‘Companion’ & ‘Black Mirror’ Take A Darkly Comic Stance On Tech: At The Movies With Kasey
If you missed the sci-fi thriller Companion when it was in theaters, it is now available to stream on Max. I went into the film with only the vaguest notion of what it was about. I thought I knew the plot twist, but I also thought I might be wrong. Whether you know spoilers or not, the story is fun, but if you want to remain unspoiled, skip the next paragraph.
In Companion, Iris (Sophie Thatcher) and her boyfriend Josh (Jack Quaid) are on a weekend getaway with his friends, Patrick (Lukas Gage), Kat (Megan Suri), and Eli (Harvey Guillén), at the luxurious home of mysterious Sergey (Rupert Friend). Although Iris senses that Kat doesn’t like her, she is unaware that it is not because of how much she dotes on Josh. It’s because Iris is an android designed to be the perfect girlfriend. Josh can even control her eye color, vocal tone, and IQ through an app on his phone. Ick. Then, the truth comes out with shocking consequences for everyone.
Companion takes a pretty standard sci-fi trope and infuses it with a wicked sense of humor. Sophie Thatcher’s wry delivery of some of Iris’s best zingers gives her somewhat bland persona an edge, especially as she starts to evolve. Jack Quaid does an excellent job walking a line so that as Josh’s faults come into clearer view, his earlier actions earlier take on a darker tone. These performances, along with the funny and sweet dynamic between Patrick and Eli wink toward the plot twists without giving them away.
The details in the production make Companion come together beautifully. Sophie Thatcher’s retro styling adds a feminist edge to the story while the representation of technology looks just far enough into the future to be eerily plausible but still look novel and cool. I loved how the different elements of this movie work together to create a story that is thrilling and funny and delivers commentary on both AI and misogyny that are punchy without having too heavy a hand. Without giving away the ending, I can say that the final scene creates such a striking image, pulling together the vintage vibes and the high-tech plot, that I cannot stop thinking about it.
Companion was written and directed by Drew Hancock. It runs 97 minutes and is rated R.
Keeping on the theme of technology run amock, Black Mirror is back on Netflix with a seventh season that continues to build on themes around humanity, grief, and privacy. I think the best episode is the first, “Common People,” starring Chris O’Dowd and Rashida Jones as a married couple facing increasingly dire costs as cloud technology intersects with brain health. It is heartbreaking and thought-provoking, thanks to tragic performances by its leads and darkly comic writing. “Hotel Reverie,” starring Issa Rae, Emma Corrin, and Awkwafina gives audiences a high-tech spin on remaking classic films but runs maybe twenty minutes too long for its own good. Other episodes take on video games colliding with the real world, the boundaries of memory, and Severance-like approach to sharing space with digital creations.
For fans of The Twilight Zone, Black Mirror is a must-watch, but it often puts such a bleak spin on things that I can hardly watch it. This season had more romance and comedy mixed in with the dystopia, which produced a balance that I personally found more palatable. Still, the episodes are no less sharp in their stance on technology and ethics.
Finally, streaming on Peacock, Last Breath follows divers Dave (Simu Liu) and Chris (Finn Cole), who do maintenance work on pipelines that run along the seabed. During a storm in the North Sea, their soon-retiring leader, Duncan (Woody Harrelson), and Captain Andre (Cliff Curtis) lead a rescue mission when the tether connecting one of the divers to the ship—and to oxygen—gets cut.
Last Breath has a high production value, a heartwarming yet thrilling story, and a role that seems tailor-made for Woody Harrelson. Even still, the plot offers just one main conflict. Sure, Duncan struggles with his impending retirement and Chris and his doting fiancee worry about the dangers of his job, but in terms of real plot points, the rescue mission is the only driving force. In those terms, the film is remarkably simple, especially at a time when audiences are used to plot twists, conspiracies, and morally ambiguous protagonists. Furthermore, the true story behind the film leaves a pretty major unanswered question.
The simplicity of the story is not necessarily a bad thing. All around, Last Breath is a well-made film with solid performances and a shocking climax. But, if you are looking for twists or narrative nuance, this is not the movie for you.
Last Breath was directed by Alex Parkinson who wrote the screenplay with Mitchell LaFortune and David Brooks. It runs 93 minutes and is rated PG-13.
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