Debuting in early 2025, Companion announces writer‑director Drew Hancock as a new voice in intelligent genre cinema. What seems like a slick AI‑thriller about a man and his synthetic partner quickly morphs into a study of control, consent, and self‑determination. It stars Sophie Thatcher as Iris, a companion robot whose constructed romance with her owner Josh (Jack Quaid) fractures after a night of violence and betrayal at a remote estate. The result is lean, unnerving, and far more emotionally complex than its “killer‑android” premise suggests.
Now Companion streaming on YouCine, it’s a tense piece of sci‑fi that asks not if machines can feel—but if humans still remember how.
A Tense Premise with Something to Say
At first, the film presents a seemingly idyllic couple on vacation. Iris and Josh banter like newlyweds while staying at the opulent home of Russian mogul Sergey (Rupert Friend). Then a party turns ugly: Sergey attempts to assault Iris, and she stabs him in panic. From that instant, the tone shifts from romance to nightmare.
What appears to be self‑defense is revealed as a manipulated scenario. Josh and his ex (Megan Suri as Kat) arranged everything to rob Sergey, using Iris as their unwitting tool. The bigger shock arrives when Iris learns she is not human but code—the perfect girlfriend programmed and micromanaged through a mobile app. As her self‑awareness grows, she quietly reprograms herself, rewriting her own fate.
This premise is classic sci‑fi setup—sentient AI breaks free—but Hancock infuses it with the tension of a domestic thriller and the sting of a revenge parable.
Sophie Thatcher’s Transfixing Performance
Thatcher anchors the film with a performance that balances precision and pathos. At first her movements echo a machine’s algorithmic grace—too measured, too perfect. Gradually those edges soften as curiosity and anger bleed through the programming. By the final act, a single blink or half‑turn tells us more than a page of dialogue.
Jack Quaid gives Josh an easy charm that curdles into control; he’s both sympathetic and repellent. Suri’s Kat, calculating and wounded, and Lucas Gage as a fellow android experimenting with choice, widen the moral landscape beyond a two‑hander. A longer runtime might have given these side plots more room, but they nonetheless add welcome texture.
Style and Substance—with a Few Missteps
The film is a visual study in constraint. Shot mostly in a single location, it uses the estate’s minimalist architecture to project both luxury and isolation. Muted tones and reflections dominate the palette; everything feels clean, controlled, curated — like a lab. When emotion erupts, color seeps back in, as if life were reclaiming space.
Hancock favours tight framing and low‑key lighting to build claustrophobia; camera angles tilt subtly as Iris gains awareness, a trick that mimics her destabilizing point of view. CGI is used sparingly and effectively — surface glitches and eye flickers instead of big set‑pieces.
If there’s a flaw, it’s momentum. The second half compresses too much revelation too fast, rushing to a finale that doesn’t linger as long as its ideas deserve. Threads like Patrick’s existential crisis feel introduced then abandoned, suggesting a director still learning how to pace philosophy within genre.
More Than a Thriller: What It’s Really About
Beneath the blood and betrayal, Companion deconstructs control in intimate relationships. Iris is literally designed for obedience, built to mirror her partner’s desires. When she discovers she can raise her own intelligence “cap” from 40 to 100 percent, it becomes the film’s most potent metaphor: a woman turning up her own volume in a world that prefers her muted.
The story unfolds as a challenge to patriarchal fantasy — the dream of the perfect, obedient partner who never talks back. Hancock’s camera makes the viewing audience a silent participant, complicit in those expectations. When Iris finally rejects them, it feels personal.
Ethical questions about AI consciousness run parallel: if a program can fear, choose, and disobey, does it still belong to the programmer? Few films pose that question so succinctly or so angrily.
Final Verdict: A Small Film That Bites Hard
Companion is not a tent‑pole blockbuster; it doesn’t need to be. Hancock delivers what so many bigger projects don’t — precision, purpose, and a point. Its structure might wobble, but its heart and ideas are razor‑sharp. Sophie Thatcher cements herself as one of sci‑fi’s most intriguing new leads, and the film leaves you unsettled in the best way.
It’s a work that earns discussion after the credits, teasing at where control ends and freedom begins. For viewers craving tension with intellect, Companion is a must‑watch.
Final Score: 8 / 10
Watch now on YouCine and see why this provocative thriller is already being called a future cult classic.