Kimi (2022) Movie Review
Steven Soderbergh has a long filmography filled with numerous hits and a handful of misses. Kimi isn’t Soderbergh’s best but it’s a very solid effort that is worth a watch. Kimi is the name of a smart speaker similar to Siri or Alexa, and it monitors human behavior to advance and improve the algorithm. Kimi is created by a tech company called Amygdala that is set to go public at the beginning of the movie.
Angela (Zoë Kravitz) works from home for Amygdala. Her main job is monitoring data streams from Kimi machines around the world and then making improvements to the software. Angela is agoraphobic and rarely leaves the house. We slowly piece together that this is the result of an assault she suffered and that the COVID pandemic worsened her condition. She has some human contact via Terry (Byron Bowers), who lives across the street and with whom she has sporadic sex appointments.
The story is set in motion when Angela hears what she believes to be an assault while working on a data stream. With the help of a co-worker, Angela is able to find out the account holder’s name, Samantha (Erika Christensen), and the identity of her assaulter, Brad (Derek DelGaudio), who happens to be the CEO of Amygdala. Angela reports her findings to an executive at Amygdala, Natalie (Rita Wilson), who she has to meet with in person. Angela faces her fears of leaving the house only to be met with the type of hesitation and side stepping that tech companies have long been guilty of when it comes to sexual assault and harassment claims.
From there, it’s a fight for survival as Angela must dodge the mighty arm of the Amygdala company who wants to keep what she discovered a secret. The culmination of the movie takes place back at Angela’s home in what is one of the most entertaining and tense scenes I’ve seen this year and features the heavy hitting song Sabotage by the Beastie Boys.
Kimi definitely has the familiar Soderbergh style. He keeps things tight and the plot moves along at a brisk pace. This works incredibly well for this crime thriller. Angela keeps us on our toes as she faces down a massive tech company whose Kimi product is Big Brother-esque – it’s always listening. Much of the movie’s success is because of Kravitz’s portrayal. She makes you want to root for Angela – a good person at heart despite the challenges she’s had to endure. Kravitz’s Angela is equal parts guarded and suspicious but she wants to be out in the world interacting with people again. You feel for her as she struggles in her apartment alone, and you’re on her side when she chooses to report what she found. Even more so, when she has to face her biggest fears to do so but keeps going anyways.
Throughout the movie I kept drawing parallels between her character and Lisbeth Salander from The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo series. Both are separated from society in some capacity, incredibly smart and thrifty, and have an alternative style that is incredibly interesting. Although Angela is a bit more relatable and much less intense. Anyways, Kimi is a lot of fun to watch and will keep you on the edge of your seat. It’s one of my favorite efforts from Soderbergh in a long while and will entertain you for the full 1 hour and 29 minutes.
You’ll like this movie if:
1. You like Soderbergh as a director
2. You like suspenseful crime thrillers
3. You like movies with a brisk pace and some light action sequences
