Wikipedia

Kimi (film)

Kimi is a 2022 American thriller film directed by Steven Soderbergh and written and produced by David Koepp. The film stars Zoë Kravitz. It was released on HBO Max on February 10, 2022, to generally positive reviews.

Kimi
Official release poster
Directed bySteven Soderbergh
Written byDavid Koepp
Produced by
  • Michael Polaire
  • David Koepp
Starring
CinematographyPeter Andrews[a]
Edited byMary Ann Bernard[a]
Music byCliff Martinez[1]
Production
companies
Distributed byHBO Max
Release date
  • February 10, 2022 (2022-02-10)
Running time
89 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$3.5 million

Plot

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Bradley Hasling, CEO of a tech corporation called Amygdala, gives an interview about the company's newest product, Kimi. Kimi is a smart speaker which controversially makes use of human monitoring to improve the device's search algorithm. Amygdala plans to soon hold an initial public offering, which stands to earn Hasling a fortune.

Angela Childs is an employee of Amygdala in Seattle who works from home monitoring incoming data streams from Kimi devices and making corrections to the software. She suffers from anxiety and agoraphobia due to a previous assault, which has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Her primary human contact is with her romantic partner Terry, her neighbor from across the street whom she meets for sex in her apartment. One day while working, Angela receives a recording that appears to capture a violent sexual assault by a man named Brad. With the help of her coworker Darius, she accesses the information of the account holder, a woman named Samantha. Angela uncovers more of Samantha's recording, including one that sounds like her murder. It is revealed that "Brad" is in fact Bradley Hasling himself and that Samantha was his mistress. Bradley had ordered the murder from a hitman named Rivas. Angela transfers the recordings to a flash drive.

She reports the incident to her superior, who refers her to Natalie Chowdhury, an executive at Amygdala. Angela attempts to reach Chowdhury over the phone multiple times, but is eventually convinced to come to her office in person, with the promise that the FBI will be informed about the case. At the office, Angela is disturbed when Chowdhury seems reluctant to contact the authorities and makes reference to Angela's prior mental health leave. While waiting for the FBI to be contacted, she receives word from Darius that someone has deleted Samantha's voice recordings from the Amygdala servers and shortly after sees two unknown men enter the office. She flees and travels on foot towards the nearby FBI field office, while being tracked by Rivas and his accomplices through her cell phone.

The men catch up with Angela and attempt to force her into a van, but a group of nearby protestors prevent her from being abducted. However, one of Rivas's men, a hacker named Yuri, is able to deduce where she is headed from her search history. Angela is drugged and taken back to her apartment by her kidnappers, who plan to stage a home invasion to cover up her murder. On their way inside, they are interrupted by Kevin, a neighbor who also spends all of his time inside and became concerned after seeing Angela leave the house. Kevin is stabbed, distracting the assailants, but Rivas is already waiting inside her apartment. He confiscates the flash drive and begins to delete the recordings from Angela's laptop, but she uses her Kimi device to again distract Rivas and his men, escaping to a higher floor. She cobbles together a weapon using a nail gun left by a construction project in the apartment above her, using it to kill the intruders, with an assisting stab from Kevin. Terry, whom she had planned to meet up with, arrives just as she instructs Kimi to call 9-1-1.

An epilogue shows that Bradley Hasling has been arrested for Samantha's murder. Angela, sporting a new hairstyle, gets breakfast with Terry outside of her apartment.

Cast

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Production

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On February 25, 2021, it was announced that Steven Soderbergh would direct the New Line Cinema feature Kimi with Zoë Kravitz on board to star.[2] In March 2021, Byron Bowers, Jaime Camil, Jacob Vargas and Derek DelGaudio joined the cast.[3][4][5][6] In April 2021, Erika Christensen and Devin Ratray joined the cast.[7][8] Principal photography began in April 2021 in Los Angeles, where the majority of interior scenes were filmed.[9][10][11] In May, the production moved to Seattle to film exterior scenes.[12][11][13]

Release

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Kimi was released on HBO Max on February 10, 2022.[14] The film was released on DVD and digital on April 12, 2022.[15]

