Sometimes a surprise movie firecracker sparks up in theaters seemingly out of nowhere. Have you heard about "Companion?" Me either. But that doesn't make this fiendishly funny romcom scarefest any less a wickedly decadent treat. Warning: To avoid spoilers -- even though the first twist is given away fast and is right there in the trailer -- stop reading this very second.
Ready? OK, here we go. You'll think you're watching "The Notebook" when Iris (Sophie Thatcher) and Josh (Jack Quaid) meet super cute in a supermarket. She accepts his invite for a romantic lake house getaway. Do scream queens learn nothing from horror movies?
Though Iris doesn't know it yet, she is Josh's robot companion. That means he operates her controls from his cell phone in "Stepford Wives" fashion until she figures out his game and sets her intelligence level from 40 percent, where Josh has it, to full-on Brainiac.
The quips fly mad fast and furious. Foreboding slithers in when we hear Iris tells us in voiceover, "There've been two moments in my life when I was happiest. The first was the day I met Josh. And the second was the day I killed him."
Review: Pamela Anderson is unforgettable in 'The Last Showgirl'Kidding? Not kidding? Figuring that out is part of the frisky fun of this teasing puzzle written by mega-promising first-time director Drew Hancock.
The plot kicks in hard at the remote lake house owned by creepy Russian powerbroker Sergey (Brit actor Rupert Friend laying on a menacing Russian accent) who's sleeping with Josh's friend Kat (Megan Suri) who's brought along Eli (Harvey Guillén) and his lover Patrick (Lukas Gage).
Nothing is what it seems. There's a lot of money in Sergey's safe, a fact not missed by Josh and Kat. Suri, from "It Lives Inside," turns Kat into a manipulator par excellence. And Quaid, the son of actors Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan and fabulous on "The Boys," raises her one by giving Josh a crooked smile that can turn on a dime from sweet to sinister.
The actors all come up aces and each has a secret agenda too clever to give away. Still, the best in this trickster funhouse is Thatcher. You probably know her onscreen being tortured by Hugh Grant in "Heretic" or on TV as the young version of the Juliette Lewis character in "Yellowjackets." But she's on fire here as a sexbot with a killer instinct and a mind of her own.
And just when you think "Companion" has run out of curveballs, you realize it's only just getting started. I wouldn't reveal the next turn of events with a gun to my head, except to say that Hancock and his terrific cast are sending up every variety of control we're all guilty of bringing into relationships, though few I hope as deadly as what transpires here.
Review: 'All We Imagine as Light' is a poetic and profound cinematic spellbinderAs a filmmaker, Hancock is asking us what defines humanity or lack of same. His method is tongue-in-cheek, but his intent is as serious as the social issues of misogyny and toxic masculinity he so delights in skewering.
However you think "Companion" turns out, you'll be wrong. Hancock has a worthy aversion to the cliché playbook. He makes us less concerned about artificial intelligence than the humans who blithely misuse it. Hancock is onto something about what fuels our current social anxiety, which makes "Companion" one of the most potent provocations of this young movie year.
