Control Review: Companion

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I, Dalton Lewis, watched a movie. It was a good movie.

It was the first day of taking a new med. I’m on a new antipsychotic. This antipsychotic is the first one to be different and new in a very long time. I could tell a difference and wanted to watch a movie while trying to figure out how it succeeded and how it failed.

I walked in and bought a water. I didn’t buy candy because I thought about the fact that candy would make me gain weight and I didn’t buy a soda because those were bad for me, too.

It occurred to me that I went to the movies several times a week and I never considered such things before. I was thinking about the world around me now in a way that I hadn’t previously. The world appeared before me, fully formed. I could see reality instead of viewing it through a black haze that covered it — a black haze of schizophrenia.

The movie I called was called Companion, and in it a woman talks about a similar black haze that happens until she meets a man — Josh. Then her life seems to find meaning. It seems to be a messed-up date movie.

A man and a woman go to a home in the woods away from society to hang out with his friends. She really wants to impress his friends.

That’s the setup.

It goes in surprising and interesting directions from there.

Minor thematic spoilers below…

You’ve been warned.

It’s about power dynamics. The man and the woman — Josh and Iris — are competing to see if she has complete free will or if she is to mindlessly do whatever he wants her to do.

He wants her to do something awful to someone, and he has a nefarious reason for it. No one is completely innocent in this story, and that makes it very interesting. Everyone has screwed something up and isn’t perfect.

Jack Quaid has made a career out of being troubled and nice-seeming young men who might be nice or might be naughty — and then letting the audience find out which side he has been on. Sometimes he’s great and sometimes he’s terrible.

The lead actress is named Sophie Thatcher, I think, and she is fantastic as Iris, a person who is mistreated by people the entire movie. I find her strength of spirit and attempts to fight her way out of her situations to be inspirational.

The movie is a simple story with half a dozen main characters. Josh and Iris have two couples with whom they are friends. Those two couples each have secrets and complex backstories. No one is merely a friend to someone else. Everyone has something going on. That’s a nice thing to see in this movie.

The movie’s characters have meet cutes that slay when the reality behind those meet cutes is exposed. I really liked that beginning — starting a movie with a meeting between a guy and a girl and then for the scene to have an entirely different meaning later on in the story. That’s effective storytelling.

The other effective part of the story is the way it evokes sympathy and passion for every character — villain or hero. Everyone is wonderful and terrible. We feel for all the people and understand them and sympathize with them. That’s a strong plus for the film.

Reviewers and fans alike give this film good numbers on Rotten Tomatoes, and it deserves it.

I finished the movie and went home and ate a banana with peanut butter — a healthy snack. I didn’t eat any candy or popcorn. I noted some of the elements that worked in the movie. I had a positive evening. We’ll see if the new med continues to impress.

Thanks, and take care, friends.