Companion (2025): A nice thrill ride with a couple of laughs

Companion, 2025, directed by Drew Hancock, saw at cinema, 3.5 stars.

Companion is a movie that wants you to believe it's important but in reality is simply a rollicking joy ride. Companion will crumble into dust if you think too much about what it's trying to say about unbalanced relationships, abuse of technology, fem power and a couple of other trendy topics.

Don't worry about it. There's not much below the surface. Just go with it and enjoy the ride. There's a lot of fun to be had here if you just slide along the surface.

It takes awhile to get the momentum going. It starts out as a story about a guy and his insecure girlfriend hooking up with some friends for a weekend retreat at a wealthy acquaintance's home. The homeowner gets inappropriate with one of his guests about 20 minutes in, and chaos ensues.

Companion delivers some nice thrills for the rest of its runtime, with a couple of good laughs along the way.

I don't want to give away much because a lot of the fun is in discovering a couple of the movie's secrets. The marketing for Companion is drawing the same kind of criticism directed at Abigail last year -- trailers and a poster spoil a reveal that comes around the end of the first act and drives the rest of the story.

I knew the secret going in, as I did with Abigail. Companion suffers from the spoiler more than Abigail did because Companion's joy ride doesn't deliver the same barrage of thrills that Abigail's did. But still, Companion is a fun 97 minutes, even if it isn't a particularly memorable one.