"Kimi", an underrated techno-thriller from Steven Soderbergh with a genuine performance from Zoe Kravitz

Kimi is a 2022 techno-thriller directed by Steven Soderbergh and starring Zoe Kravitz as Angela Childs, a nervous and agoraphobic (fear of difficult situations where escape may not be possible) woman who refuses to leave home out of intense anxiety and works at home for a major tech company manufacturing a product known as Kimi (think Amazon's Alexa device), specifically analyzing data streams recorded by Kimi to improve the device's voice recognition functions. Angela has severe anxiety, compounded by the fact that she was previously assaulted. She struggles to even leave her home and walk across the street to meet her boyfriend. With the film being set and filmed during the COVID-19 Pandemic, her anxiety over stepping outside of her home will likely resonate with many viewers. 

One night, Angela hears a strange voice stream that alerts her to the possibility of a violent crime, but when she tries to notify her superiors, she is quickly told to ignore the concerning situation. Unable to let go of her suspicions, she digs deeper, uncovering a shocking event closely tied to the company...

Zoe Kravitz gives a very gripping performance as Angela, you can really see the damage her life experiences have caused her, with her being neurotic and her immense fear of leaving her home. There is a sequence where Angela is forced to leave home and head to an office to discuss her case with higher-ups in the company, and throughout the whole sequence, the camera uses slanted angles, with a lot of blurring in the background and camera jittering and shaking, to give the viewers a disorienting feeling akin to what the agoraphobic Angela must be feeling while walking outside.

Steven Soderbergh is the same director who made Unsane, the film starring Claire Foy as a woman wrongfully put into a mental institution, and a film I have previously reviewed. It's also a very good film. Kimi sees him once again making a thriller set in some largely confined spaces, giving a sense of confinement, especially since much of it is set in a studio apartment, with Angela working at her desk. Even when the action moves out of her apartment, it's still done in a way as to make the viewer feel uncomfortable and closed-in.

The Kimi device also raises questions about privacy and access to information, with Angela's job being to analyze recorded data from various Kimi devices, and her own private information is also easily accessible to her superiors in the company, though this isn't explored as deeply as I would have liked it outside of Angela using the voice streams to discover and find out more about the crime.

The only big problem I have with the film outside of slightly undercooked themes is the ending. It isn't anti-climactic by any means, but the resolution of things after the climax is a little rushed and glossed-over. Other than that though, Kimi is a neat thriller with some interesting ideas, a good leading performance from Zoe Kravitz (who is also set to star as Catwoman in the upcoming Batman reboot starring Robert Pattinson), and is sure to give you good decent thrills and suspense.

Score: 7/10