There are few administrators more proficient at shifting between genres than Steven Soderbergh. All through his profession, he has made dramas and comedies, heist movies and thrillers, movies with severe subjects like drug trafficking and movies with frivolous topics like male dancers. He’s additionally dipped his toe into horror now and again, one thing he does once more with Presence.
Nonetheless, typical of the hard-to-pin-down filmmaker, this movie shouldn’t be your typical ghost story, as its plot is informed from the angle of the presence itself. With the digicam as its “eyes,” the viewers sees a household of 4 transfer into an older-but-updated residence: Mom Rebekah (Lucy Liu), father Chris (Chris Sullivan), son Tyler (Eddy Maday), and daughter Chloe (Callina Liang). The household dynamics are established early, as Rebekah favors Tyler and pins her hopes and goals on him, whereas Chris has a strained relationship with Rebekah and tries to guard Chloe from stress, who has just lately gone via a trauma.
The household’s numerous points hold the ambiance tense, and for essentially the most half the presence is merely an observer to their conversations and actions. However Chloe can sense it each time it’s near her, and this connection leads it to generally announce itself by way of bodily interactions with objects in numerous rooms. As the opposite relations steadily grow to be conscious of it as properly, the story’s supernatural aura begins to extend.
Working from a screenplay by David Koepp, Soderbergh does a form of switcheroo on viewers expectations. In your typical haunted home story, the thriller of the ghost(s) is what drives the plot and retains issues scary. However because the viewers, in essence, is the ghost, we all know every little thing it’s doing always. As an alternative, the suspense comes from the household itself, who’ve backstories that make the entire clan dysfunctional, at finest.
Story components are introduced in via alternative ways than your typical movie, with little hints being dropped alongside the best way about numerous issues which have occurred within the household’s latest previous. Why Tyler appears to be indignant with Chloe on a regular basis, or why Rebekah and Chris by no means appear to be on the identical web page with something the household is coping with are equally as attention-grabbing as something the presence is doing.
The primary-person perspective (utilized in a a lot completely different means than within the latest — and now Oscar-nominated — Nickel Boys) offers an intimacy to the movie that’s generally invasive, generally disorienting, however at all times engrossing. Soderbergh, who acted because the cameraman himself, takes the digicam to nearly each nook and cranny of the home, typically getting so near the actors that it’s uncomfortable. The fixed, silent motion of the presence/digicam makes for nice viewing, lending the viewers a data they not often have.
Liu is given a meatier half than she’s had lately, and she or he performs the sophisticated position for all it’s price. Sullivan, finest identified for his position on the NBC TV drama That is Us, is equally good, with a demeanor that’s barely at odds together with his stature, however in a great way. Each Liang and Maday have gentle resumes (that is Maday’s first credit score of any form), however their performances are what make the movie as efficient as it’s. With the presence extra all for her character than anybody else, Liang is requested to do loads, and she or he is particularly memorable.
Whereas extra of a household drama than a real horror movie, the paranormal facet of Presence offers sufficient of a spooky vibe for it to qualify. The extremely profitable movie demonstrates that, 36 years after his breakthrough, Soderbergh stays one of many extra fascinating administrators on the market, prepared to strive completely different tasks as an alternative of doing the identical factor over and over.
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Presence opens in theaters on January 24.
