I Want You Back and Kimi – Movie Reviews

February 21, 2022November 7, 2022 Jennifer Arthur and Andy Mikesic 1 Comment Charlie Day, Jenny Slate, Kimi, Steven Soderbergh, Terry Hughes, Zoë Kravitz

Its the month of love or more specifically, the month of cheesy romcoms. This newest addition to Amazon’s library stars Charlie Day and Jenny Slate as Peter and Emma, metropolitan thirty somethings who’ve just been dumped by their significant others. Through a chance meeting, they hatch a plan to break up their respective exes and their new flames. And… cue the ridiculously clichéd, romcom highjinks…

I think if you’ve watched any romcom ever, you know just where this movie’s going. While it is predictable there are just enough changes to keep you watching, at least for what could otherwise be described as rudimentary. The dialogue is a lot better than I was expecting actually and surprisingly, there are funny moments peppered throughout.

The pacing is just right, keeping your attention until the end and the acting was decent with Charlie Day and Slate pretty much carrying the entire film. The set design was very much metropolitan city in spring, the season of love. The boat scene and the school play were favourites of mine especially with the references to a classic, Little Shop of Horrors.

I liked that they chose to go with more relatable characters for the leads in both their personalities and physical appearances. Romcom is notorious for casting only very good-looking people so it’s nice to see a change for once. It reinforces the notion that we don’t have to have movie star good looks in order to find love.

The real message of this film is that you need to let people go when you’ve outgrown them. Holding on just stunts both of you. Aside from that, it’s really just a typical B grade romcom with the only real discernable message being that we can’t settle for comfort and familiarity. Watch ‘I Want You Back’ on Prime Video here.

‘I Want You Back’ Rating – 2/5

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Kimi is directed by Steven Soderbergh, written by David Koepp, staring Zoë Kravitz as Angela Childs and Byron Bowers as Terry Hughes. Agoraphobic tech worker Angela uncovers evidence of a crime.

This is a fun thriller. If you like Black Mirror then you’ll like this. The message about tech that it has is nothing new, how it is both terrifying and extremely helpful but, I like how Koepp wrote its role in this. Soderbergh has a good handle on the film it mostly takes place in small confined areas and he can make it feel wide open or confined based on what the movie needs.

It was a great decision to keep the movie to 90 minutes there’s no fat and it fulfills everything it needs to. Zoë Kravitz does really well in this role. Of the two movies where an agoraphobe witnesses evidence of a crime I like Kravitz’s performance over the other recent one. But, it is what it is and nothing more nothing less. All in all, Kimi is a thriller and a pretty good one at that. Watch ‘Kimi’ on Prime Video here.