TIFF 2024: Presence Review

This will be one of many reviews during this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, to keep up with our latest coverage, click here.

Presence is a psychological thriller starring the Paynes, a family of four who have recently moved into a new home, only to realize they might not be alone. The family includes the mother Rebecca (Liu), father Chris (Sullivan) and their children, Chloe (Payne) and Tyler (Maday). Julia Fox and West Mulholland also star as a realtor and Ryan, one of Tyler’s friends from school, who takes a liking to his sister. 

Steven Soderbergh has been known to push the boundaries when it comes to the filmmaking process. He always seeks to reinvent the process and make films within the system that think outside the box. He has recently shot films entirely on iPhones, he has often cast non-actors, and his specialty of keeping budgets down while still turning out work that looks clean, crisp, and Hollywood suited is never not impressive.

In Presence, the intrigue comes from the film being shot entirely in first person perspective. A bold choice, it makes this film unique and certainly stand out. Relying on an abundance of one take shots, every scene is seemingly a one take. This method of shooting a film makes for scenes which the film can almost feel like a play, but it never fully does. It plays in an interesting limbo, in that it is very cinematic but its wide open shots and always moving, ever present camera gives the performers a lot of room to interact with the environment around them. 

Meanwhile, the cast all stun here as this unsuspecting psychological thriller plays out in such a way that it allows for audiences to truly get to know these characters and the family dynamic at play. Moving into this new home, some of them are clearly in the midst of escaping prior traumas. With this knowledge, the film becomes a genuine drama at times, with compelling interplay between the four family members. It is also naturalistic in a way, and genuinely funny. In the end, it paints a strong image of a dysfunctional family dynamic that works.

That being said, due to its character building elements, Presence doesn’t always hold audiences on the edge of their seats, but at a breezy 85 minutes, one can simply wait a few minutes for the tension to ratchet up. Soderbergh and company effectively utilize the tight under an-hour-and-a-half runtime to set a clear tone, really develop the characters, and offer up genuine thrills and tension that make this film shine. By the end, once it has taken hold, it never over imposes itself or tries to be more than it needs to be.

Presence is a thriller that is equal parts tense and engaging while its great performances further elevate an already great script and vision set in place by filmmaker Steven Soderbergh.

*still courtesy of Elevation Pictures*

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Brennan Dubé

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