Steven Soderbergh notably directed the now-infamous pandemic thriller Contagion centered around an eerily accurate depiction of the severity that an airborne disease can be to today's society. The film came out in 2011, nine or so years before Covid-19 interrupted our lives, and when asked about why he was compelled to make a film about a deadly viral disease Soderbergh cited the scientists he spoke to before shooting and simply said that we were "due". The film predicted many of the events that would follow a deadly disease from the way a government would handle it to the response from the people and everything in between but the actual events of 2020 were something even Soderbergh didn't see coming. In an Indiewire interview, he is quoted saying
“It’s been fascinating to see the aspects of this narrative play out that we didn’t think about. The sociological behavior, how people have behaved as individuals, as states, as countries — that’s been really fascinating…It’s just a reminder of how deeply irrational we are. When we’re put into some sort of fear-threat space, we become deeply illogical. It’s crazy to witness.”
And this was in May 2020.
Since then, Soderbergh has made several films that I would describe as indie low-fi. Films that are not too worried about frills and extras but rather the bare bones of what a movie really is. A crew and actors in a space with a camera. Soderbergh doesn’t obsess over perfect lighting and blocking and opts for his signature look and style. These films feel like a response to Marvel and blockbusters and these films work on me in such a unique way. They feel akin to a musician releasing singles or EPs while they continue to work on their albums, not throwaways and not a masterpiece but somewhere in between. His latest piece, KIMI a sort of technological thriller that follows an agoraphobic tech worker who stumbles upon a piece of information her employers at a giant tech conglomerate would prefer to keep hidden. This is one of the first films (but far from the last) post-pandemic films that I've seen and they use covid as a backdrop to the world of KIMI. Even so much as uttering the word “covid” in a film gives me chills. Zoe Kravitz plays Angela Childs who works for the tech company Amygdala1 which deploys a smart assistant not dissimilar from a Google Home or Alexa. The first time we hear a character calls upon KIMI, the AI replies with "I'm here" giving an ominous feeling that we already know today, technology is here and they are always here and listening. We know this because upon scrubbing through countless audio files flagged by Amygdala for Angela to monitor and resolve issues with the communication between humans and KIMI, she hears what sounds like a gruesome and violent crime. Perhaps because of past trauma of her own, she feels compelled to uncover the mystery of the recording and so she brings it to the attention of her superiors at Amygdala. However this type of thing is normally swept under the rug and given the company's position in the market, it is something the higher-ups at Amygdala would like to avoid altogether. It is up to Angela to take the audio to someone who will listen and help but the only way to do this is to leave her apartment. What follows is a spiraling chase through Seattle that is reminiscent of the opening scene of The Matrix.
The film references many great thrillers of the past. It is equal parts Rear Window (1954) and Blow Out (1981). All three films follow their seemingly incapable protagonist as they happen upon a crime they feel compelled to bring to justice. The way this film is an updated Blow Out is *chefs kiss*. Blow Out was directed by Brian Del Palma and stars John Travolta as a sound recordist who witnesses a car drive off a bridge and into a river, after jumping in to save a drowning woman, Travolta realizes there was another man in the car that did not survive. Stunned and dejected, Jack goes back to his office to playback some of his tapes to discover that some of his recordings of that incident involved information about a government conspiracy that pulls Jack into a winding and dangerous adventure. While Blow Out and KIMI have many similarities —suspicious audio, tangled web of conspiracy — the big bad of these films are vastly different and telling of modern times. Rather than the government acting as an overarching villain like it is in Blow Out, in KIMI, it is Amygdala that threatens the safety and security of its users.
Cyber security and data mining are real concerns for everyone who uses any piece of technology today. While the all-knowing algorithm of tech companies rule over what we are exposed to, there are human intermediates that are responsible for bridging the gap of communication between human and AI. There is a paranoia that your devices are listening to you or tracking your every keystroke. We are forced into a way of behaving, acting, and searching on the internet. There is a feeling that whatever you are looking at was shown to you rather than you choosing to see it. Is nothing organic anymore? Even the things that are supposed to aid humans like these AI assistants have been known to listen to a few more things than we allow them to. The film deals with a lot of different issues to varying degrees of success like the way it attempts to be a sexual assault vehicle as well as a horror story about cyber security and the dangers of big tech. Soderbergh has in the past dug deep into a specific theme or idea but lately, his films seem to use these issues as background to either shape the story or character in a certain way that catapults them into their story arc. They serve as a jumping-off point for the film rather than being entirely what they are about. Soderbergh has also in recent years had an affinity for efficient filmmaking, logging 12 films as well as 2 TV series since the release of Contagion in 2011, while serving as cinematographer and editor under the pseudonyms Peter Andrews and Mart Ann Bernard respectively. It is no wonder he made a film about modern and future technology when he has made several films using exclusively an iPhone to capture the footage. Soderbergh decided the ease of use along with the efficiency drew him to making several films in this way but it did not come at the expense of the image. He said so much in an article published in 2019 about his film shot entirely on iPhone, High Flying Bird.
“If I had a traditional camera package … the film I think would not have been any better…It might have been worse. It certainly would have taken longer.” (The Ringer)
That efficiency allows him to make so many of these films the way they are and his style and directing ability transcends the usual limitations of such things. Some other notable films and projects were shot entirely on a smartphone, but the form usually comes before function as in the entire thing had to be shot on a smartphone as a sort of advertisement or various budget restrictions. Soderbergh does not see it that way and instead uses the malleability of a small "camera" body to his advantage. This interest leads us back to KIMI. The film doesn't invent new technology or ideas that don't already exist today but rather begs the question of how far these things will go and his interest in their capabilities and limitations is the crux of the film. Initially, it was easy to assume KIMI would behave in the way that HAL did in Kubricks’ 2001: A Space Odyssey but the film is not predictive and doesn't pretend to be. It exists in today's time or a future that feels like it is (unfortunately) just in reach. Before Blow Out there was Blow-Up and now we have KIMI. We went from film photography to sound recording equipment to a little speaker in everyone's home. The story ultimately is about the humans of the film and how they interact with technology. there are no rogue machines that turn on humans, those don’t exist in this world just yet, the real villains are the humans in power who hold the information collected by the machines. Everyone say hello to that secret agent in your computer watching you read this.
KIMI Ranking:
7/10 creepy neighbours.
After every review of a film, I will give out a few recommendations. Think the “more like this” feature on Netflix but better.
FILMS TO WATCH IF YOU LIKED THIS ONE:
The Mitchells Vs the Machines Michael Rianda (2021) — Netflix
Unsane Steven Soderbergh (2018)
Blow-Up Michelangelo Antonioni (1966)
Thank you for reading!
Notably the part of the brain that deals with emotion and memory.