Kimi
Steven Soderbergh is on a roll.
Since “un-retiring” in 2017 with Logan Lucky, one of his best films to date, he’s made at least one feature per year, each visually mesmerizing yet crafted with an impressive efficiency that makes such frequency and consistent quality possible. But unlike certain films from various experimental phases of his career, they’re also narratively rich while continuing to attract top talent ranging from regulars to first-time collaborators.
Arriving a mere half year after the underrated No Sudden Move, the cyber-thriller Kimi proves an ideal fit for Soderbergh’s recent small-scale technical mastery.
Somehow the director’s first collaboration with prolific screenwriter David Koepp (Jurassic Park; Mission: Impossible), the COVID-19 pandemic-set quasi-update of The Conversation, Blow-Out, and other techno-paranoia classics hits the sweet spot between entertainment and social commentary that’s defined the director’s best work.
Proving with each new opportunity that she’s a compelling lead star, Zoë Kravitz exudes coolness as agoraphobic, Seattle-based millennial Angela, one of many techs who work from home, listen to recordings of the titular Alexa-like AI failing to fulfill the customer’s request, and rewrite code so that the errors won’t reoccur.
Upon convincingly establishing Angela’s limited existence via interactions with across-the-street neighbor Terry (Byron Bowers) and various close contacts over video chat — which allows for some fun recognizable faces to participate — Soderbergh and Koepp kick Kimi into high gear when Angela becomes convinced that she’s witnessed a crime in audio form.
Like a lot of Soderbergh films, merely adequate time is devoted to his latest protagonist’s backstory and how she’s come to be in a prison-like situation, but enough details are present here to justify why someone with a social disorder would muster the courage to finally leave her home.
What plays out when Angela does inevitably venture out is full of expertly filmed and edited suspense, comparable to Neo’s early adventures in The Matrix but with a different sort of Morpheus figure looking out for her. Rita Wilson, Devin Ratray, and Jacob Vargas contribute memorable supporting turns as individuals who cross paths with her, while the connections of these characters with the sketch activities of a Kimi executive (Derek DelGaudio, In & Of Itself) downright coagulates the tension.
But Kimi is wholly Kravitz’s show, and with Soderbergh behind the camera guiding her, it feels like she can do anything.
Grade: B-plus. Rated R. Now available on HBO Max
(Photo: Warner Bros.)
