On the bright surface of CompanionYou get a meeting between a pretty guy and the perfect girlfriend. Josh (Jack Quaid) and Iris (Sophie Thatcher) seem like an idyllic rom-kom pair, the nasty guy and the out-of-his-league beauty, who can’t live without him. The capture? She is a robot and he bought her for a fellowship that will fit his Every one Need.
io9 captured by a filmmaker Drew Hancock talk about the inspiration behind his Stepford Wives-dyed, “sweetheart of tomorrow” Android Romantic Thriller. While Companion It’s about a robot, the Iris aspects of Iris are sparsely real, because people like Josh actually exist – and you don’t have a robot to feel like any property.
“I think for me, my way is just to make an iris as soon as possible. So when I think of her as a character, I don’t really think of her as a robot. I think what her emotional journey she happens ?
Sophie Thatcher’s Iris looks a bit like Zooey Deschanel in her 500 days of summer Era, and the similarities do not end there: both women are Schmuck’s romantic interest, who projects her insecurities on her, assuming she will love him anyway (though she will eventually leave him, as did Deschanel’s character in Summer). “I think the thing that is the magic of this movie and Sophie’s performance is that this is a related drama at its core,” Hancock said. “This is not a great comment on what is AI, this is more about AI as a substitute for us. And we were all in those relationships where it may not have been the best relationship. You are not aware until it is over, that you look back and leave, my son, why have I been in this relationship with this person?
It wouldn’t be surprising if Iris’s Robot pattern was based on this type of Manic Pixie Dream Girls for Josh to choose from, but Thatcher’s performance brings an inhuman and emotionally separated role intentionally. It’s almost how she has a shell built against the wear of emotional work. “Iris is literally programmed, we are metaphorically programmed,” Hancock said. “But that was the fun of it – the fun of incorporating AI as a substitute for someone who is experiencing as a taxpayer syndrome. Someone who feels like they are less than. She finds out she’s less than because she actually There is no human being.
It is not surprising that not even a sensitive robot could join it after they realized that they were a robot receptor for the poisonous expectations of a gas lighting incel type.
Quaid really digs his character; He is dear Doofus one moment and a threat behind all the backs the next. The actors really play well between the good and the evil of their relationship to get the very real topics to shine through the science fiction aspects of Companion. “This is a testimony to them, it is only their ability as actors. Just as they are as good, as soon as you see them together, that relationship feels so lived, it feels like they have known each other for years and years and years, “Hancock said.” Jack, [let’s give] Credit him to take a line like ‘A smileAnd act happy ‘and making it terrible to tell someone, but actually plays it in this kind of nasty way, as you look like,’ I like this guy ‘even though he says these terrible things. ”
And Thatcher’s Iris has her moment, where she pulls the line of not tolerating this anymore, after a reactive to Josh in the first act. “There is something about her performance. You know what I mean? “Hancock said about Thatcher’s portrayal about Iris’s programmed nature.” As something feels wrong when you watch the movie, and that’s all of Sophie, that’s her ability. “
The film portrays how even robotic romance can be multidimensional in this very close future reality with AI companions already in high -level prototype models. “That was really important to me. I never want to come from judgment. This could easily be just from Josh’s point of view. But this is a technology that will exist at some point and some people will use it for good, “Hancock said.” And that’s what point behind AI, isn’t it? It’s like a tool, it’s a technology. You could use it for Okay, you can use it for Bad.
QUaid and Thatcher in any other movie would be moving ROM-com leading with fun supporting by Harvey Guillén and Lukas Gage, but these comic forces of the ensemble have the opportunity to shine.
There is also an element of tragedy that we see in this regard with the relationships in the movie. Companion runs the Gamuto of Multi-genus Popcorn movie. “TThe whole point of this movie was because I was in place in my career, where I didn’t get the jobs I wanted, “Hancock said.” I love a genre, I’ve always loved genre. I love The terminator. I love anything with robots or things like serial killers or ghosts. But I didn’t get those job opportunities. So I was like, well, well, maybe you should write something that likes reflects the kinds of movies you like. And that’s why I mean, it’s like 10 tones in this movie. There are 10 genres in this movie. And I just tried everything to get into a little TerminatorPutting some brothers Coen, putting a little like a heistic element. So just throw it all on the wall and see what is beating. ”
Companion Opens this Friday, January 31.
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