*Warning: this review contains spoilers. Seriously, this film changes its status quo every 5-10 minutes so don’t read on unless you’ve seen the film or want it spoiled for you*

Alt right chuds like Andrew Tate would see the world of Companion as some kind of utopian paradise where men can treat women (and men) like literal on-demand sex and intimacy bots mediated by Smartphone apps and five minutes into the future Bluetooth pairing. (Of course, this film’s protagonist drives a copyright friendly Tesla.) However, to folks who actually have a moral compass, this world is terrifying, if fascinating in a window shattering, gore spraying, car crash kind of way, which makes it a compelling backdrop for a film that is a mélange of horror and science fiction in anti-romantic (pitch black) comedy wrapping from writer/director Drew Hancock.

The basic premise of Companion is that an average white cishet “nice guy” male named Josh (Jack Quaid) goes on a trip to a remote cabin with his girlfriend Iris (An incredible Sophie Thatcher), his best friend Kat (Megan Suri), his other best friend Eli (A silly and wholesome Harvey Guillen), and his boyfriend Patrick (Lukas Gage). Their host is Kat’s kind of, sort of Russian sugar daddy Sergey (Rupert Friend), who is incredibly wealthy and also tries to sexually assault Iris leading to his murder and the increasingly unhinged events of the film as it’s revealed that Iris is actually a robot. What follows is a saga of greed, hubris, entitlement, and Thatcher showcasing her acting range as she nails all the different “settings” of the Companion robot from humorous comic relief (She talks to a cop in German because she’s programmed not to lie.) to bone dry, emasculating sarcasm.

On the surface and maybe from some of the marketing, one could view Companion as a dark parable about how men treat women like property, and of course, they’ll have sex with a robot immediately after meeting them. And it definitely is like this as Hancock draws parallels between Josh and Sergey’s behavior even hoisting characters in-universe and audiences watching on their own petard when it’s revealed that he got wealthy selling sod and wasn’t a part of the Russian mob. However, he also introduces some nuance in the human/Companion relationship when it’s revealed that Patrick is a robot too, but they genuinely love each other.

This is established through an adorably specific meet cute of them meeting at a Halloween party where an over-the-top Dracula costume sporting Patrick accidentally steps on Eli’s dinosaur costume tail, they lock eyes, and fall in love. Even Guillen and Gage’s body language while telling this story sell the adorableness of the moment before we get to see it in flashback. On the other hand, Iris and Josh’s “meet cute” makes Nicholas Sparks look like a literary genius. Of course, he literally just picked it from a drop down menu, and there’s no actual connection or similarities between Josh and Iris beyond them joking about the AI on Josh’s self-driving car, or that Iris can tell the weather in a very precise manner. Iris is just a means to an end for Josh whether that’s killing a wealthy Russian man for money, or an outlet for his sexual desires. There’s one mercifully brief sex scene between Josh and Iris in Companion, and he has a very loud orgasm and immediately uses a sleep command on Iris without even caring about her needs or pleasure. He’s definitely not Joaquin Phoenix’s character in Her and has no inner life. Jack Quaid weaponizes the affable everyman vibe that made him a great POV character in The Boys to be the worst (and most pathetic villain) of all.

On the flipside of this, Sophie Thatcher has the opportunity to sink her teeth into a multidimensional role as Iris and truly delivers. The intrepid robot who wants to become a real woman (And always was one!) joins the recent pantheon of powerful female lead horror acting performances in the past year, including Demi Moore in The Substance, Lily Rose Depp in Nosferatu, and a highly underrated Kathryn Newton in Lisa Frankenstein and Abigail. Early in the film, even before the initial robot reveal, Thatcher’s jerky movements and the stilted way she delivers the smallest of small talk is more android than or human. (Or maybe a biting satire of how poorly written “love interest” female characters are in blockbuster films.) Once she turns her intelligence settings to 100%, Hancock and cinematographer Eli Born dig into flights of fancy and overthinking as Iris goes from video game NPC to a Final Girl written by Aaron Sorkin. And when Josh gets the upper hand one last time and changes her intelligence settings to 0%, Sophie Thatcher’s face and eyes work overtime to show how utterly helpless and in agony she is as he tries to “kill” her and run off with the money. And, well, let’s say when Iris gets actual free will, Thatcher exudes badass in an effortless, let’s say Thelma and Louise way.

My one real qualm with Companion is that stylistically it definitely comes across as Drew Hancock’s first feature film. He’s a competent craftsman, but all the memorable moments come through dialogue and character interactions and not visuals. However, co-editor Brett Bachman channels his work on recent Nicolas Cage films like Mandy, Pig, and Colour of Space with his ability to cut to a moment that feels you with utter disgust and/or total empathy. (Let’s just say I feel really bad with how Josh treats Patrick in the second half of the film.) But Hancock definitely has the writer side of writer/director down with an eye for satire, dark humor, and surprisingly beautiful queer moments while working on TV shows like Suburgatory and Faking It. I love that he gives Iris a powerful character arc and doesn’t reduce her to a victim while still indulging in grindhouse movie antics with an iOS sheen.

Companion is a genre-bending film that is chock full of truths about everything from smartphone addiction and clinginess to the orgasm gap, mansplaining, and maybe even true love. It’s also a star-making turn for Sophie Thatcher and a clever first feature from Drew Hancock.

Overall Verdict: 8.4