What a crime. Steven Soderbergh, one of our great filmmakers, has not released a movie in theaters in seven years! It’s a combination of bad timing (pandemic) and lack of studio support, when all he does is release great movies, on budget, and on time. Better late than never I guess, cause we have a Soderbergh double feature in 2025! And if Black Bag is anywhere near as good as Presence, we could be on the verge of a new generation of moviegoers learning why he is considered one of the great directors of all time.
Inside this beautiful home is a family at emotional war with one another. On one side is Rebecca (Lucy Liu) and her prized son Tyler (Eddy Maday), swimming and school champion. And on the other is the very concerned dad Chris (Chris Sullivan) focused on his emotionally fraught daughter Chloe (Callina Liang), who just tragically lost her best friend. Fighting over how to parent Chloe, at first, she’s by herself a lot in this new house. But this traumatizing death has opened a door in her brain…one that has her suspect that there’s another, um, entity in this house watching what she’s up to.
Presence feels like a magic trick. I had seen found footage movies before, and David Lowery’s A Ghost Story. But Presence is their trippy, unsettling merger. The director takes a simple camera on a balancing device, and has the audience hovering thought this house, making each audience member feel like they are the poltergeist, or whatever the supernatural being is. From there, he starts unsettling us, as this being, um, WE the audience take interest on Chloe, the most vulnerable family member, watching her when she thinks no one is, creepily so. Soderbergh then nudges us a little further, as Chloe senses we’re there, just a second or two late. Each time he does that it sends a shiver down you’re spine. That rock solid foundation Presence is built upon, making the audience feel as if they’re participating in some unnatural act, making us contort in our seats as the dread slowly creeps in.
But Soderbergh’s more than just setup. Presence then challenges those initial feelings we have as a ghostly presence, and replacing our internal dread with external dread as we learn more about the inner lives of this family and their friends. Now we’re not only eerily watching Chloe and her family’s choices, but we’re helpless as they feel like they’re about to succumb to them. Parts of this 2nd half are not quite as good as the incredible first, but the supernatural events are smartly conceived to help cover up some of the screenplay and character shortcomings and provide the slow burn movie a jolt of electricity. Plus, Callina Liang is really great holding the screen, as we remain as fascinated with her going on as we do going out. The rest of the family evolves slowly and meaningfully too, with the final shot haunting, sad and beautiful all at once.
Welcome back to the big screen Steven! It’s like you never left, and the world is better off for it. I have no doubt your version of Mr. and Mrs. Smith is going to be a dramatic romp of epic proportions, showing again how versatile you are as a director of both the big and small. Who knows? Maybe we’ll get another Traffic/Erin Brockovich double header 25 years later. That’s crazy!