The Travel Companion is a comedy-drama feature debut from New York City-based filmmakers Travis Wood and Alex Mallis, who co-wrote the script with Weston Auburn. The World Premiere was in the U.S. Narrative Competition on June 5, 2025, at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Synopsis: Struggling documentarian Simon (Tristan Turner) relies on the unique perk of his roommate.
Simon (Tristan Turner) and Bruce (Anthony Oberbeck) have been friends since the 3rd grade. They are single, maintain a close relationship, and live together as roommates. Bruce works for an airline that offers a travel companion benefit, which he has generously provided to Simon for quite some time. Simon works for a local advertising agency and is an independent documentarian. This benefit is a massive support to his filmmaking career.
Once Bruce attends an event as Simon’s guest, he meets a filmmaker, Beatrice (Naomi Asa). A relationship develops between them, and he spends more time with her, becoming less available to Simon than he had been before. Simon doesn’t use his time wisely enough to avoid meddling in Bruce and Beatrice’s relationship, which is troublesome. I became frustrated with his childish behavior, such as constantly interrupting the date in the living room, even when it was just a meal in front of the television. She was friendly and supportive of Simon at first, but it is no wonder Beatrice began to lose her patience after he made this and multiple other comments. Bruce had told him to drop one specific topic, but Simon did not heed the warning and made it worse instead.
Naomi Asa provides an excellent performance as Beatrice, outstanding when Simon tells her something very much out of order about her family. She does not have to and stops to convey a part of her life story emotionally. As interesting as the story sounded, the script calls for her to stop and storm off to tell Bruce. I would have preferred to learn more about her rather than see her rush to Bruce right then and there. This incredible moment in the film, with her performance, dived back to Simon’s drab life and neediness—the beginning of the end.
This film offers a candid look at the challenges one indie filmmaker faces in achieving his goals. Turner provides an excellent performance of an artist in crisis.
Other Cast: Dara Messinger, Raheem Roher, Anil Joseph, Daryush Parsi, David H. Smilow, Brit Fryer, Joanna Arnow, Steven Phillips-Horst, Peter Davis, Pete Spooner, Charlie Hoxie, Peter Fairman
Runtime: 1 hour and 31 minutes
Source: Production Companies: Meerkat Media, BRIC TV, Art School Athletics in Association with Tinygiant