Angela Childs (Zoe Kravitz) is an agoraphobic tech worker who trawls through voice communications that have been misunderstood by tech giant company Amygdala’s voice recognition device Kimi. When working through her latest set of recordings she thinks that she hears evidence of a crime and attempts to report her findings placing her into a web of conspiracy and lies. 

Kimi is the latest film from the prolific and inventive director Steven Soderbergh. It has a few touchstones in other films, has a story that is impacted by the Covid pandemic and is also a spritely thriller running a brisk 89 minutes. 

The most obvious reference point is Rear Window. Our protagonist Angela is confined to a wonderful loft apartment in Seattle not because of a broken leg but because of crippling agoraphobia exacerbated by the Covid pandemic lockdown. Angela communicates and spies upon residents of her own block and the one opposite whilst regularly applying alcohol gel to her hands in a ritualistic way. The act of listening in to a recording that plunges the protagonist into a conspiracy very much reminded me of The Conversation although the use of technology and how it is applied in her investigation is much more like recent film Searching. The result is some very interesting sound design and realistic use of technology in a film (a rare sight for sure). 

Technically the film looks fantastic with crisp smooth camera moves and editing. Whilst Zoe Kravitz holds the movie well and dominates virtually every shot. My issue with the film though is the lack of connection and warmth I felt with Angela. Whether this is down to David Koepp’s script, Kravitz performance or Soderbergh’s direction or a combination of them all I am not sure. But whilst I was intrigued by the mystery unraveling I found it hard to care about her part in that unraveling. 

Technically proficient and an absorbing watch but it did leave me a little cold.