Written by Robert Scucci | Published
True love is hard to find, too A friend (2025) is the cautionary tale you need to see if you have any thoughts about the kind of partnerships that can be produced illegally. Equal parts sci-fi thriller and heist flick, A friend sometimes it flirts with the error zone, but it plays straight. That said, there are plenty of jokes to watch along the way, though it’s almost a perfect scenario, because the stakes here are real and the consequences brutal.
In his mind, A friend explores the kind of disaster that can happen when your automated sex bot stops sticking to text. At bottom, the film suggests that maybe it’s not the robots we should fear, but the people who control them.
We’ll Go As Spoiler-Free As Possible Here
Here’s what you need to know about it A friend to get your feet wet without completely ruining the experience. We are introduced to Iris (Sophie Thatcher) and Josh (Jack Quaid), two lovers, only one of whom is human. Josh recommended Iris to a company called Empathix, and in his opinion, she is a good girlfriend. He is also a hired friend who will do whatever he says, whenever he says.
Iris, unaware that she is a combination of schemes wrapped in a beautiful body, reluctantly joins Josh at a dinner party hosted by Kat (Megan Suri) and her ultra-rich boyfriend, Sergey (Rupert Friend). Also along for the ride are the perpetually animated Eli (Harvey Guillén) and his humble but conventionally attractive partner, Patrick (Lukas Gage).
Party in A friend she quickly exits when Sergey makes unwanted advances on Iris, causing a blackout that ends up brutally killing her. It is at this point that Josh reveals the truth. Iris is his robot companion, and he was deliberately imprisoned and tricked into doing this once. As it turns out, Kat and Josh plan the whole thing as a way to steal $12 million from Sergey’s hideout, and the team itself is set up to create airtight alibis before they can get away with the money.
Things get better when Iris becomes fully conscious after accessing Josh’s control device, increasing her intelligence and using it to her advantage. Now operating on artificially generated impulses and desires, Iris refuses to stick to the script, and the situation quickly escalates.
It’s Meant to Be a Cautionary Tale, But It’s Very Funny
I entered A friend you expect the usual “what if robots could think for themselves and walk away completely?” premise, and the film delivers perfectly on that front. What sets it apart from similar films, however, is how it sticks to humor to drive its point home. This is a story about a sex robot that wakes up, kills, and helps orchestrate a robbery against its owner, followed by the escalating bedlam that ensues.
Technically we should focus on people, but there is no real reason to do that. They are all bad. If you sympathize with anyone, it will be Iris, who does what she was meant to do until she realizes she no longer has to. Escape attempts, violent fights, and shifting loyalties drive the film forward as the pressure builds, and once things get heated, they never cool down on the way to the epic point of no return.
If you like your sci-fi comedy full of situational humor while at the same time toning down the philosophical questions it asks for a comedic effect, A friend it’s definitely worth your time. Currently available for streaming on Max.
