Kimi - Steven Sodenbergh - HBO Max

Oh is it that time of the month already? Time for another Soderbergh production. 😆

A derivative thriller, whose inspirations were often quite overt - but never detrimental to the overall enjoyment gleaned either. That enjoyment came mostly from the combination of Zoe Kravitz's twitchy, intense performance and Soderbergh's typical unfussy and documentarian direction. That slightly clinical hand did sometimes rob the film of its tension here and there; the topicality of the titular device underplayed too much - when something a bit punchier might have left more of a lingering taste. Not that being beaten over the head with "Big Tech is Evil" messaging would have been automatically better, but sometimes Kimi lacked a pulse; not helped by taking a little too long to get its wheels in motion; a little more of an authorial voice would have gone a long way here.

Bonus points that while set during the pandemic, it wasn't a movie about CoVid either; Kravitz's agoraphobic tendencies were made worse by it, but it wasn't laboured over either. The film still could have worked without CoVid.