Nowadays, technology has become increasingly important in everyday life, despite the fact that such gadgets and systems are not as secure as believed. In 2021 Facebook admitted to a breach in data involving approximately 533 million users this happened before 2019; in it home addresses, phone numbers, places of residence were disclosed to the public alongside other information which is big deal for hackers. Consequently, Facebook failed to notify those affected by this attack. This isn’t the first time that such a break-in has occurred at a company like Facebook.
The latter aspect contains some realities of the pandemic which may not be worth reliving. Zoom interviews going on forever, dentist’s appointments with children and pets appearing in sight or even bosses without clothes, while texting while attending therapy sessions and working duties. Mental health and substance abuse were major issues during this period not just for adults alone. Minors’ also bore the brunt of pandemic-driven situations creating mental health crises unprecedented before now. Fear of public spaces especially crowded ones charts up amid impacts of isolation leading to anxiety.
To direct Kimi for HBO Max that combines technology with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic he had previously used on Traffic (2000), Academy Award-winning director Steven Soderbergh merged both technologies into one film. His previous movies were very good but he takes his style to a whole new level with Kimi. Every shot within this film adds onto something larger thus building its story from what could have been melodrama into thriller genre type writing. Dark side associated with being bottom-rung tech worker is only brought out by corporations, technology hence explaining why ninety minutes later tightly woven script becomes an “Oh really?” moment about high-tech capitalism gone wrong.
He also directs Kimi for HBO Max – a movie that fuses together two seemingly unrelated concepts: technology and Covid-19 consequences,” says Soderbergh who won an Oscar for Best Director Traffic (2000). Soderbergh’s previous films have been very impressive, but Kimi takes his style to a whole new level. Every single shot in this movie leads up to something bigger, creating a story line that transforms from what could be melodrama into thriller. In ninety minutes the tightly knitted script morphs into an “Oh really?” about the high-tech capitalism gone wrong as it critiques corporations and technology from the perspective of lowly ranked tech workers. Kimi is a humble film that doesn’t need all sorts of flashiness; its message is a reminder of how little is required for effective filmmaking.
Kimi features Zoe Kravitz who has recently starred as Catwoman in The Batman (2022) in her title role Angela Childs. She works at Amygdala Corporation which is fictitious. Angela is their interpreter for voice stream system known as Kimi that they use at Amygdala. Almost like Amazon Alexa or Apple’s Siri, Kimi serves like a personal assistant to people who own it. For someone who was earlier employed at Facebook, she seems satisfied with her job and never steps out of her house. Maybe such behaviour would be typical during peak COVID-19 times in Seattle but on her way outside into real life others are still going about their daily activities normally. Mainly people are not masked, making it look like only Angela is trapped within this world.
Angela has locked down romance with a man that lives across the street from her building. Her mother speaking through their video chat disapproves of this too much about Angela’s family members know regarding other families’ lives that keep changing like seasons of TV shows—get over it already! Her mom then asks if she checked “Turn2Me group” and in response Angela rolls her eyes looking okay though it isn’t so serious –she is seen taking pills again, when she tries to get out of her home but she is not able to turn the key and walk out of her room. Even while sitting alone in her large Seattle studio at night, watching commercials with couples dancing together in a kitchen, she doesn’t move from loneliness to doing something about her agoraphobia.
However, the video diary of the COVID-19 pandemic appears to be some sort of torture. One evening Angela asks Kimi for an audio stream. The aggressive techno music starts to play but there is a hidden dialogue behind it: a woman is being attacked. Angela reports this to her boss, who doesn’t want to get involved in anything that sounds like a crime and so she decides to look into it on her own. This is how the commentary on the companies running this show begins.
Angela deals with several moments of corporate fluff and PR related statements only to end up in a conspiracy plot. She was once just another employee doing her job right until she comes across this audio which leads her into a deadly game played by higher authorities. From being a millennial software engineer everyone can relate with she is suddenly put in charge of something huge but lethal. There are few moments here or there where cinema could come back with certain questions. As Angela was black, she was deemed insane by her bosses; men even checked her address up, while they watched their white superior’s performative empathy.
Kimi makes it special because most of the film happens in Angela’s apartment. For software engineer living alone in Seattle, her apartment has very good posture position, spaciousness and big windows enabling anyone who wants see through it, do so if he wanted to do so. It’s always surveillance that makes everything suspicious. Be it Kimi stating that “I’m here” or man drinking his coffee and looking out the window each morning –there is always someone watching/listening/etc.. Even when she leaves for the first time somebody from opposite apartments spies on her via binoculars.
Throughout most of the film Angela remains physically isolated aside from romantic affair while every time she FaceTimes with mom or chat with therapist over phone screen keeps switching between two characters as if they were both physically present there at one time or another during conversation. The most disturbing part of the film is how easily technology can invade privacy. This movie’s momentum is about a criminal action that Kimi, a lifeless object, witnessed and recorded the audio.
The camera doesn’t leave Angela much either. Sometimes it pans into her line of sight, what she sees in front of her window or at another person trying to follow her steps. Because it is so closely connected to Angela’s point of view the film begins to feel as if it were in her own mind. Outside there are too many people and it is too bright when Rita Wilson suggests that maybe Angela would have had some mental health issues since she was known for being mentally unstable according to an opinion expressed by one organization boss (as far as I could understand from this plot), something inside me feels sorry for her.
Within itself, Angela’s job is an invasion of privacy as she listens to the audio recordings from the device in order to help correct its instructions. Even though Angela did not consent to this, her employer takes her eye scan from her conference calls at work and this notion of consent is stretched even further as the film spirals into a sequence of events that defy logic for ordinary people. And perhaps it is a cinematic motif as seen in “V” is for Vendetta (2005), one where an individual rebel discovers some form of unfairness such as this and decides to take personal initiatives.
These include Google, Amazon, and Apple which have come up with assistants that can perform activities you do every day. You never know these devices are spying on their owners when using Siri, Alexa or Google Home. It has a microphone that listens out for that word being said although they are triggered by certain words. In case there was anything important spoken; it will be captured through conversations or phrases during advertisements since it scans them.
And Kimi has a very literal beginning at home. Although some companies are mentioned by name along the way, one company was invented to act as the scapegoat here. Kimi exists within contemporary reality; entertainment business has not yet tackled Covid-19 pandemic. The time period in which it is set connects actual firms with ‘Amygdala’. However much Angela may laugh off her past employment with Facebook, nothing compares what she goes through while working with Amygdala Corporation.
Kravitz does an amazing job portraying Angela who embodies the character’s deeply-rooted anxiety. As we spend so much time watching this actress develop her part, Kravitz makes us believe she’s been caught in a web spun inadvertently by others.It does not take long before she becomes defined by someone else from the industry where she operates normally.Her blue hair seems out of place on a techie like person and once outside her apartment her entire stressed appearance vanishes under ill-fitting clothes.
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