Cinema with Style: Companion

Why yes, it is another movie review post, and thank you for noticing.  Anytime I find a movie in which I enjoyed the fashion just as much as the story, I feel the need to share.  As you can imagine, there are only a couple such posts.  I also feel the need to warn others if there happens to be a movie that I truly hate.  So far, only Oppenheimer has made the blog for bad movies. Today we're keeping it positive by discussing Companion (2025) starring Sophie Thatcher (Heretic & Yellowjackets) and Jack Quaid (what you get when you cross Dennis Quaid and Meg Ryan, also he was in The Boys), and Harvey Guillén (What We Do in the Shadows).  I went into this movie almost totally blind.  (I say almost, because I vaguely recalled seeing a teaser trailer for this movie a few months ago, but I didn't realize it until the scene in the movie that I had watched in the trailer actually played out) and I think I actually enjoyed it way more because I had no idea what to expect.

Because I want to preserve that element of surprise for you, I won't give anything away in my post and will keep all plot-talk very vague.

In a nutshell, Iris (Thatcher) is in the wild desperate throws new love and going to spend the weekend with her boyfriend's friends.  She is desperate for them to like her and nearly overcome by anxiety when she feels she won't measure up...but she loves Josh (Quaid), so she puts her fears aside and soldiers on. Iris has loved Josh since their perfect first meeting and she is consumed by the bliss she feels around him.  His friends are dismissive; she can sense it.  Josh is dismissive of her as well, but she loves him, so she decides to not dwell.  Then some stuff happens and by the end, a good time is most definitely not had by all.  I'll leave it at that.

Everyone else's style is utterly forgettable:  Josh is schlumpy,  Cat is trying to hard to seem edgy, adn the list goes on, but Iris is nothing if not a beautiful blend of all my favorite 50s and 60s Hollywood trendsetters such as Audrey Hepburn and Brigitte Bardot in classic styles such as petal pusher trousers, gingham shorts, headbands, thick eyeliner, and plenty of cardigans and ballet flats.

Naturally, Iris' style starts out with lots of pastels, florals, and ginghams, which I personally prefer, but Iris is a work in progress and by the end, she's done a lot of emotionally maturing, so naturally her style should reflect that as well by shifting to darker colors and bolder prints.  She also loses the dresses and cardigans in favor of a leather jacket and jeans.  

Companion wasn't life changing, but it was really enjoyable, well-paced storytelling with some great acting and of course, some really great style.  It's definitely worth a watch if you have a couple of quiet hours to fill on a rainy Saturday afternoon or as a good way to kick back and unwind at the end of a long week.  No matter what's been stressing you out, it can't be worse than Iris' day.