By Jack Deegan
Staff Writer
In a time like today where everyone and everything is being recorded, it can be very hard to stay private. While that might be scary for us to deal with, it makes for an exciting concept for a film from Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh in “KIMI,” which was released on HBO Max Feb. 10.
The movie follows Angela Child (Zoe Kravitz), an agoraphobic woman who works as a data analyst that reviews audio from KIMI devices (which are similar to an Amazon Alexa). When she suddenly discovers evidence of a violent crime on one of the devices, her life is turned around as she has to face her fears to set things right.
On the surface, this movie has a relatively simple story as we watch Angela go deeper and deeper into the criminal conspiracy. She’s trying her hardest to do the right thing despite other people’s selfish agendas. Things get increasingly more difficult for her as time goes on. There are exciting twists and surprises that put things into a different perspective. It’s all relatively standard stuff and it’s good, but what elevates this movie to great is its exploration of agoraphobia on top of the pandemic. Agoraphobia is an anxiety disorder based on the fear of large crowds and public places where escape is difficult, so people who suffer from it often just stay in their home all of the time.
Having Angela suffer from this disorder not only provides a very accurate depiction of someone struggling with their mental health, but it adds a whole new layer to the story of this movie. Early on in the film we see Angela make plans to finally go out and meet guy she’s been talking to and she’s very excited about it, but the moment her hand touches the doorknob we can see the sheer panic in her face. Other people don’t take her condition seriously and don’t understand why she can’t just go outside. It’s hard to watch and says a lot about other people’s lack of empathy. Agoraphobia is an emotionally paralyzing condition that she’s forced to live with, which makes everything else she’s going through all the more difficult.
The film also takes place during the Covid-19 pandemic, which is a very hard idea to play with in film right now because we’re all still feeling the impact of that. It’s a tricky line to walk, but writer David Koepp does it in a way that benefits the story and Angela’s character. She was making progress on her agoraphobia, but when the pandemic hit, it really hit her hard. It’s a story that’s never been told before and it’s interesting to watch it all play out. Zoe Kravitz gives a great and memorable performance showing us how Angela lives with this scary disorder and just proves why she’s one of the best actresses working today.
One of my favorite parts about the movie was the camera work and editing. It’s no surprise that Soderbergh’s directing stands out given his track record. The camera moves in a purposeful way that enhances what we’re seeing on screen in the best ways. When Angela is in her apartment, the camera is very steady with not much movement. It’s calm and barely noticeable. Then, as Angela has to venture into the outside world, there’s a very sudden and dramatic shift to a shaky handheld camera. On top of that, it’s all edited in a very frantic way to really convey the sense of panic. Things feel a lot more stressful and uneasy when she’s having this anxiety and it really takes advantage of the visual medium.
My major gripe with this film is its ending. The movie comes in at a tight 89 minutes, and it really could have used some more time to naturally wrap everything up. The climax of this movie was done really well, and it takes a really interesting turn, but after that the movie just kind of ends. Everything is wrapped up almost immediately after with no time spent exploring the repercussions of it. This movie would have really benefited from having more time wrapping everything up instead of just moving on.
“KIMI'' is a refreshing techno-thriller from Soderbergh that tells a story we’ve never seen before. While it isn’t perfect and stumbles at the end, it still managed to keep my attention the entire time and was a very good film.
