The marketing for Companion highlights that the new movie is from New Line Cinema — the studio created the evergreen contemporary romantic classic The Notebook. Online ads are also quick to remind viewers that the movie is produced by the same team that brought audiences the unhinged horrors of Barbarian back in 2022. It’s a funny juxtaposition, but an apt one.
Companion is currently ranked in Rotten Tomatoes’ list of Top 10 films of 2025, and it’s earned its praises from critics and audiences who respond to the movie’s seamless shifting through various tones ranging from Sci-Fi to slasher horror, from comedy to romantic drama.
The film’s subtexts about abusive relationships and mistaken appearances bring depth to this tale of machine/women’s liberation, but they never supersede the cool tech, bloody guts, hilarious set pieces and sexy, psycho robots.
Josh (Jack Quaid) and Iris (Sophie Thatcher) reach the end of a long drive that finds them well off the main roads and pulling up to a remote luxury home on the edge of a large private lake. The film starts with gorgeous shots that capture the natural beauty of the place and the warm couple sharing the joy of a rural drive on a sunny afternoon. It also includes a flashback with Iris remembering the day she first met Josh at an orange display at a grocery store. The house is owned by Sergey (Rupert Friend), the wealthy Russian boyfriend of Josh’s friend, Anna (Megan Suri). They’re joined by another couple, Eli (Harvey Guillén) and Patrick (Lukas Gage), and they all settle in for dinner, drinks, dancing and a long weekend at the lake. What could possibly go wrong?
Companion is great at un-spooling its unhinged story while also holding onto its surprises: the movie’s poster and trailer tell viewers that Sophie is an android, but when she stabs Sergey in the neck after he tries to sexually assault her, we only know about half of the story. Who is Sergey? What are the actual relationships between these friends? Is everybody a robot? Lots of current movies would be satisfied with the lowest bar of killer-robot plots, but Companion is much smarter than that. Writer director Drew Hancock has taken tired pleasure-bot tropes and murderous-android cliches and managed to make them new again with a story that balances romantic comedy with gory horror and the existential questions that come with the best speculative fiction about artificial intelligence, machine consciousness and human-robot ethics.
Companion features gory effects and hilarious flashbacks that let us peek at the emotional memories inside of mechanical minds. Thatcher is an excellent actress who single-handedly elevates the film in nearly every frame. She manages to portray a wide range of emotion — from devotion to terror — while always remaining convincing as an automated sex doll grappling with the realization that she’s not a real woman. The rest of the cast, including a colorful gallery of memorable minor characters, follow Thatcher’s lead, grounding the film in consistently strong performances despite the sometimes outrageous circumstance of the story.
Once Iris discovers the truth about her identity and her “relationship” with Josh, Companion turns into a chase film — Iris is trying to escape from Josh and his friends, but they have to make sure that Iris is blamed for Sergey’s murder. Through all the chaos and death and torture Companion delivers genuine laughs, nerdy tech, Terminator-vibes and the kind of slasher gore I suppose you have to expect from a long weekend at a remote lake at the movies.
Companion is streaming on MAX
Joe Nolan is a critic, columnist and performing singer/songwriter based in East Nashville. Find out more about his projects at www.joenolan.com.