I watched the Soderbergh film Presence in the theater earlier today.

It was a good film, but it will be polarizing. If you do not like Soderbergh’s quieter, more introspective works, you probably also will not like this one as it is indeed very Soderberghian.

The performances make the film. The plot is thin, but then that is intentional. The viewpoint is the point in a sense. It is not a horror film, really, but an examination of pointless misogynistic evil and how it reverberates through time.

It also had one of the most uncomfortable scenes I’ve experienced in a movie in a long while. I know this will sound bad, but there’s a part that you’re thinking will be “only” sexual assault — then it moves to something else altogether and you wish it’d go back to the other thing.

Callina Liang both grounds and elevates the film with unexpected depth. The rest of the cast is really good as well.

Recommended.