I’ve wondered when we’d be ready for a movie set against the backdrop of COVID-19. Obviously that mileage will vary for many, depending on a whole host of personal relationships to this pandemic -but it is something that will have to be talked about in film, it’s far too significant a global event to be avoided entirely and it has changed the world in some ways. When Locked Down was made and released in the middle of the uncertainty, it wasn’t terribly welcome. It hit too close to home, it seemed to capitalize on a collective trauma we were still undergoing. Just over a year later though the same platform that released Locked Down has a new movie in which COVID plays a significant part and the feel isn’t the same. The world’s in a different place now, there’s more room for hope, and we can be comfortable portraying those heavy days of the pandemic, now that they are most likely over. Curious that it comes from a filmmaker who made arguably the toughest movie to revisit during those most frightening months of 2020: Contagion.
Now Steven Soderbergh’s KIMI isn’t a film about COVID, not directly at least. Rather it’s a straightforward thriller that’s essentially the latest tech update of The Conversation. Zoë Kravitz plays a housebound troubleshooter for a major tech company called KIMI, who in listening to data streams for errors hears what she believes to be a violent domestic crime take place. In her efforts to report it and the pushback she receives, she’s forced to confront her own trauma and her debilitating agoraphobia when she must venture into the outside world.
Kravitz’s performance holds a lot of the movie together, her relatable anxiety and trepidation about the state of the world as coloured in sympathy as her vibrant blue hair (which looks great on her!). Secluded in her pristine apartment, taking dental appointments virtually and unable to make a date with the man in the building opposite her, she is left with the privacy of her thoughts and reflections; and those human voices she picks up on listening to streams. And much like with Gene Hackman in the Coppola classic, this kind of work seems to have adversely affected her psychology, her impression of people, and her own insecurities. But at the same time she’s not in that different a place as many of us were more than a year ago, and though COVID isn’t cited as a predominant cause, it is an unavoidable exacerbation. Kravitz taps into that particular resigned dread really well, which combined with these other issues she’s wrestling with makes for a surprisingly compelling character.
Angela Childs in spite of it all, has a determined sense of justice, frequently calling the office of her boss to speak to her on the matter of what she heard. She sees through the excuses from upper management figures, her own experience with abuse similar to what she gleaned informing her conviction. It’s by now not terribly bold for a film to realistically portray the ways in which the powerful will systemically skirt accountability to protect their own, which it becomes clear is happening here. But the frustration of that in the context of a company analogous to a Google or Apple does feel more potent, especially disguised as it is in insincere platitudes and efforts to brush away the severity of the situation and undermine Angela’s competence. Andy Daly’s obnoxious supervisor is succeeded by Rita Wilson’s perhaps more insidious executive feigning concern and empathy to hide her complicity in covering up the indiscretion.
Soderbergh builds that rage terrifically in tandem with the tension, which takes off most emphatically once Angela is forced to leave her home. Up till then the direction is measured and strong, but it’s not until Angela departs her safe haven that his choices become actively thrilling. As she moves through her apartment building and into the outside, her disorienting nauseousness is visualized by harried handheld camera movement and frenzied editing. You feel immensely the weight of the world and of what she’s doing coming down on her, and it keeps the stakes feeling very high -especially once this psychological unease is paired with real physical danger. It is contrasted against the high saturation colour palette of the outside world, with eye-poppingly vibrant greens and blues, rich texture and openness -which also counters the relative darkness of Angela’s apartment which limits her exposure to that beauty. It looks exquisite and makes for an exciting backdrop for the action that comes into play.
It’s a very strong last act and the climax is especially thrilling, Soderbergh closing the loop in on Angela in inventive ways as the conspiracy takes the wild turn into violence, agents of the CEO tailing Angela as she threatens to expose a major scandal. As the films’ tone steers into this heightened style, new rules are applied in exhilarating ways: KIMI, the source of this whole affair, most notably becomes a satisfying tool in Angela’s play to bring down the men attempting to silence her. It’s a lot of fun and the atmosphere is very well managed. And it even gives us perhaps a glimpse into Kravitz’s action movie potential, ahead of her turn as Catwoman in the upcoming Batman movie.
COVID remains linked to the film through all this, the omnipresence of digital communication and a harrowing public environment stark totems to that world it shaped and which still lingers as the pandemic has transformed. At one point Angela runs into and is saved by a protest, which I instinctively thought would be BLM, but is an in-universe response to a debilitating homeless crisis exploited by corporations like KIMI -a reminder of the intersectional injustices that tech giants benefit from and which have been amplified in the radius of COVID. But Soderbergh’s movie isn’t preoccupied with its’ topicality at the expense of its protagonist and dramatic effects. Those elements are the most rewarding, the context merely decorating them with avid character and providing an excuse for some cogent themes and artistically pleasing visuals.
In a few ways, KIMI is a type of movie we don’t see a whole lot: an inexpensive but not micro-budgeted adult thriller from a highly competent name director that clocks in at a brisk ninety minutes. It is Soderbergh’s third in a row for HBO Max and is much the same quality as his last, No Sudden Move. He’s found a good home there it seems and a level of creative agency worth admiring. Other filmmakers should be so lucky.
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