The Travel Companion: Free Flights vs. Friendship
by Sydney Reyes
Everyone’s scared of falling behind, but acting on those fears can lead to unpleasant consequences. When you're faced with your darkest demons, you want to stop them no matter what. The Travel Companion, which premiered at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival, follows Simon (Tristan Turner), a struggling indie filmmaker who gets free flights due to his airline employee best friend and roommate, Bruce (Anthony Oberbeck). This benefit becomes shaky when Bruce starts dating Beatrice (Naomi Asa), a more accomplished filmmaker. This film is an honest take at materializing one’s internal struggles, and prompts us to keep ourselves in check when jealousy arises.
When Simon’s ability to travel freely to make films, and his only friendship, are suddenly threatened by Beatrice, he scrambles to maintain the already fragile status quo of his life. Simon’s character comes off strong, relentlessly insisting on his desires with no regard towards the people around him. Turner’s performance is subtle and true-to-life, making you want to give him a chance at first. But how far can he take things before it goes south?
Directors Travis Wood and Alex Mallis characterize Simon as a manifestation of our deepest, most childish reactions: our id. The Travel Companion simulates the fears I often think about, using Simon as an example of how not to react. He’s proud to an extreme fault, and we watch him slowly chip away at Bruce’s patience. Like our id, Simon is not afraid to demand what he wants or say how he would like things to go. He relentlessly asks Bruce to let him keep his travel companion status and shamelessly offers Beatrice his videography services to benefit from her name. It’s uncomfortably cathartic seeing how one can react if manners and tact were off the table. I would personally never act that way, but I have thought the things he says in my head. Though we’re all capable of thinking insensitive things without consequences, it was jarring to see Simon embody those thoughts.
The Travel Companion bravely takes on themes of bitterness, transactionality, and jealousy and shows us precisely why we shouldn’t let these emotions get the better of us. The film masterfully uses airplane flights and the struggle of independent filmmaking to bring out these darker emotions, and is unafraid of handling them. While this premise tackles a satisfactory amount of the point, more development in the plot and more detail into the roommates' dynamic would serve the story better. I had hoped to see more of the “good ol’ days,” and not just the fallout of Simon and Bruce’s brotherhood. Seeing them on their last Japan trip, for example, would help viewers feel the knife of the breakup more deeply. I would have liked to know them before the conflict, to see if things were already heading south. Nonetheless, The Travel Companion presents an important reminder of not letting these dark, parasitic emotions dictate how we treat the people we love.
At the core of this film, we see someone who is afraid of falling behind as his peers slowly blossom. The Travel Companion does well in exposing this fear and letting audiences see how ridiculous the price of selfishness can look. Simon lags behind his friends and gets disregarded. People forget to address him in a group of filmmakers and when someone wants their photo taken, they order Simon to give the camera to Beatrice instead. These moments present hyper-realistic situations that only the “Simon” of an interaction would ever really feel. We rarely discuss this universal experience, as it takes a lot of vulnerability to declare that we’re being treated like we are not important or talented. The Travel Companion boldly showcases these emotions felt at a singular level, and broadcasts them for many to see and reflect on. These moments in the film made my heart sink, a little too familiar with that fear. I empathize with Simon, but that does not justify his actions toward Bruce and Beatrice.
The Travel Companion carries us through a bittersweet transitional period between two friends who might have just outgrown each other. It’s a realistic yet adventurous way of showing the complexities of human relationships. The film candidly brings life to emotions that are hard to explain. From jealousy to entitlement, to the dread of falling behind, such themes are laid out well for audiences to witness their negative effects. It’s a reminder that you must not lose sight of things, to keep yourself in check when unpleasant thoughts start to seep into your actions. And no matter how tempting, The Travel Companion tells us that genuine friendships are always more valuable than free flights.