3 Thoughts After Watching ‘Companion’: 1. Okay, Sophie Thatcher, I see you. Awesome performance. From literal start to finish. 2. Such a great surprise of a movie! _Black Mirror_ on steroids. With a touch of _The Terminator_. Nice little twists, incredibly clever, and the perfect amount of humor. 3. Patrick and Eli forever. So sweet.

I highly suggest you do not watch the trailers for Companion because one of them does spoil the premise of the movie. While that premise is revealed 30 minutes into the movie, knowing it left me able to pick up plenty of other clues about where the movie was heading. Also, they constantly tease that reveal in those 30 minutes to the point I was just getting antsy waiting for them to get it over with. Due to that, I think the movie would have been much better if I had gone in blind. Because I was able to predict where everything was going, the movie didn't have the type of intensity or twistiness or craziness I was expecting, especially with the marketing linking it to something like Barbarian. I went in expecting a tense thriller the likes of Strange Darling or Heretic, and I was left feeling this was not that. Maybe without being spoiled, you can enjoy the movie unravelling a bit more, but I also think the movie is fundamentally more like a dark comedy than a thriller. I was surprised at the various moments of humor. Not to say it isn't funny, I did enjoy the comedy, but it undercut the tension in my opinion. Making certain characters appear dumber and more pathetic tends to make them feel less like a threat overall. That's about as much as I can without going into spoilers, but for me, it felt like a missed opportunity even if it was just misaligned expectations. There is nothing noteworthy about the cinematography, though I did like the way the score was used in a handful of scenes. The real noteworthy aspect of the movie is Sophie Thatcher, who continues to utilize her twitchy facial expressions to great effect. With Yellowjackets, Heretic, and now this, I feel like she's really carving out an excellent niche for herself, especially in the horror space. I am excited to see what she does next.

Companion is one step above M3gan and two giant leaps behind Ex Machina. The film is far more dark comedy than psychological thriller, and some plot points are borderline dumb, but overall, it's not a bad way to spend 90 minutes.

Interesting concept [spoiler] (a girl who doesn't know she's a robot being used for the whims of men)[/spoiler], but they totally fumbled the execution of it. There's nothing remotely new or remarkable about this film. Its themes have already been explored in far better ways. Just watch _Her_ or _Ex Machina_. The worst part of this movie is the Russian guy - we're in 2025, Americans shouldn’t be allowed to do this anymore. I mean, the name of the guy, the mullet, his big fake accent, he speaks about himself in 3rd person and, of course, is completely obsessed with Stalin. They couldn't do a bigger cliché even if they tried.

A fun film with some good ideas, but some of the dialogue and writing choices were disappointing. Josh was really really really really really really really stupid. Not convinced that his intelligence level wasn't set to 0% too. The second half of the film let it down, especially towards the end. But overall, still worth a watch.