Presence (2025) A supernatural return to form from Steven Soderbergh
“He came back! He came back to save you”
The year was 1998 when I first fell in love with the films of Atlanta born filmmaker Steven Soderbergh and the film, Out of Sight, was both one of the first DVD’s to retain a space in my burgeoning collection (a place it still holds to this very day) and a constant talking point and reference point for cinematic discussions with friends old and new, borrowed and often blue. I returned almost immediately to his debut film in 1989 Sex, Lies and Videotape but whilst I have no particular fondness for this movie (though I have to re-watch it in a coming soon future) I adore The Limey in 1999 above all others (Terrence Stamp shouting “You tell him. You tell him I’m coming. Tell him I’m fucking coming!” never fails to make me smile) and then across the millennium year and into a new century he helmed Erin Brockovich, Traffic and Ocean’s Eleven in a row, I love Solaris more than perhaps I really should and The Good German is a stunning black and white noir thriller. I’ve skipped a few in the intervening years, The Informant, Contagion, Magic Mike and Logan Lucky being the exceptions, but it’s been 7 long years since my last Steven Soderbergh film and, without any trailers, reviews or fan fare, I settled on Presence last evening and found a surprising gem of a film unlike any other I’ve seen in some considerable time.
As always, the coming dissection of the opening 15 minutes of this 85 minute film tells you everything and nothing within a spoiler free set up of the film to come. As you will note almost immediately below the film is littered with constant scene ending fade(s) to black as it romps through its short running time and with a circling, swooping camera motion is shot from a first person perspective thus dropping us into the centre of the narrative at all times.
I felt as though I was intruding in someone else’s house!
Eight characters, though only five are prevalent. Or is it nine and six?
One house and one obvious through line, but several narrative strands slowly dissolve into view inside a film I enjoyed immensely and heartily recommend to you.
The opening 15 minutes:
From a cold, dark and seemingly dark blue walled room we peer immediately through a bedroom window and an overhead shot of several empty parking spaces in the driveway below before the camera quickly circles the bedroom, stopping briefly on a built-in wardrobe in the wall as it now circles once more, swooping through an adjoining bedroom as Zack Ryan’s simple piano score accompanies the camera descending the staircase of a large, if bitterly cold looking and empty house. The camera now moves through the entrance or hallway and next through a much lighter kitchen area before the darkness of an empty house returns in the lounge or living area of an opulent and expensive looking house as the camera once again circles and swoops its way back up the staircase, returning to the first bedroom we saw and eventually, inside the wardrobe built into the wall of the room, and a camera angle peering out of the wardrobe and into a room bathed in darkness.
Fade to Black and “PRESENCE” in white capital letters on a black background.
Now we see the bedroom in daylight from the same camera angle as we exited the previous scene. From inside the wardrobe we see pink coloured walls and hardwood floors as the camera departs from the wardrobe and an overhead shot of the driveway below, the arrival of a soon to be parked car and the arrival of a visitor, running with an umbrella against the pouring rain. A sweeping camera quickly leaves the bedroom before descending the staircase as our visitor “Cece” (Julia Fox) enters the property. Cece is one of only eight characters in the entire film and soon to be established as an estate agent for the property, but first she disrobes from her wet coat in a spacious, well lit and large modern kitchen before uttering the first words of the film and “Shit! Are you kidding me?” as she realises her late arrival is only seconds before her first scheduled visitors of the day and right on cue, her mobile telephone signifies they have arrived on time and are approaching the front door. Entering the house from a cold and rainy outside are the Payne family, namely parents “Rebekah” (Lucy Liu) and “Chris” (Chris Sullivan) as well as children “Chloe” (Callina Liang) and “Tyler” (Eddy Maday) and following Cece’s warm hearted greetings and apologies for not having the time to “dress” the house ahead of their visit, she also imparts the tempting information that the house isn’t even officially on the market yet and they are the first to see it before inviting the family to “make yourself at home”.
Soderbergh’s constantly moving camera follows Chloe into a large green walled lounge or living area as she stops in front of a huge fireplace with an ornate, built in mirror, as the camera now finds Cece following her and quickly to Tyler, alone in a world of his own by the front door texting a friend and, off camera, Rebekah exclaiming “It’s a done deal” loudly and excitedly. The director’s forever moving camera now finds both Rebekah and Chris in the kitchen as she announces with a firm certainty “We’re the first people to see it. The second people are going to buy it” before continuing that the catchment area of the house fits perfectly with a preferred school for Tyler’s sporting ambitions. Chris though worries for their daughter Chloe before his wife quickly counters that change happens and “I mean, it’s life” as Chris immediately retorts “No honey, it’s death”. Undeterred, Rebekah immediately talks deposit amounts and a final sale price as the family briefly come together in the hallway with Cece and as she continues her sales pitch to Rebekah and Chris as they enter the living room, the camera now follows Chloe up the staircase and into what will soon become her bedroom. As Chloe slowly looks around the room before peering out of the window, the camera has retreated inside the wardrobe as it catches the young girl now staring directly at the empty wardrobe.