Reception

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On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 92% of 122 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.5/10. 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."[16] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 79 out of 100, based on 27 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[17]

A number of critics have pointed out that many elements in Kimi pay homage to the work of Alfred Hitchcock and particularly his film Rear Window.[18]

Notes

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  1. ^ a b Pseudonym for Steven Soderbergh

References

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  1. ^ "Cliff Martinez Scoring Steven Soderbergh's 'KIMI'". Film Music Reporter.
  2. ^ Kroll, Justin (February 25, 2021). "Steven Soderbergh To Direct New Line's 'KIMI' For HBO Max With Zoey Kravitz Set To Star". Deadline Hollywood. Retrieved February 25, 2021.
  3. ^ Kroll, Justin (March 3, 2021). "Byron Bowers Joins Steven Soderbergh's Next Film 'KIMI'". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 3, 2021. Retrieved March 3, 2021.
  4. ^ Kroll, Justin (March 8, 2021). "Jaime Camil Joins Steven Soderbergh's 'KIMI' At New Line". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 9, 2021. Retrieved March 8, 2021.
  5. ^ Kroll, Justin (March 16, 2021). "Jacob Vargas Joins Steven Soderbergh's Next Film 'KIMI' at New Line". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 16, 2021. Retrieved March 16, 2021.
  6. ^ Kroll, Justin (March 24, 2021). "Derek DelGaudio Joins Steven Soderbergh's 'KIMI' At New Line". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on March 31, 2021. Retrieved April 1, 2021.
  7. ^ N'Duka, Amanda (April 1, 2021). "'Parenthood' Alum Erika Christensen Cast In New Line's 'KIMI' For HBO Max & 'Cheaper By The Dozen' Remake At Disney ". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on April 1, 2021. Retrieved April 1, 2021.
  8. ^ Kroll, Justin (April 20, 2021). "Devin Ratray Joins Steven Soderbergh's Next Film 'KIMI' At New Line". Deadline Hollywood. Archived from the original on April 20, 2021. Retrieved April 20, 2021.
  9. ^ Koepp, David (February 25, 2021). "Hey, my creepy suspense script KIMI starts shooting April 1. Thanks to @hbomax, @zoeisabellakravitz, and Commodore Steven Soderbergh for leading the way. I'm a lucky writer and I know it. Well, I mean, it's not ALL luck, I do sometimes work late..." Instagram. Archived from the original on December 24, 2021. Retrieved April 1, 2021.
  10. ^ "Film and TV Projects Going Into Production - KIMI". Variety Insight. Archived from the original on March 14, 2021. Retrieved March 14, 2021.
  11. ^ a b Keimig, Jasmine (March 31, 2021). "Wanna Be in a Soderbergh Movie?". Slog. Archived from the original on April 13, 2021. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  12. ^ Milne, Stefan (March 31, 2021). "Steven Soderbergh Is Shooting a Zoë Kravitz Movie in Seattle". Seattle Metropolitan. Archived from the original on April 13, 2021. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  13. ^ Kiley, Brendan (May 10, 2021). "How an afternoon of filming in Seattle went for Steven Soderbergh's new film, 'Kimi'". The Seattle Times. Archived from the original on May 11, 2021. Retrieved May 11, 2021.
  14. ^ Lang, Brent (December 16, 2021). "Steven Soderbergh Thriller 'Kimi,' Starring Zoë Kravitz, Reveals HBO Max Release Date". Variety. Archived from the original on December 17, 2021. Retrieved December 22, 2021.
  15. ^ Prange, Stephanie (April 5, 2022). "HBO Max Titles The Fallout and Kimi Available on Digital and DVD in April". Media Play News. Retrieved April 14, 2022.
  16. ^ "Kimi". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango Media. Retrieved February 14, 2022.  
  17. ^ "Kimi". Metacritic. Fandom, Inc. Retrieved February 14, 2022.
  18. ^ Juneau, Jen (February 10, 2022). "First 'Kimi' Reviews Call It a 'Thriller for the Age of Isolation' and 'Love Letter to Hitchcock'". People. Retrieved April 23, 2023.
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