time), to a party, which lead to her getting in a fight with another girl that was so violent, Beatrice ended up in a mental hospital.

But all of that is water under the bridge when Forbes reveals the "party game" he brought: a suitcase containing a machine that allows everyone to experience their consciousness enter another person's body. Basically, they all attach wires to their temples, Forbes flips some switches, and bam--you are in someone else's body!

I mean...do I even have to say "shit goes sideways"? Of course it does. Mostly because the group uses this absolutely insane miracle of a game to have sex with each other while in new bodies. Sex, lies, manipulation, secrets kept and revealed... until it all goes horribly awry and the group is left figuring out how to clean up the mess.

It's What's Inside is a fun movie, though of course difficult to follow at times for obvious reasons. There's also a gaping plot hole (without giving too much away: one person threatens to tell the cops that another person committed a serious crime...but there is clear physical evidence that they did not commit the crime) that really annoyed me. Like Juror #2 above, this is a fine movie for an evening at home with popcorn. 

Grade: B