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Film round-up: January 30, 2025
The Star's critic MARIA DUARTE reviews Companion, Saturday Night, The Tasting, and The Colours Within
ALEX HALL is intrigued by a detailed history of Gaza that demonstrates its historic resilience and changing economy
RON JACOBS welcomes the long overdue translation of an epic work that chronicles resistance to fascism during WWII
MAYER WAKEFIELD is chilled by the co-dependency of two lost souls as portrayed by German communist playwright Franz Xaver Kroetz
The Star's critics BRETT GREGORY, JOHN GREEN, MICHAEL BONCZA and ANGUS REID review The Stimming Pool, Misericordia, La Cocina, Irena’s Vow, and The End
CHRIS MOSS welcomes a radical history that brings marginalised stories and overlooked people and agencies to the centre
ANDREW HEDGECOCK relishes visual storytelling with no respect for genres, movements or styles
Companion (15)
Directed by Drew Hancock
★★★★
THIS is one of those films that the less you know about it going in the better you will be wowed by it.
It centres on three couples who meet up for the weekend at a luxury lake house in the middle of nowhere. What could possibly go wrong, you ask?
Written and directed by Drew Hancock this is a deliciously twisted and wicked genre bending dark comedy. It is part thriller, part sci fi and part horror film, and a killer love story which defies all their tropes. Plus it has eye-opening hidden depths as it explores AI and its moral ethics which prove surprising.
I would love to elucidate on this but it would mean revealing a key plot spoiler. Let’s just say this isn’t a film about AI gone wrong. Maybe I have said too much.
Companion follows Iris (Sophie Thatcher) who is taken by the love of her life Josh (Jack Quaid) to spend time with his friends at the remote home of a Russian billionaire (Rupert Friend). Iris is convinced Josh’s BFF Kat (Megan Suri) hates her.
Thatcher, last seen as a Mormon nun in Heretic, is outstanding delivering an unforgettable performance as the beautiful and loving Iris who seems to have come straight out of the 1950s or ’60s, while Quaid is her perfect foil as her idyllic boyfriend.
This is a wonderfully smart, fun romp full of genius surprises which will defy all expectations.
In cinemas January 31
Saturday Night (15)
Directed by Jason Reitman
★★★
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