Kimi
Steven Soderbergh's lean techno-thriller is very much a movie of its moment.
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Steven Soderbergh is to filmmaking what Michael Jordan was to basketball or what I’m assuming Tom Brady is going to be to football. He sucked at being retired.
Soderbergh retired from filmmaking in 2013 with the one-two punch of “Side Effects” and “Behind the Candelabra.” One year later he returned with the Cinemax series “The Knick” (not a movie!). Soderbergh unretired in 2017 with “Logan Lucky.” Since 2017 Soderbergh’s made the HBO series “Mosaic,” “Unsane,” “High Flying Bird,” “The Laundromat,” “Let Them All Talk” and “No Sudden Move.” Now comes “Kimi” (currently streaming on HBO Max).
“Kimi” focuses on agoraphobic Seattle-based tech worker Angela Childs (Zoë Kravitz). Angela’s condition has worsened during the pandemic to the point where she won’t visit her mother (Robin Givens – nice to see her again after last week’s “Last Looks”), won’t go on a proper date with her across the street neighbor Terry (comedian Byron Bowers, last seen in Soderbergh’s “No Sudden Move”), won’t attend in-person sessions with her therapist Dr. Sarah Burns (Emily Kuroda) and won’t see her dentist (director David Wain) despite needing a root canal.
Angela works from her handsomely-appointed loft apartment for Amygdala, a tech firm fronted by Bradley Hasling (magician Derek DelGuadio of “In & Of Itself”). Amygdala’s calling card is the Alexa or Siri-like device Kimi. Angela’s task is to decipher miscommunications between users and the device itself. Recordings range from a southern lady calling paper towel “kitchen paper” to a tween calling Kimi a “peckerwood” to the attack of Samantha Gerrity (Erika Christensen of Soderbergh’s “Traffic”).
Angela, concerned with Samantha’s safety, reports the recording to her colleague Christian Holloway (improv comedian Andy Daly). Christian dismisses Angela’s distress and refers her to company higher-up Natalie Chowdhury (Rita Wilson, deliciously playing against type). Angela reaches out to foreign, drunk and horny co-worker Darius (Alex Dobrenko) to help her delve deeper into Samantha’s recordings. Angela’s investigation will force her out of the loft and into the corporate crosshairs.
“Kimi” is penned by writer/director David Koepp, who’s written movies both big (“Jurassic Park,” “Mission: Impossible,” “Spider-Man”) and small (“The Trigger Effect,” “Stir of Echoes,” “You Should Have Left” – all of which he helmed). Thankfully, this is a smaller movie, which calls to mind the Koepp-scripted “Panic Room” during its conclusion. (The ending also echoes “Lethal Weapon 2” and “Home Alone” to a fun degree. The inclusion of Devin Ratray AKA Buzz McCallister as a dude named Kevin really rams the latter reference home.)
“Kimi” is a lean 89-minute thriller that allows Soderbergh to riff on Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Conversation” and Brian De Palma’s “Blow Out.” Soderbergh shot and edited the movie under his usual pseudonyms Peter Andrews (his father’s first and middle names) and Mary Ann Bernard (his mother’s maiden name) – and no surprise, it’s great-looking. Soderbergh’s style, an awesome Bernard Herrmann-esque score by frequent Soderbergh collaborator Cliff Martinez (late-movie 1990s needle drops from Beastie Boys and Elastica are also a welcome surprise) and Kravitz’s nuanced, physical performance (her look reminded me an awful lot of Natalie Portman in both “The Professional” and “Closer”) carry the day.
“Kimi” is very much a movie of the moment incorporating elements of COVID, the #MeToo movement and how technology has us all in its grasp. It’s also a reaffirmation that the Mrs. and I will be certain to keep those bitches Alexa and Siri the hell out of our house.