Sophie Thatcher

Companion

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Close up of Sophie Thatcher

The bots are coming for us. Companion is the latest in a line of more or less scary looks into the near future, when even the most crucially human aspects of our existence will be outsourced to machines. Am I even writing this? After Robot & Frank, Ex Machina, The Trouble with Being Born and I’m Your Man – excellent all – writer/director Drew Hancock gives us another vastly entertaining and thought-provoking look at the subject, wrapped up in a “cabin in the woods” story about a guy called Josh (Jack Quaid) taking his new girl, Iris (Sophie Thatcher) to meet his friends at a remote weekend retreat. There, the bitchy and appropriately … Read more

Heretic

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Hugh Grant with hands folded in prayer

What happens if you turn wayward, dithery rom-com Hugh Grant all the way up to 11? Heretic is the answer, a through-the-looking-glass turn by Grant whose good guy/bad guy turn as a householder giving two young Mormon women a night they won’t forget is this movie’s main event. First we meet the young women – Sister Paxton (Chloe East) and Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) – in a scene designed to demonstrate to us their everydayness. With their coy chat about Magnum condoms, penises and online porn, Bates and Paxton also demonstrate to each other that they are everyday normal young women, just ones who happen to members of the Church of Jesus Christ … Read more