A killer horror comedy and an Oscar-nominated performance light up the end of January and are well worth your time. Here’s our roundup.

“Companion” >> The horror revival continues to thrive with the release of actor Drew Hancock’s quick-witted directorial debut, a crafty commentary on modern relationships and technological advances. It’s scary, observant and savagely funny. The less you know about it, the better time you’ll have watching it. So I’ll avoid spoilers you can all-too-easily find online or by watching its too-revealing trailer. Shrewdly cast, Hancock’s diabolical treat is superbly shot by Eli Born and stars everyman actor Jack Quaid (Prime’s “The Boys”) as crazyish-in-love average-joe Josh. He and the thoroughly enamored with him Iris (Sophie Thatcher, following up her “Heretic” performance with another slam-dunk) met cute at a grocery store and are now in the folds of a relationship. They accept an invite to spend a weekend getaway with two other couples at an extra-fancy secluded estate near a lake — one of the most overused horror tropes.

The property belongs to predator-like creep Sergey (Rupert Friend, channeling the guy any woman should avoid at a party), who is not well-acquainted with the buttons affixed to his very open shirt. Other guests include Sergey’s girlfriend and Josh’s judgy friend Kat (Megan Suri) and the hopelessly devoted to each other Eli (Harvey Guillén), a lovable open-hearted guy, and Patrick (Lukas Gage), a dreamboat. But something doesn’t quite compute with any of these couples (if it did there wouldn’t be a movie) and that gets more apparent after a violent act reboots what we’ve just seen. Hancock’s film doesn’t exist to just surprise and entertain, which it does throughout, but it also has something to say about selfish modern attractions and man’s narcissistic behavior. The fingerprints of executive producer Zach Cregger (who, like Hancock, branched out from actor to director and burst on the scene with one of this decade’s best horror films, 2022’s “Barbarian”) can be spotted given how smart “Companion” is, too. The film is yet another clever release in the horror genre, which is serving up one great movie after another these days. It also makes the perfect anti-Valentine’s Day movie for those wanting some blood in their bad romances.

Details >> out of 4; in theaters Jan. 31.

“I’m Still Here” >> Fernanda Torres’ best dramatic actress win at this year’s Golden Globes and her surprise Oscar nomination appear to have shocked the Hollywood elite and even Torres. No matter how outside of the box it is, it’s an earned honor given the quietly shattering performance the Brazilian actor renders as the real-life Eunice Paiva, a matriarch who, with her children, endured a nightmarish series of events. Eunice (as portrayed by Torres), embodied the resiliency and the resolve of the Pavia family as she saved and protected her children when her former congressman husband Reubens was taken away from them in 1971 by military agents during the tyrannical rule in Brazil, and then becomes one of the missing. The harrowing sequence when the authoritarian government muscles into the home contrasts with director Walter Salles’ relatable opening scenes when the “Central Station” auteur presents us with the everydayness of one average family living near Rio de Janeiro’s beach. It’s an effective decision that draws us into the middle of the military’s Draconian, brutal measures to quell dissenters.

Rather than focus on Reubens, Salles shifts to Eunice and the family, all the while ensuring that each of the children such as Marcelo Rubens Paiva, author of a 2015 memoir that serves as the basis of the film, are given full-blown personalities. The unstable home environment for them threatens to all but collapse once Eunice and her daughter get taken into custody. Both return home and Eunice resumes, valiantly trying to keep the foundation of her family intact as the government conspires against it.

Salles’ film jumps decades for a touchingly rendered ending that is so profound you’ll be moved to tears. “I’m Still Here’s” message to not forget what happened, lest it happens again, couldn’t be more timely, more topical, more urgently needed.

Details >> , now playing in San Rafael and San Francisco; opens Jan. 31 at the Orinda Theatre and the Elmwood, Berkeley; expands on Feb. 7 to the 3Below Theaters in San Jose and the AMC Mercado in Santa Clara.

“Flight Risk” >> Mel Gibson hops back into the directorial cockpit for a forgettable confined-space thriller that experiences turbulence the instant the screenplay demands it cuff and silence its best asset — actor Mark Wahlberg, whose go-for-broke performance as a psycho “pilot” flying a federal agent (Michelle Dockery) and a very annoying, often hysterical informant (Topher Grace) overshadows everyone else. He plays a reprehensible creep who tosses off sexist and homophobic remarks and wings his passengers away from their destination, and is a character you love to hate. But screenwriter Jared Rosenberg puts him on mute about a third of the way through and that leaves us stranded with Madelyn (Dockery) and Winston (Grace), two one-dimensional bores. Gibson can be a very good director, but he won’t want to put “Flight Risk” high up in his flight log, even if it deploys his savage punches of jarring violence and pays homage to a Karen Black “Airport 1975” moment when Madelyn assumes the wide-eyed piloting duties. Despite debuting at No. 1 at the box office, “Flight Risk” lacks aspiration and chugs predictably along like a cut-rate actioner that would be better landing at home on a streamer.

Details >> ; in theaters now.

Contact Randy Myers at soitsrandy@gmail.com.