Film Review: "Kimi" Proves Zoë Kravitz Is More Than a Nepo Baby
Zoë Kravitz is having a good year. The actor proves that she is more than a Hollywood nepo baby thanks to her breakout role as Selina Kyle in The Batman. In the film, the starlet holds her own against Robert Pattinson’s brooding Dark Knight thanks to her trademark seductive stare and effortless coolness. Considering her telegenic presence and acting chops, it makes perfect sense for Steven Soderbergh to pluck Kravitz from Gotham City and cast her as the lead in his newest tech thriller. Along with Kravitz’s stellar performance, David Koepp’s well-written script, and Soderbergh’s mastery as a director, Kimi is a great character study on how technology infiltrates our lives.
Kimi follows Angela (Kravitz), a tech employee with agoraphobia who works for Amygdala, a Seattle-based company. Suffering from a traumatic incident and the effects of the pandemic, Angela works alone in her loft. Though she has her mother (Robin Givens) and boyfriend Terry (Byron Bowers) to keep her company, she primarily communicates with them digitally. Instead of going outside, she spends most of her days listening to and tagging user requests from a virtual assistant device called Kimi (voiced by Betsy Brantley).
However, when Angela manages to recover the screams of a murdered woman from a corrupted sound file, her life changes for the worst. The young woman attempts to report the crime to her superiors, Christian (Andy Daly) and Natalie (Rita Wilson), but the tech company wants to bury the issue — and Angela too.
Although Kimi clocks in at 90 minutes, writer David Koepp takes his time to tell the story. Unlike most Marvel and DC flicks, Koepp encourages the audience to get to know his protagonist before jumping right into the action. Within the first 30 minutes, the tech thriller shows how Angela’s agoraphobia prevents her from moving past her trauma. For example, the woman consistently ignores her therapist’s advice, posts fake photos of herself outside on Instagram, and haggles with her dentist for prescription drugs instead of visiting him for a checkup. This setup is necessary because it encourages the viewer to invest in Kimi’s plight. When the thriller does start, we are fully rooting for Angela to succeed.
Of course, Kimi makes it easy to sympathize with Angela. What makes her an intriguing and relatable lead is that she is not perfect. Not only does Angela’s condition forces her to stay inside her loft, but it also puts an enormous strain on her relationship with others. Though Terry and her mother understand Angela’s anxiety about not going outside, they are at their wit’s end with her inability to heal from her trauma. The only thing that gets the tech wiz out of her head is the recorded murder. Sure, she replaces one obsession with another, but her willingness to report the crime makes her an unlikely heroine.
It also helps that Kravitz is a tour de force in Kimi. She conveys Angela’s grit, stubbornness, and vulnerability on the screen extremely well. One scene that showcases Kravitz’s talents is when her character meets Natalie at the Amygdala office. During the scene, Kim tries to get Natalie to call the FBI so she can report the crime she overheard on the Kimi device. But instead of informing the authorities, Natalie insists that Angela hand the recording to her. This scene is riveting because Kravitz holds her own against the veteran actor. Natalie may exude a white girl boss persona, but Angela sees right through her scheme. Kravitz expresses that skepticism through her delivery and facial expressions.
As with most Soderbergh joints, the production design is superb, if not understated. Costume designer Ellen Mirojnick elevates Angela’s look. The character’s trench coat, blue bob haircut, black face mask, and orange hoodie transform her into a post quarantine superhero. The grey sweatpants and Ugg boots are also a nice touch as it calls back to the clothes people wore during the lockdown. These subtle touches work because, unlike the disastrous film Locked Down, Kimi does not hit the viewer on the head with Covid. Instead, Soderbergh and his team let the visuals express the story's themes.
Along with the costuming, Soderbergh incorporates sound into Kimi in interesting ways. The director highlights this is when Angela uses her tech skills to separate the techno music from the muffled women’s screams. As soon as the technician puts her headphones on, the viewer only hears the sound file blaring from her headphones. While Angela works, Soderberg cuts to her using various sound editing programs and amplifiers to enhance the women’s screams. This filming choice is unique because it immediately puts the audience into Kimi’s world and allows Soderbergh to show off his editing skills.
However, the one thing Kimi can benefit from is more Bowers. That performer is positively suave and charming as Terry. Bowers is giving romantic love interest as his character banters with Angela while he lays in her bed. Unfortunately, the movie uses Terry as a plot device rather than a fully formed human being. The only times the tech thriller shows Terry is when Kimi watches him from her apartment window or when he visits her after work. With that said, the performer gives it his all with the thin material Koepp provides. As they say in show business, there is no such thing as small parts — you know the rest.
Soderbergh knows what he is doing with Kimi. His tech thriller is highly well written, highlights Kravitz's talents as an actor, and provides a thorough critique of tech’s stronghold on society. The leading lady may be a child of nepotism, but the performer knows she is worth more than her family’s name. Simply put, she is a star.
