Kimi
KIMI
Starring Zoe Kravitz, Byron Bowers, Rita Wilson, India de Beaufort
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
Starring Zoe Kravitz, Byron Bowers, Rita Wilson, India de Beaufort
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
There's a meme I remember seeing talking about how we would never want the government spying on us, and in the second panel a woman is laughing and Alexa laughs as well. There's other countless memes of how the FBI is monitoring our Internet usage, and we just accept it as humorous fact. Gone are the days of any sort of privacy, as even in your own home you're being monitored by multiple different devices that come off as harmless but in the wrong hands could be very detrimental to your own sanity and well-being. "KIMI" is a film that looks at this connection, a modern-day "Rear Window" for the COVID generation, a tight, 90-minute thriller that doesn't skimp on the story or the thrills, keeping its taunt runtime as engaging as it possibly could be.
Angela Childs (Zoe Kravitz) works for Amygdala, a tech corporation that just released KIMI - a smart speaker which controversially makes use of human monitoring to improve the device's search algorithm. She works from home because she suffers from agoraphobia (along with PTSD and a fear of germs), and during the COVID pandemic has to stay sheltered at home, resorting to watching her neighbors through her windows, including attractive neighbor Terry (Byron Bowers), with whom she has a shaky relationship with. She monitors KIMI incoming data streams and makes corrections to its software, and everything seems mundane until she hears what she thinks is a murder being committed. She tries to get the attention of the higher-ups in the company, but no one seems interested in helping or contacting the police, forcing Angela to leave her home and investigate on her own - and discovers a deadly secret that threatens her own life.
Director Steven Soderbergh is best known for directing psychological thrillers and crime heists, most notably his Oscar-winning "Traffic," the "Ocean's" series, and his more avant-garde arthouse films like "Side Effects" and "Unsane," so a film like "KIMI" is right up his alley (in fact, the voice of KIMI - Betsy Brantley - is his ex-wife). He managed to craft an intriguing thriller in half the runtime of "Avengers: Endgame," and make it as exciting as ever, even if the film feels a bit disjointed and all is wrapped up way too neatly in the end. Still, the journey to get to that point is fascinating and intriguing, due to a wholly committed performance by Zoe Kravitz.
Kravitz stars as Angela, a woman who suffers from multiple mental diseases, most notably agoraphobia (the fear of leaving your house). While other actors might use these diseases as a crutch for their film, Kravitz embraces them and uses them to the character's advantage, proving that they don't define her character. While working from home she overhears what she thinks is a murder, and this murder appears to center around her company's CEO in the most terrible way possible, putting her in exact danger. While others might've shied away, she persisted and found the inner strength to leave her home and bring justice, but as usual it comes with a price - and that price is a bounty on her head.
"KIMI" seems to split itself into two films, with the first being Angela's time inside her apartment. We see the world through her eyes and the struggles she face not just with COVID but with human interactions as a whole, as she wants to develop a relationship with her neighbor across the street, but fears leaving her apartment. While Terry manages to visit her, she exhibits offbeat personality disorders, giving sharp remarks and being unnaturally angry that turns Terry off but she doesn't do it in a purposeful way - it's just how her disease shows itself. Yet she tries to conceal it, especially when she thinks a woman's been murdered, which delves into the second film within the film - the traditional thriller chase when she leaves her apartment and is hunted by two henchmen who want to silence her before she gets the truth out. Neither one is necessarily bad, and both are told in a way that keeps the flow of the film going despite it possibly creating a crater in the center of it.
A film like "KIMI" is easily a "Rear Window" for the post-COVID world, and also one that sheds light on how much freedom we're willing to lose for the sake of convenience. While most of us don't mind being listened in on since we got nothing to hide, it's still a strange invasion of privacy and even stranger that we simply allow it to happen and give permission for it to continue. Maybe the conspiracy theorists are right on this one, and we're giving too much power to shady organizations who only want to use us for more money, and in the end we need to ask the question ourselves: is it worth it?
The Score: A-
Angela Childs (Zoe Kravitz) works for Amygdala, a tech corporation that just released KIMI - a smart speaker which controversially makes use of human monitoring to improve the device's search algorithm. She works from home because she suffers from agoraphobia (along with PTSD and a fear of germs), and during the COVID pandemic has to stay sheltered at home, resorting to watching her neighbors through her windows, including attractive neighbor Terry (Byron Bowers), with whom she has a shaky relationship with. She monitors KIMI incoming data streams and makes corrections to its software, and everything seems mundane until she hears what she thinks is a murder being committed. She tries to get the attention of the higher-ups in the company, but no one seems interested in helping or contacting the police, forcing Angela to leave her home and investigate on her own - and discovers a deadly secret that threatens her own life.
Director Steven Soderbergh is best known for directing psychological thrillers and crime heists, most notably his Oscar-winning "Traffic," the "Ocean's" series, and his more avant-garde arthouse films like "Side Effects" and "Unsane," so a film like "KIMI" is right up his alley (in fact, the voice of KIMI - Betsy Brantley - is his ex-wife). He managed to craft an intriguing thriller in half the runtime of "Avengers: Endgame," and make it as exciting as ever, even if the film feels a bit disjointed and all is wrapped up way too neatly in the end. Still, the journey to get to that point is fascinating and intriguing, due to a wholly committed performance by Zoe Kravitz.
Kravitz stars as Angela, a woman who suffers from multiple mental diseases, most notably agoraphobia (the fear of leaving your house). While other actors might use these diseases as a crutch for their film, Kravitz embraces them and uses them to the character's advantage, proving that they don't define her character. While working from home she overhears what she thinks is a murder, and this murder appears to center around her company's CEO in the most terrible way possible, putting her in exact danger. While others might've shied away, she persisted and found the inner strength to leave her home and bring justice, but as usual it comes with a price - and that price is a bounty on her head.
"KIMI" seems to split itself into two films, with the first being Angela's time inside her apartment. We see the world through her eyes and the struggles she face not just with COVID but with human interactions as a whole, as she wants to develop a relationship with her neighbor across the street, but fears leaving her apartment. While Terry manages to visit her, she exhibits offbeat personality disorders, giving sharp remarks and being unnaturally angry that turns Terry off but she doesn't do it in a purposeful way - it's just how her disease shows itself. Yet she tries to conceal it, especially when she thinks a woman's been murdered, which delves into the second film within the film - the traditional thriller chase when she leaves her apartment and is hunted by two henchmen who want to silence her before she gets the truth out. Neither one is necessarily bad, and both are told in a way that keeps the flow of the film going despite it possibly creating a crater in the center of it.
A film like "KIMI" is easily a "Rear Window" for the post-COVID world, and also one that sheds light on how much freedom we're willing to lose for the sake of convenience. While most of us don't mind being listened in on since we got nothing to hide, it's still a strange invasion of privacy and even stranger that we simply allow it to happen and give permission for it to continue. Maybe the conspiracy theorists are right on this one, and we're giving too much power to shady organizations who only want to use us for more money, and in the end we need to ask the question ourselves: is it worth it?
The Score: A-
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