It’s clear that I’m a very open minded individual when it comes to movies. I’ve seen almost everything from indies to blockbusters and everything in between. Most of the movies on my anticipation lists I’ve heard of previously and seen trailers for that give me certain expectations of what to expect. And sometimes we get a well-established director who dabbles in both. Steven Soderbergh is known for directing movies like the “Ocean’s Trilogy”, “Erin Brockovich”, two of the three “Magic Mike” movies, and “Traffic”. He’s also made some interesting independent films you may have heard of such as “Contagion”, “Side Effects”, “Haywire”, “Unsane”, and “Logan Lucky” to name only a few. This film shows no signs of slowing down because it seems like he has a new movie every year. And now he’s got yet another film to grace our theater screens called “Presence” and I’m sure you’re curious as to how this film compares to his seemingly endless catalog.

“Presence” is about a family moving into their new house. Little do they know and will soon discover that their house is haunted by a “Presence”. Now having described that to you, you probably thought to yourself, “Ooh! This must be a horror movie about a haunted house with a spooky ghost looming around!” Well, you would only be half right. There is undoubtedly a ghost looming around the house, but this is not a horror film. It is in fact, a family drama film with a ghost involved. Now, if that dampens your expectation for the film knowing that it’s not a horror film, I’m telling you that it definitely should not.

This movie is actually really good. Despite it not being a horror movie like I thought it was going to be thanks to misleading advertisements, it still managed to hold my attention and kept me interested in what was going on with the family’s dynamic and interaction with each other. The most interesting thing about this movie is the fact that we see everything through the POV of the title character, the Presence.

Soderbergh cast unknowns in the roles of the teens in the film and it shows from at least two of the three main teens, the two boys, the brother of the main character and his friend didn’t exactly impress me while I was watching them in this movie. The director got a good performance out of Callina Liang as Chloe Payne. She as one of the  unknown young actors kept me interested in what was going on in the story. Chris Sullivan as her father was equally intriguing. You might remember him as :”Taserface” in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. I’m glad he has gotten another decent role after his star-making performance in the NBC drama series “This Is Us”. Lucy Lui  thought was a bit of an anomaly in her role as the mother of the two children and wife of Sullivan’s character. I’m not sure if she was entirely invested in this premise or not.

Soderbergh is a director who likes to explore new and different ways to make movies and this one was one of those films, hes used and IPhone before and in the case of Presence he uses a handheld camera, a Sony A9 Mirrorless camera, with a rig on it to achieve the ghost-like nature he was trying to get in this film. This style worked very well from my perspective. I loved following the camera around like it was a character in the story.. Where it went played a huge part in the plot from beginning to end of this movie. You definitely have to pay attention to the peripheral to catch moving items or closing of doors and such. It was fun even though the story was quite dramatic in a lot of ways. I’m glad Soderbergh keeps experimenting on different filmmaking styles like this. It helps him keep his auteur status as a filmmaker. I’m definitely looking forward to his next film coming out in March, Black Bag.

Even though the camera is like a character in and of itself it depicts something that I thought was pretty beautiful. That is the New England home that the film is shot in. What a beautiful house this was. While watching the movie unfold I was thinking how much I wanted to live there. The wood floors and staircase were gorgeous. The little overhang upstairs was very cool. In summer New England nights would be a great place to sit and relax out in nature watching the stars. The kitchen was also very nice. I was completely enamored by how amazing this house was.

Presence is a good film that explores some very interesting things about the afterlife and how it’s connected to time. The script is whip smart in its explanation of the story and the way the characters deal with the “Presence” is very fascinating. The experimental camera work is amazing and it’s used like a character in the movie. The cast is okay with Liang and Sullivan as the standouts. The real reason to see this film though his Soderbergh as the auteur director is. He has become one of the best in the business, 

4 stars

Nick Nitkowski & Dan Skip Allen