Unsane - movie review

Unsane

Plot: A young woman is involuntarily committed to a mental institution, where she is confronted by her greatest fear--but is it real or a product of her delusion?
Cast: Claire Foy, Joshua Leonard, Jay Pharoah
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Certificate: 15 (strong violence, threat, language)
Runtime: 1hr 38 mins
Release Date: Friday 23rd March 2018

Do you remember when, a few years ago, Steven Soderbergh announced his retirement? Seems like a distant memory now. Soderbergh came back into the directing fold with last year's Logan Lucky and whilst I may have had my discrepancies with the film in particular, it was a pleasure to see him back at work. Unsane marks his next feature boasting his most audacious move yet; filming a complex psychological thriller on an iPhone. If that isn't a genius publicity ad for Apple then I don't know what is.

It's a push door, not a pull.

I might as well address the elephant in the room first. How does Soderbergh's experiment pan out? I feared the use of an iPhone would come across more as a gimmick and a cheap USP rather than serving a genuine purpose to the film but thankfully, Soderbergh utilises it perfectly. Sean Baker used a phone to film his 2015 movie, Tangerine, but in Unsane, the smaller aspect ratio and grainy quality adds to the overall claustrophobia. That uncomfortable sensation was also aided by the fact that my screen was freezing cold. Despite it not being your typical big production camera, Soderbergh's unique style still swamps over the screen with some beautiful shots being captured in the most unorthodox of places. A courtyard in a psych ward has never looked so pristine. The uncomfortableness was heightened even further due to a plethora of intimate close ups that feels as if we, the audience, are prying into a personal situation that is none of our business yet, the more we struggle to escape, the tighter our surroundings become. If I have but a complaint about the use of an iPhone, it would be the unfortunate but occasional reminder about how it was filmed thanks to harsh lighting and colours that can't help but take you out of the film for a brief moment. Nevertheless, Soderbergh has made one thing clear through this experiment and it goes beyond just this one movie. Soderbergh has proved that you don't need an extraordinary budget, A-list cast and state of the art production equipment to make a film. His message to all future filmmakers is that if you have an idea or a story you want to tell, just got out there and tell it. Take your phone, put together what you can and get busy filming. If that isn't a source of inspiration for the future of cinema then what is? As for Soderbergh's comments about this style becoming the norm for the future, I'm a little unsure.

When your friend is over a minute late.

FACT: The movie was shot in just 10 days.

Unsane is a remarkable technological experiment in the world of cinema. The story is quite the opposite. Unsane tells the story of Sawyer Valentini (that is her real name) as he files a police report as a figure from her past reappears and through a sequences of presumable misunderstandings, is admitted into a psychiatric hospital as we decide if Sawyer is being held against her will, or if she really is going insane. It's a fairly rudimentary plot that we've seen the likes of before and so, it can't avoid many of the clichés that are present in the first act. Once the film officially gets underway and Sawyer begins her treatment, the pace slows down to a crawl as the plot spins in circles with Sawyer putting in attempt after attempt to escape and being caught and sedated each and every time. There's also a completely pointless subplot with Sawyer's mother that's only featured to fill time. Claire Foy is excellent in the lead and definitely ditches the politeness and etiquette she exudes in her award winning performance of Queen Elizabeth II in The Crown. She's foul-mouthed, egotistical and incredibly frustrating at times causing me to struggle to get attached to her character. Joshua Leonard, well known for his work in The Blair Witch Project, is haunting as Foy's intimidating stalker. His physicality and demeanour immediately sets you on edge and he shares a terrific scene with Foy inside a padded solitary cell that gave me shivers. As the story progresses, we encounter more and more patients and wardens that interact with Sawyer. The only two performances of note are Jay Pharoah who emerges as a charismatic performer proving that he is capable of more than just a Jay-Z impersonation on SNL. Juno Temple features as a mentally unhinged patient that adds to the tension due to her unpredictability. As for the wardens themselves, their performances were bordering on terrible with many of them acting as if their lines were being fed to them through an earpiece. As Unsane nears its final act, the film finally moves along at a reasonable pace and reaches an explosive and devastating conclusion that really dug its way under my skin.

Why I never use Tinder.

A real mixed bag. On one hand, the story of Unsane isn't exactly that compelling and might have served better being a short, half an hour feature but on the other hand, SODERBERGH SHOT IT ALL ON AN IPHONE and it is gloriously unsettling. I think I would be swinging from the ceiling with glee if the story was better but it has the makings of masterpiece.

My Verdict: 6.5/10

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