At the very end of January, the year delivered its first surefire contender for 2025 best-of lists. It just sort of snuck in there.
January is normally a dumping ground for studio crap like Buggin’ Out With the Tweeners and Loving With Your Pants Off on Tik Tok Before That Damned Social Networking Mess Gets Banned … Oh, Wait, Trump, Never Mind, We’re Good! Both of those films would star Gerard Butler and Jennifer Lopez.
Companion is a movie that, if you manage to avoid spoilers—don’t even watch the preview trailer—will stun and delight with its many beautifully (and sometimes hilariously) executed twists. It’s an awesome, well-performed, massively good time at the movies regardless of the month in which it was released. We’d better be talking about this one in December!
Can you tell I like this movie?
I don’t want to be the spoiler of anything regarding Companion. I managed to walk in positively clueless as to what this film was about, and while I think I would’ve enjoyed it with spoilers, without spoilers, it just floored me. It was one of the greatest times I’ve had at the movies in the last 10 years.
All praise goes to Sophie Thatcher for her extraordinary work as Iris, neglected girlfriend of Josh (a funny, squirmy Jack Quaid). They go away to a lake house where she will meet Josh’s friends for the first time and hopefully get over some of her crippling social insecurities. The first act lets us know Jack is a dick, and someone of Iris’ caliber has no business hanging around him. Immediately, we are rooting for Iris to ditch this guy, and we know it’s inevitable—but let’s just see how that actually happens.
I won’t reveal how it happens here, but I’ll say it’s spectacular, and the most fun I’ve had at the movies since Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I bring up that film, because while watching Companion, I had that glow that comes when watching something like Tarantino at his best. Expect the unexpected; you are going to laugh a lot, because this film has a well-written, sinister sense of humor, and you are going to have more than your share of shocks—to the level of John Travolta accidentally shooting that guy in the back seat of a car.
While watching Companion, I had that glow that comes when watching something like Tarantino at his best.
Massive credit to director Drew Hancock for this achievement—and it’s all the more impressive because this is his feature-directing debut. His most notable directing achievement before this, besides working on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, was a Tenacious D video. He also wrote the script for Companion, so pretty much everything that happens in this crazy movie comes out of his warped brain.
It’s funny; it’s an effective horror story; and it’s a credible, well-thought-out “problem relationship” movie, too. The movie has plenty to say about manipulative, controlling partners. Again, this Hancock dude seems to be a massive talent who can write a script with the best of them.
With this, Heretic and, to a lesser extent, The Boogeyman. Thatcher is giving herself a nice horror-film resume. With the next season of Yellowjackets coming up, 2025 is looking like a good year for her. Quaid (son of Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan) is also looking at an interesting year with the upcoming Novocaine. As for Hancock’s next venture, I have no idea yet what it is, but count me as interested.
OK, that’s it. Nothing more. I’m not saying anything else, except: Go see it now. Seriously, like right now.