COMPANION. If you’re not vigilant, you can fall into a genre beat, as I seem to have with robot lady movies. Looks like I’ll be seeing them all, for better or worse, though Companion has landed far on the “better” side of the factory floor.
Doll-like Iris (Sophie Thatcher) and Josh (Jack Quaid) meet oh-so-cute in the grocery store over an avalanche of oranges, the beginning of a love at first sight. She is devoted and impossibly accommodating to him; he calls her “Beep Boop.” The only bump is her anxiety over their planned weekend at a remote vacation home among his friends, joyfully shallow Eli (Harvey Guillén) and his doting boyfriend Patrick (Lukas Gage), and urbane bitch Kat (Megan Suri), who openly dislikes Iris — or at least, as Kat tells her flat out, “the idea of you.” The house and its vast property belong to Kat’s mulleted Russian boyfriend Sergey (Rupert Friend). Aside from the nickname and her reflexive blurting of current and forecasted weather reports whenever Josh asks, there are hints at the secret everyone seems to know but Iris, and which she only learns after Sergey attempts to sexually assault her: She is a companion robot or, as Josh so gently puts it, “an emotional support robot that fucks.” Well, and kills, evidently.
Once off and running, writer and director Drew Hancock keeps the revelations coming and the game of cat and mouse close. There are darkly hilarious moments in both the chase and the flashbacks of Josh acquiring his dream girl that reveal how unimaginative his dreams are (skinny Snow White aesthetics, total subservience, not too smart) and how based they are in bitterness and entitlement. He is a “good guy,” after all, right? As mild-mannered as he seems at the outset (with moments of petulance Quaid delivers as well as he does Josh’s feckless stumbling), what he wants mirrors the stated relationship goals and criteria — essentially sexual servitude and fully-time mommy-ing — that are standard talking points in the podcast manosphere.
There is some genius to the setup. Watching the relationship and power dynamic between a man and the robot he controls with a phone app doesn’t show us anything particularly new beyond the tech. Instead, their interactions resemble the everyday stories of women in controlling and abusive relationships. When Sergey says, “This is what you’re for,” as he gropes Iris, it’s unclear in the moment if he knows she’s a robot. Likewise, Josh’s mealymouthed orders and Iris’ fear of disappointing him are sigh-inducingly familiar, as is Thatcher’s portrayal. The menace and danger escalate in proportion to Iris’ independence and power, the latter of which is worth rooting for. Like the best sci-fi, it uses a fictional technology, setting, being or crisis to show us something about the world and people we know as they already are. Companion uses the standard android story framework to look at abuse and misogyny, as well as what love is and isn’t. R. 97M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK.
LOVE HURTS. While fight choreography is my cinematic love language, grim heroes dealing death in graphic knife fights are not always, you know, the mood. The goofiness has mostly left martial arts movies, wire-fu having gone artistic and Jackie Chan perhaps a little long in the tooth for walking off a high fall or a pinball machine to the face. Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022) is an incredible exception, having run its threads of action, love story, comedy, sci-fi, intergenerational trauma and existential crisis through one needle of a film. Among that dynamite cast was Ke Huy Quan as the gentle soul who believably wins and re-wins Michelle Yeoh’s heart between high-concept kung fu sequences. His starring role in Love Hurts is enough to put me in a seat at the theater.
It’s Valentine’s Day and realtor Marvin Gable (Quan) is buzzing with frantic positivity, hustling through house showings and baking cookies for his officemates. His biggest worry is who’s been drawing mustaches on his mug on bench signs all over town. But a card from Rose (Ariana DeBose), an old acquaintance who’s emerged from years of hiding, triggers his slide back into his previous life as a killer. Assassins both eccentric and workaday show up to take him out or take him to his gangster brother, the boba-sipping villain known as Knuckles (Daniel Wu). The same crew is out to find Rose, who apparently stole a pile of money from Knuckles before he sent Marvin to kill her way back when. Marvin, still carrying a torch, along with his hard-won realtor award, is torn between protecting her and somehow getting back to the life he’s built on the straight and narrow.
First-time director Jonathan Eusebio made his bones as stunt actor, fight coordinator and assistant director in a long list of action movies, among them John Wick (2014), Black Panther (2018) and The Fall Guy (2024). While the pacing is clunky in places and the chemistry between our romantic leads barely fizzes, there’s joy to be had in this confection of an action comedy. Marshawn Lynch as an enforcer who doles out relationship advice and occasionally yells, “Beast mode,” in a fight is one source of entertainment, as is the silliness of the Bugs Bunny-esque action and the sweetly weird blooms of love and friendship that sprout around the skimpy plot.
The same old trope of a bad man whose new life is encroached upon by his violent past and the reawakening of his dark side isn’t new territory, but a lighthearted approach is. Love Hurts could have been sharper and tighter, but what we get is a brief (under 90 minutes!) little treat we don’t need to think on too deeply. Hey, it’s Valentine’s Day — have some candy. R. 83M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK.
Jennifer Fumiko Cahill (she/her) is the arts and features editor at the Journal. Reach her at (707) 442-1400, extension 320, or jennifer@northcoastjournal.com. Follow her on Bluesky @jfumikocahill.bsky.social.
NOW PLAYING
BECOMING LED ZEPPLIN. Documentary on the origins of the iconic rock band. PG13. 137M. BROADWAY.
THE BRUTALIST. Drama about architect Lázló Toth’s (Adrian Brody) attempt to start over with his wife (Felicity Jones) in America after World War II. R. 215M. MINOR.
CAPTAIN AMERICA: BRAVE NEW WORLD. Anthony Mackie wields the shield as the new president (Harrison Ford) hulks out. At least it’s not Nazis! PG13. 118M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK, MINOR.
A COMPLETE UNKNOWN. Early Bob Dylan biopic starring Timothée Chalamet. R. 140M. MINOR.
DOG MAN. Animated adventure starring a surgically spliced canine/human in pursuit of a villainous cat. Unclear if ACAB includes him. PG. 89M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK.
HEART EYES. Valentine’s Day slasher/dark comedy with Jordana Brewster, Olivia Hold and Devon Sawa. R. 97M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK.
MOANA 2. A sequel for the seafaring animated heroine. PG. 100M. BROADWAY.
MUFASA: THE LION KING. Animated prequel directed by Barry Jenkins. PG. 118M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK.
PADDINGTON IN PERU. The bear and his human family head to South America in search of his missing aunt and stumble into a treasure hunt. PG. 106M. BROADWAY, MILL CREEK, MINOR.
SONIC THE HEDGHOG 3. More live action and animated wackiness with Jim Carrey and Keanu Reeves. PG. 110M. BROADWAY.
For showtimes call: Broadway Cinema (707) 443-3456; Mill Creek Cinema 839-3456; Minor Theatre (707) 822-3456.
This article appears in Step Aside Prop. 47, Proposition 36 Has Arrived.
