- Director: Drew Hancock
- Screenplay: Drew Hancock
- Cast: Sophie Thatcher, Jack Quaid, Lukas Gage, Megan Suri, Harvey Guillen, Rupert Friend
- Cinematography: Eli Born
- Editing: Brett W. Bachman, Josh Ethier
- Score: Hrishikesh Hirway
- Genre: Science fiction thriller
- Runtime: 97 minutes
The opening sequence of ‘Companion‘ put me in mind of the last scene of ‘The Stepford Wives’; a young woman pushing a trolley down the aisle of a grocery store, everything seems a little too immaculate, there’s a heightened sense of reality. When the woman, Iris (Sophie Thatcher), locks eyes with Josh (Jack Quaid), there’s an instant spark between them.
Josh takes his new ‘girlfriend’ Iris with him on a trip to a lake house to meet his friends – the twist: she’s a companion robot. She’s designed to serve her owner; to satisfy their every whim. Anything they want – she must cater for. The concept really exposes the solipsism of human nature. Via a smartphone, the user can modify the bot’s intelligence level, eye colour, voice, language, and personality to suit their fancy. Ethically abhorrent.
Hold on a minute. He’s fucking an android? How does that even work…anatomically? Where does he insert his…? Josh gives me the ick, so my sympathies lie with Iris when the shit hits the fan. She’s not so docile; she bytes. And she’s not chuffed as (micro)chips to be kept as Josh’s personal robotic sex slave.
A gripping, wild ride (predictable in parts); it flips the script on the tired ‘robot malfunctions and goes berserk’ trope, giving the mistreated automaton a consciousness; something resembling humanity. The faulty wiring instead lies with humankind; their insatiable greed is the root of any chaos caused, rather than the blame being placed on ‘bad tech’ as usual.
My rating: 7 / 10
SilverScreen 