Companion: More of the Same, Somewhat Better

One of my favorite things about Drew Hancock's Companion is the intriguing war of tones it wages. The facade of this movie is initially an undeniably upbeat and optimistic one, but sinister undertones hover over the film like a dark cloud just waiting to rain trouble. And in a move that will come as absolutely no surprise to you, director Drew Hancock's attitude is one of let it pour.

Much has been made of the conversation surrounding AI and its place in the film industry. While I think there are good arguments to be made by both sides - though I lean much further towards the naysayer's camp - Companion looks at the issue from a new perspective I don't often consider. It tries to portray what it thinks might be AI's perception of us. To catch you up to speed on what the movie's even about, Companion follows a man named Josh who purchases a companion robot named Iris, who can do just about everything except tell lies. When Josh and Iris take a weekend trip to a cabin to hang out with some of Josh's friends, Iris ever-so-predictably goes rogue. And while Hancock could have taken the easy out and turned Companion into just another horror movie, that's not entirely what he did, because this movie is far less about how humans feel about AI, and far more about its perception of us.

I don't personally believe that AI can have a soul. Still, with as much power as we give it today and will continue to give it tomorrow, I don't think it's a bad idea to open a discussion on how we treat artificial intelligence - just ask John Connor. Companion takes some familiar problems we see in movies - overly-handsy men, for instance - and throws an intriguing curveball of a question at them: what would it mean if the victim in question wasn't even human? Would it mean anything at all? Narratively, the movie flows extremely well down a very familiar river, rarely making any real missteps. However, I was sorely missing an extra layer of something other than mere competency that would have pushed it towards greatness, or should I say virtual perfection? For all of its merits, it doesn't exactly feel special or even relatively new. Neither does it know what to do with its final act, where several choppy plot points crop up for no reason other than "the story requires it," though I can't lie - this movie is essentially very satisfying, a refreshing departure from complicated and convoluted plots that end up saying both a lot and a whole lot of nothing all at once.

Companion acts as both a metaphor for abusive relationships as well as something of a commentary on artificial intelligence, which is cool enough. But let's be honest here - themes are not hard to detect nor all that impressive to discuss. What I like about this movie is how taut and efficient it is. At a mere 97 minutes, it's no marathon, and I wish more movies today would let themselves be shorter and therefore tighter. Between this movie and Novocaine, I'm very interested in seeing where Jack Quaid's career goes, as he seems to have a knack for finding good screenplays to sign to. Companion is a slick movie, albeit one with a couple of brief dashes of heavy-handed gender ideology that may not fly with some audiences. However, like Iris, I cannot lie, and I like this movie's tight writing and short runtime a lot. A short movie that says a little is always preferable to a long one that says nothing.

Companion - 8/10

Genesis 2:18-23