Man I love Steven Soderbergh. I picture him, fuming that sound mixing/sound design were combined into one category at the Oscars. Seething from the pandemic, the amazing director probably was like “I’ll show you…I’ll make a movie where a sound mixer is the lead in a movie.” And that’s what Kimi is. Only in rarified directing talent’s hands like Soderbergh is a movie like this even watchable, let alone pretty damn entertaining.
Kimi is another version of a voice AI system like Amazon Alexa. Angela Childs (Zoe Kravitz) is a computer programmer working for Amygdala (who created Kimi), run by CEO Bradley Hasling (Derek DelGaudio), who’s about to take the company public. Angela has severe agoraphobia: she’s afraid to leave her house, building a lifestyle around people coming over (one love interest across the street, Terry, played by Byron Bowers) and a regular, strict routine of cleanliness and Zoom interactions to keep her mental health relatively ok. One day, while Angela fixes Kimi’s voice bugs, she overhears a message that sounds like a terrible crime was committed. Scared but determined, Angela takes the issue up the chain at Amygdala, hoping to solve the crime.
On its surface, Kimi’s plot is pretty straightforward and bare bones: one outdoors sequence, a corporate office and Angela’s apartment certainly aren’t getting the audience into whatever is going to happen though epic espionage. But this is why Soderbergh’s one of the best. He has a way of capturing these little details with complete technical precision to help get a full thriller and full movie experience in 90 minutes. Using really clever camera angles and wordless engaging exposition, we get an efficient intro into Kimi and Angela’s day to day activities and a layout of her spacious apartment complex. From there, we get a master class in sound editing and mixing, the minute Angela’s headphones go on and we go into Kimi’s eavesdropping of criminal behavior. The camera then starts becoming more claustrophobic, jittery, and paranoid as Angela has to confront her agoraphobia head on, only to snap into place once Angela gets a breakthrough.
Another of Soderbergh’s talents is his collaboration with his actors, often times an up and comer (he made Channing Tatum a compelling actor, for example). Zoe Kravitz has been in plenty of stuff now, and will Selina Kyle her way into everyone’s hearts soon. But this collab with Soderbergh is some of her most interesting work. The charismatic Kravitz cleverly turns Angela Childs into a fascinating character with multiple layers of personality traits. Even though Angela’s damaged, Kravitz makes it clear that Angela isn’t afraid to go after what she believes is right, damn the consequences to the powerful. There’s a playful annoyance coupled with fear that I don’t see very often, making each new scene with Kravitz a delight. Mrs. Tom Hanks Rita Wilson also kills her one big scene in the movie, playing a corporate mouthpiece to brilliant, maddening, humorous delight.
There was a time where Steven Soderbergh was going to retire from the film industry. So thank you HBO Max, for giving the reliable, modestly profitable director creative license to make what he wants. Because all he does is provide quality content to your site. Literally, as he’s got 2 of the 5 best originals HBO Max has done. And I guess Kimi is now a 3rd. Let’s make HBO Max the Soderbergh HQ!