Fade to Black.
Through a downstairs window and inside an empty house once more, the camera captures the arrival and parking of a van on the driveway and now moving towards the front door, the entering of a crew of four men, three painters, and a foreman. As the three painters talk all things football, the crew foreman directs them to begin painting in Chloe’s bedroom first.
Fade to Black.
A single painter is now seen painting over the original colour pink with green as the foreman enters the room, dismayed he is nowhere near finished and wondering where his colleague is. He’s priming the master bedroom he replies before stating he’s alone as his partner flatly refused to enter the bedroom with “I’m not going in that room”.
Fade to Black.
Now fully painted and a bright, warm and welcoming house that’s clearly been lived in for some time, Tyler arrives home from school and after barely acknowledging a greeting from his unseen father in the kitchen the camera follows him up the stairs, but not into his bedroom as the door is slammed immediately shut.
Fade to Black.
Daytime now, and through a downstairs window we find Rebekah on the balcony talking loudly into her mobile telephone. Animated, and presumably talking about work, she confirms to the caller that she’s comfortable with her position and the decisions she’s adamant they jointly stick with and “Well I’m sleeping well at night, OK?”.
Fade to Black.
A swooping camera descends the staircase and into the kitchen as Rebekah, a little drunk, holds Tyler’s hand as she states “Every single thing has been about you” and “I’ve never felt this close to another human being”. Tyler is clearly embarrassed by this continuing conversation and wonders how his mother feels about Chloe. “Oh it’s different” she replies, before talking in a somewhat drunken riddle of Tyler (perhaps even herself) living with themselves even if they make mistakes “for the right reasons” before Tyler excuses himself, tells his mother to go to bed and as the camera now circles around Rebekah alone in the kitchen, she cradles a glass of whiskey (perhaps rum) in one hand, as the other is clamped over her mouth as she looks down at the kitchen counter, forlorn and lost in her own drunken melancholic thoughts.
Fade to Black.
Camera slowly zooms in on a sobbing Chloe sitting on her bed. Turning off the light and quickly laying down in bed, she equally quickly raises herself out of bed as the camera once more retreats inside her wardrobe from where we watch Chloe approaching. Viewed through the slats of the upper part of the wardrobe, Chloe calls out her friend’s name “Nadia” before the camera follows her back into bed.
Fade to Black.
Inside Chloe’s bedroom, we hear the shower running in the adjoining bathroom as the camera circles around her room before stopping on a picture of Chloe and Nadia affixed to the corner of her bedroom mirror. The camera now moves to her bed where a red book closes and moves to the side of the bed, quickly joined by a folder and after her pencil case is lifted and placed atop both the folder and the red book, all three lift from the bed before being gently placed on a nearby bedside table beneath the mirror. Now a third book rises from Chloe’s bed, spinning and twirling through the air as the camera follows it slowly move from the bed before slotting perfectly alongside a host of other books on the nearby table. A camera move to the right captures Chloe draped in just a towel immediately leaving the bathroom before shrieking in astonishment as she discovers every item left on her bed mere minutes ago now sits on her bedside table. Hearing her scream, Chris enters her bedroom but through embarrassment at seeing his daughter fresh from the shower and assured it was only a mouse and she’s OK, departs quickly.
Soderbergh’s camera circles Chloe, as the scene fades to black…
Thanks for reading. I hope this message in a bottle in The Matrix finds you well, prospering, and the right way up in an upside down world.
Whilst you’re here I may as well brag about the release of my trilogy of recently self-published books. Beautiful covers eh! As the title(s) would suggest, this is my life at the movies or at least from 1980 to 2024, and in volume 1 you’ll find 80 spoiler free appraisals of movies from debut filmmakers, 91 of the very best films appraised with love and absent of spoilers from 1990–2024 in volume 2, and in volume 3 you’ll find career “specials” on Paul Thomas Anderson and Quentin Tarantino together with the very best of the rest and another 87 spoiler free film reviews from 2001–2024.
All available in hardback and paperback and here are some handy links:
"A Life at the Movies Vol.1" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.2" - link to Amazon
"A Life at the Movies Vol.3" - link to Amazon