COMPANION (R)
It’s rare that I can walk into a theater having little to no understanding of what movie I’m set to see. With Drew Hancock’s “Companion,” I knew very little. I had seen a teaser trailer, knew that Sophie Thatcher (“Heretic”) and Jack Quaid (“The Boys”) were the leads, and had seen an image of Sophie Thatcher’s arm on fire while sitting at an ornate dinner table. That’s it. For this, I am immeasurably thankful because what I thought might be a slightly rote moviegoing experience about a group of friends brutalizing an unsuspecting woman at a mountain cabin turned out to be something much more clever and entertaining than I gave it credit for. After a few weeks of feeling borderline brutalized by the world, it was nice to be able to sit back and watch some impeccably executed, silly nonsense with a crowd, on the big screen. What more could we ask of the movies?
While you may have seen the full-length trailer and know the “twist” of the film, if you could call it that, I won’t be giving that up here. I think the movie is best going in as cold as possible. Its themes and overall story are more than apparent from the opening scenes as we witness the birth and destruction of a young woman’s toxic relationship with her dopey, dum dum of a boyfriend and all the emotional scarring and dehumanization that can occur beneath the power dynamics of love mistaken. That is certainly the movie you’re watching, just not in the way you think. For her part, Sophie Thatcher gives one of my favorite filmed performances in a good while; playing Iris with all the quivering ticks and wide-eyed platitudes of a hopeless romantic praying her life is a dream come true and her aggressively MID boyfriend is her knight in shining armor. That she is grievously incorrect is an understatement and unsurprising, but HOW she is incorrect, and the tantalizing dips and turns this story of love misplaced takes in this revelation’s aftermath, form the sum total of a grand time at the movies. Thatcher’s performance is chasms deep, unique, and as clear an indicator as ever that we should be seeing her in movies for decades. It is also quite impressive how Jack Quaid has been able to parlay his patented ‘aw shucks’ good guy energy and the smile he inherited from his father to become a generational personification of the “nice guy” every parent hopes their kid doesn’t fall for. The rest of the cast acclimates themselves well, bumbling and dangerous in equal measure, with Lukas Gage (“Smile 2”) a particular standout as a long-suffering yet endlessly loving boyfriend and outsider of the friend group. The best scene of the movie is Gage’s profession of love for Harvey Guillén, an achingly tender sentiment so heartwarming and pure that you’d be forgiven for forgetting you were watching a ninety-seven-minute murder fest. So are the joys and tragedies of genre cinema, as I’m often found to be heard loudly espousing at social functions. It does indeed contain multitudes.
“Companion” is honestly the best example of a “For Everyone” movie I’ve seen in quite a while. A rollercoaster of thrills, laughs, blood, and heart cleanly packaged in a hot to-go run time. You love to see it.
At the movies at least, 2025 is off to a good start.
“Companion” is playing at The Broad Theater and Prytania Theatres at Canal Place.
JOHN CARPENTER’S THE THING (R)
The perfect paranoid snow day movie comes to The Broad Theater about a week late as Timecode and Screamfest are proud to present the masterpiece which is “John Carpenter’s The Thing” in a beautiful 4K Remaster.
Following a snowed-in American research team stuck on the far side of Antarctica who stumbles upon the ravaged remains of a fellow Norwegian team who seem to have dug something otherworldly out of ancient ice, “John Carpenter’s The Thing”, which is the only way to put the proper respect on that name, is the textbook definition of an all-timer film unheralded in its time. Now praised universally as one of the greats of its genre, and possibly the highest achievement of one of genre cinema’s finest filmmakers, “John Carpenter’s The Thing” is a film without equal; featuring stellar performances from Kurt Russel, Keith David, Wilfred Brimley and showcasing the ookiest, gooiest practical makeup effects ever presented on screen by the legendary Rob Bottin (Google Him). Carpenter, for his part, paints with copious dollops of unease and dread as the snowed-in crew begins to understand that a creature exists among them, one that assimilates its hosts and takes their form with murderous intent. As Kurt Russel’s MacReady so memorably opines, a sentiment that feels as prescient as ever these days, “Nobody trusts anybody now…and we’re all very tired.” Big same, Mac.
The movies have been chasing the excellence of “John Carpenter’s The Thing” for nearly fifty years and will assuredly still be doing so for the next fifty. For those who have never had the pleasure of being snowbound at the cursed U.S. Outpost 31, give yourself a treat, join us, and assimilate.
You’ll be glad you did.
“John Carpenter’s The Thing” is playing at The Broad Theater on Monday, Feb. 3, at 7:30 p.m. Come by early for trivia and prizes presented by Horror Pack and Orleans Coffee.