Kimi

> Despite some over the top elements towards the third act that asked a lot of the viewer, I kind of loved this movie. So much of it is because of the brilliant visual storytelling on display.
>
> **Chris Stuckmann**

**Kimi** (stylized as KIMI) is a 2022 American thriller film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written and produced by David Koepp. The film stars Zoë Kravitz and Rita Wilson. It was released on HBO Max on February 10, 2022.

## Plot

Angela Childs, a tech worker with agoraphobia, discovers recorded evidence of a violent crime, but is met with resistance when she tries to report it. Seeking justice, she must do the thing she fears the most: she must leave her apartment.

## Good Qualities

1. Angela shows great skill while she's evading pursuit by the thugs after her at first. Then she even manages to kill all of them using just a nail gun.
2. The story, while not original, is decent, as it is about a tech worker girl must do the thing she fears the most and must leave her apartment, during the COVID-19 pandemic.
3. Angela, living alone, is accosted by criminals who break into her home. She defeats them using a home appliance and a tool. A man named Kevin, also living alone, helps her out with one of the criminals, makes it nice homage.
4. The editing is somewhat experimental that it elevating this film above your typical techno-thriller.
5. Zoe Kravitz is great here as Angela Childs, involving us not just in the Blow Out mystery but also the various pathways of her anxiety.
	* Betsy Brantley is also great as the voice of Kimi, a smart home product raising questions about privacy as well.
6. Steven Soderbergh and David Keopp keep it short, sweet, and surgical with Kimi - a sleek techno genre piece that also dabbles in the sculpting of a complex character.
7. *Kimi* have interesting idea that lives up for Steven Soderbergh films. For example, Angela ditches her blue hair for pink. Kimi is active while blue, in sleep mode when purple/pinkish.
8. The way in which Soderbergh builds the tension is excellent, aided by an effective soundtrack composed of strident sounds and distorted melodies that have an effect on the audience. To this he injects a dose of humour, especially when he makes use of some interesting songs.

## Bad Qualities

1. The story, although decent, isn't original.

## Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 91% of 104 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.50/10. The website's consensus reads, "A housebound thriller with a 21st century spin, *Kimi* finds director Steven Soderbergh in crowd-pleasing form – thanks in no small part to an outstanding performance from Zoë Kravitz.". Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 78 out of 100 based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

## Trivia

* Unlike many productions filmed during the COVID-19 pandemic, this movie not only had to observe coronavirus restrictions and precautions behind the scenes during filming, it also explicitly acknowledges the pandemic onscreen as part of the storyline. Characters wear masks, and Angela admits in dialogue that the virus exacerbated her agoraphobia, which had been improving before COVID anxieties caused a relapse.