Iris arrives at a weekend getaway believing she is part of a couple. The film's central reveal changes the question from 'what is wrong with this relationship?' to 'who is allowed to define a relationship in the first place?'
Sophie Thatcher plays the shift beautifully, moving from uncertainty into something much sharper without turning Iris into a different character.
The premise is the punchline .
Companion gets a lot of mileage from watching characters behave normally around something fundamentally abnormal. The comedy comes from the gap between what they know and what they are willing to admit.
The film's scariest idea is not artificial intelligence. It is ordinary entitlement.
Jack Quaid is especially effective because he can make charm and selfishness occupy the same expression.
A smart little horror movie .
The violence is sometimes deliberately outrageous, but the film's real interest is autonomy. It keeps asking whether affection means anything when one person can control the other person's choices.
The answer is uncomfortable, which is exactly why the satire works.
Short, sharp and mean .
Companion does not overstay its welcome. It has a premise, knows what it wants to say about it and gets out.
The result is more entertaining than profound, but sometimes a good genre movie only needs to leave a small bruise.