Kimi
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
- thriller
- mystery
- crime
The story
A tech worker with agoraphobia discovers recorded evidence of a violent crime but is met with resistance when she tries to report it. Seeking justice, she must do the thing she fears the most: leave her apartment.
What it’s like
Cramped apartment interiors under cool blue-grey light, the glow of laptop and phone screens doing most of the lighting, then a sudden spill of hard daylight and wide, rain-slick Seattle streets when the story pushes outside. Steven Soderbergh shot it on an iPhone-era digital palette with restless handheld camera and quick, claustrophobic cuts, so the frame feels watched and tight until the open city arrives. Sound is mostly close and clinical: apartment hum, keyboard clicks, distant sirens, with a sparse electronic score that pulses under the tension. The mood is anxious but clever, with a steady undercurrent of empathy for a woman whose fear is treated seriously rather than as a gimmick. It moves at a brisk, procedural clip, suited to a focused evening rather than background viewing. Intensity is moderate: a brutal crime is glimpsed and discussed, with some brief sharp violence and peril, but little gore and no sexual content. Pandemic-era details (masks, lockdown-style isolation) give it a faintly uneasy resonance. Made for viewers who like taut, humane thrillers and a protagonist who has to stand up for herself.
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