Presence - Movie Review

The Movie: Presence

The Director: Steven Soderbergh

The Cast: Lucy Liu, Chris Sullivan, Callina Liang, Eddy Maday, West Mulholland, Julia Fox

The Story: A family becomes convinced they are not alone after moving into their new home in the suburbs.

The Rating: 7 / 10

The Review:

Steven Soderbergh has been directing movies and TV shows for about 40 years now so I feel like he has a pretty good idea of what he's doing which means if his name is on the credits, I'm most likely going to check it out. I mean, this is the guy responsible for the Ocean's reboot franchise as well as some classics like his breakout hit Sex, Lies and Videotapes and the award winning Erin Brockovich.

One thing you can always count on from a Soderbergh film is that the storytelling will come from a unique perspective of some type and in this case, that is expecially true. For some reason, I didn't catch this while watching the trailer but it became quickly evident at the start of the movie that we were watching everything from the first person perspective of the mysterious presence that was residing inside the family's new home. This created a very unique experience that was very entertaining, sometimes a little unnerving, and always used in very effective ways.

The family itself was also very interesting to watch, especially as being viewed by whoever the presence was (I won't reveal here if we find out who it is by the end of the movie) since a lot of what they were going through had a direct impact on them as well. I've never seen Lucy Liu in this type of dramatic role and I felt like she did a fantastic job of exploring all the levels of drama and emotion that were embedded into her character's arc.

That being said, I was most impressed by Chris Sullivan who plays the husband and father of the family, especially considering that I only really recognized him from his work on Guardians of the Galaxy 2 as the one and only Taserface character. His exploration into the nuances of balancing fatherhood, career aspirations, and a troubled marriage, all while suddenly dealing with a possible paranormal event in his own home was very impressive and he pulled it all off in a very natural and relatable way. Like, if I was a dad, I would hope to be able to handle the role as well as he did.

Staying within the cast, Callina Liang was also really great as Chloe, the daughter who struggles with mental health and depression after having lost two of her friends. She is also currently in Bad Genius, which is a remake of the surprise 2017 hit from Thailand and playing the same role that put model Chutimon Chuengcharoensukying aka Aokbab on the map as an actress. The way Callina sells her character, especially when interacting with the presence, adds a lot of credibility to the movie as a whole. Her journey is by far the most intense of any of the characters and she pulls all of it off very nicely.

I think that one of the more challenging things about shooting the movie from the first person perspective of a character that is sort of a passive antagonist is how to you convey any sort of emotion or communication. Soderbergh, as both director and cinemtographer (Peter Andrews is a pseudonym) does a fantastic job of solving these challenges and I really got a sense of place and personality from the presence even while looking through it's own eyes at the rest of the story.

Also, Soderbergh uses one of my favorite filming techniques which is the long, extended take which minimizes editing and, in my opinion, really allows the story to breathe and the actors to fully dig into their performances. There's such a huge difference between a shot that has been cut and spliced so many times versus a scene that has a purely natural flow and cadence to it. Scorsese and Tarantino are also very well known for using this technique and, of course, if you know me, you know about my love for the Japanese horror comedy One Cut of the Dead which features a 30 minute extended take short film within the movie itself.

I don't know how much else I have to say about the movie other than I genuinely enjoyed every moment of it. You could almost call this Lo-Fi Horror if that's a thing because it's such a stripped down production that focuses on the characters and performances more than anything else. Is it scary? It does have a few moments but jump scares really aren't the priority for this story to be effective, it's more about the flaws of humanity that provide some geuninely effective scares, especially as the story unfolds into a third act that was as inevitable as it was unpredictable.

Presence is a great example of a filmmaker at the top of his game showing us what's possible in some very unconventional ways. Presence is a movie worth checking out and one that you want to fully engage with so you can be immersed into every aspect of what plays out on screen. This is so much more than this new wave of passive entertainment you can find all over the various streaming services, the type of movies you can have on in the background while doing other things and you won't really miss anything. Sit down, turn everything else off, and give this movie your full attention. See it now and experience it while it's in theaters.