In the best of circumstances Angela is no doubt as edgy as her hair is blue; to this her extreme mannerisms, full force exercise routine and combative attitude attest. But these are not the best of times nor circumstances. A prior sexual assault has badly wounded her. Covid has ripped the wound wide.

Unwilling to commit therapeutically, her tics have ballooned while her world has shrunk to a chic Seattle flat where she monitors the users of Kimi, a voice command speaker, for algorithm coding. Similarly, she monitors her neighbors via the windows of their flats across the street.

Due to its more nuanced and comprehensive recognition of language usage, Kimi, a subsidiary of tech giant Amygdala, is poised for public offering and take over of the voice command speaker market. Hence Angela monitors only anonymous Amygdala executives who possess Kimi prototypes. During a session, she overhears what could be the assault and murder of a user. Unsure, she goes through company protocol instead of going to the police.

It is a decision Angela soon comes to regret.

With Kimi, Steven Soderbergh commandeers the popcorn thriller–an interesting vehicle to showcase his brand of subtle subversive filmmaking. Here he confines his pet themes of sexuality, greed, the upper class, nature vs nurture and cognitive dissonance to a crisp script with a restrained running time that compliments his muscular camara work, ratcheted suspense and edge of your seat action sequences.

In her portrayal of Angela, Zoe Kravitz is serviceable…and I mean that as a compliment. Her gears shift so predictably that when they falter in overdrive, I was not only surprised, I was worried. This reaction owes as much to Kravitz’s understated skill as it does to Soderbergh’s aptitude.

Yet it is within the strength of economy that this well oiled machine stalls. Angela’s tryst with the guy in the flat across the way homage to Rear Window is so short shrift that it comes off as a clunky accessory weighing down an otherwise sleek design.