COMPANION

Josh (Jack Quaid) and his girlfriend Iris (Sophie Thatcher) retreat to the countryside for a long weekend at a friends house. However, a death at the cabin brings to the surface many questions involving the group of friends, particularly Iris' relationship with Josh. Once again the marketing team seemed to not give away too much in the trailers, which is a trend I can start getting behind again. Thatcher, fresh off of her brilliant role as Sister Barnes in HERETIC, builds us another wonderful performance of someone who's in a toxic relationship, while Quaid once again gets to play the whitey, I mean the stereotypical "patriarchal figure," I mean the baddie. In true 2025 Hollywood form, the virtue signaling is oozing from the screen. Themes of misogyny, abusive relationships, as well as our over-reliance on technology (in this case, companionship) are important and should be discussed. They just come off heavy handed during the 97 minute runtime. In addition and as I briefly touched upon earlier, the mythical fight against "the patriarchy" is once again front and center. The themes and commentary writer/director Drew Hancock is attempting to convey to the audience is nothing new. I'm sure he thought it would come off as smart but it's redundant, adding nothing new to the conversation except for him to score brownie points within the cult that is now Hollywood. I used to enjoy the storytelling of cinema. I used to enjoy going to movies and being inspired, moved, or challenged. Sadly, it's been tarnished the last 4+ years with activists who continually beat the same tropes over and over and over again until the audience has had their fill of indoctrination. I still attend movies because I love the medium and pray we can finally put the divisiveness behind us. Unfortunately, it's getting worse rather than better and this is just another example of that, which I will continue to call it out for what it is. 4.5/10