Delighting in the type of self-centred behaviour that more of us are guilty of than not, the character at the core of The Travel Companion, Alex Mallis and Travis Wood’s debut feature, sprouts lyrical to anyone who’ll listen (or tolerate) about his forthcoming directorial feature – an experimental, hybrid docu-fiction-travelogue about the cultural bridges and walls between people around the world(?!) – in the hopes that his struggle as a storyteller will find some resonance.
This character, Simon (predominant theatre actor Tristan Turner, superb here), isn’t struggling as much as he would like people to think, however. He isn’t flush with funds, but his ability to travel quite freely comes from a rather enviable set-up between he and his long-time best friend, Bruce (Anthony Oberbeck), an airline worker who has bequeathed one of his employee perks to Simon, selecting him as his “travel companion”, which essentially means Simon can be put on a standby list on any flight around the world and, if there are spare seats, can fly for free to his intended destination.
It’s a sweet gig, and Mallis and Wood’s script (written with Weston Auburn) makes sure to remind us how much Simon values such a privilege – even if he goes about it in a more self-serving manner than intended. Such an arrangement between friends is sure to have its sour lacing though, and, quite ironically, its Simon that upsets the dynamic when he introduces Bruce to Beatrice (Naomi Asa), a fellow filmmaker, who immediately hit it off. This is all well and good for Simon – he doesn’t have to worry about not liking Bruce’s new girlfriend – but when they start getting more serious as a couple, reality sets in that he’s perhaps not as good a friend as he thought (the self delusional is real) and that his status as a travel companion is no longer guaranteed.
Simon’s self entitlement is hard to witness throughout a lot of The Travel Companion‘s 90 minutes, but that’s precisely the intent from Mallis and Wood, and Turner perfectly embodies such a mentality. The friendship between Simon and Bruce already feels a little strained from the offset of the film, so the quiet simmer of rage and resentment that’s present under the surface only gets louder as the narrative continues, with the conversations and subsequent arguments feeling all too real in their execution. Whether it’s intentional or not, but the realism in how Bruce and Simon are presented, along with the oft-voyeuristic nature of how Wood and Turner capture much of their story, feels like a parallel to Simon’s own docu-fiction intentions in how he would like to express a story about people from different walks of life.
Similarly, there’s an evident grasp on New York (where the film is set) and its film culture that the directors take a certain glee in skewering, with the opening of the film centred around a post-screening Q&A session where Simon, quite amusingly, is the one director on stage unable to speak about his work; the other filmmakers on stage all take too much time in waffling on about their craft that the moderator calls time on the event before getting to him at the tail end of the line-up. It serves as a neat precursor to where the film travels for Simon and its independent nature in committing to a less sentimental layering.
The uncomfortable nature of The Travel Companion may prove too substantial for some and too triggering for others, but regardless of one’s reaction, Mallis and Wood have created something of worth in their commentary on the obligations of friendship.
THREE AND A HALF STARS (OUT OF FIVE)
A Tree Fell in the Woods screened as part of this year’s Tribeca Film Festival, which ran between June 4th and 15th, 2025. For more information, head to the official site here.
