Kimi

Kimi is fruitful yet incomplete. First, the story introduces interesting ideas, but doesn't follow through. Zoe Kravitz's agoraphobic protagonist leads a confined life before stumbling upon a crime recorded on a home device. From there, Kravitz attempts to expose the crime, but she's met with a bureaucratic conspiracy. This premise establishes themes of captivity, surveillance, and systemic injustice. However, these subjects don't concretely pay off. Similarly, the acting is inconsistent. Kravitz optimizes the role, yet her material is one note. She adds layers but the script lacks a clear arc, stagnating her performance. Meanwhile, her supporting cast (besides Wilson) is weak.

Beyond Kravitz, Kimi's virtue is its filmmaking. The cast, production, and effects are sparse, but craftsmanship is potent. For example, the cinematography uses varied shots and compositions to keep entertainment high and emotions palpable. In Kravitz's apartment, overheads and extreme close-ups convey importance and maintain engagement. Outside, Dutch angles, unsteady movement, and confined spacing express intense anxiety. Plus, the editing efficiently matches Kravitz's mental state, the sound symbolically reflects her perspective, and the music is oddly fitting. Soderbergh gets plenty out of this limited project. Ultimately, Kimi has merit but isn't a must-see.

Writing: 6/10 Direction: 8/10 Cinematography: 9/10 Acting: 8/10 Editing: 8/10 Sound: 8/10 Score/Soundtrack: 7/10 Production Design: 6/10 Casting: 6/10 Effects: 6/10

Overall Score: 7.2/10.

This was an entertaining hour and a half but its was missing something. There are some interesting characters, a nice enough plot line, a decent character reveal and an entertaining conclusion. Unfortunately, it felt a touch glossed over, simplified. A touch more complexity, a bit more depth would have made this something special. As it was, it's still worth a watch, but it won't wow you.

65/100

Kimi doesn't do nearly as much as it could with its tech-spin premise on the conspiracy thriller, and it certainly is no untouchable masterpiece of character work. The script could have used a little more meat on its bones as it relates to character development and world building.

But what it does do is just enough. I found this film to be an extraordinarily efficient work of pacing. It's never so slow that it becomes boring; there's always something to pay attention to in every scene. And the second half of the film really becomes riveting with constant variety in location, physical threat, and power dynamics.

It's certainly a decent thriller, though it's definitely a lesser work from Steven Soderbergh.

I am a bit surprised that the overall rating (as of March 2022) is below 7 for this film.

I have no idea why that is because this is a good solid film.

Very much in line with Steven Soderbergh other films.

Keeping it simple. Good storytelling with thriller elements. You just know what you're getting with Soderbergh. Rounded characters, no Flash/bang CGI/visual effects to unnecessarily distract and a set of good actors in a well told story. It's like old film making techniques to tell modern stories.

It sort of reminded me of a modern version of Rear Window but with post covid lockdown as a backdrop and the use of modern information technology. It is substantially different to Rear window though.

This, I think, is the first Zoe Kravitz film I've seen. She's very good. Very believable.

What Soderbergh does, and I personally like this, is take modern topics of conversation and produces a story that weaves all that into a thriller of sorts.

He did this with "No sudden move" (corporate greed), "the Laundromat" (Panama papers), "Unsane" and "side effects" (the health sector), "High flying bird" (sport greed) and now with Kimi (data harvesting and big tech).

Sometimes he hammers home the point, but in this film, it's all laid out without being belligerent.

It's an intelligent technology based thriller (not techno thriller - which I associate with cyberpunk etc).

A great film to watch one evening. Good pacing and not too long.

There is a sexual scene in it, so if you are planning to watch it then You'll be alright if you have older teenage kids or non-prudish parents. If you can get past that, then you're onto a winner for a night's entertainment.

Thought provoking and much better than a lot of films out there right now.

Do watch if you get the chance.

A nice little thriller from Steven Soderbergh. Zoe Kravitz excels in the lead role as the agoraphobic tech worker and the movie ticks along at a good pace with Soderbergh displaying all his usual tricks of the trade which make him still one of the best directors working today.