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★★★★½
14 March 2018
A movie review of UNSANE. |
“I’m alone in a strange city and I never feel safe,” Sawyer Valentini (Claire Foy)
Director Steven Soderbergh's engrossing, brilliantly shot thriller is made on an iPhone, and stars THE CROWN’s Claire Foy. The colour scheme is vibrant. The camerawork is dextrous. Unless you are interested in the technical aspect, you should quickly forget that the movie is shot on a mobile phone. Those enamoured with the potential wizardry of cinema will continually have a smile of admiration. Now I want to see a Star Wars movie shot on an iPhone. UNSANE joins TANGERINE as an inspiration for aspiring filmmakers. Soderbergh, also acting as cinematographer, is one of the great unsung directors of photography (see his work on CONTAGION, CHE and TRAFFIC for instance).
Director Steven Soderbergh's engrossing, brilliantly shot thriller is made on an iPhone, and stars THE CROWN’s Claire Foy. The colour scheme is vibrant. The camerawork is dextrous. Unless you are interested in the technical aspect, you should quickly forget that the movie is shot on a mobile phone. Those enamoured with the potential wizardry of cinema will continually have a smile of admiration. Now I want to see a Star Wars movie shot on an iPhone. UNSANE joins TANGERINE as an inspiration for aspiring filmmakers. Soderbergh, also acting as cinematographer, is one of the great unsung directors of photography (see his work on CONTAGION, CHE and TRAFFIC for instance).
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UNSANE is not just a technical marvel. It is a fine thriller, reminding of SHUTTER ISLAND and TOTAL RECALL. The film has substance too, weaving in commentary:
- Damnation of insurance systems’ relationship to healthcare.
- The impact on women of stalkers.
- The way psychiatric patient credibility is undermined.
A predator has isolated lead Sawyer. Moving 450 miles away from family and friends in Boston, a restraining order did not do its job on this occasion. UNSANE starts off about the harassment of women, and expands into other subjects. Sawyer still has waking nightmares about her stalker, David Stone (Joshua Leonard – THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT). The story will ask us to question her grasp of reality later, but there is no reason to doubt her from the offset. She is engagingly unlikable. Sawyer wears disdain unapologetically. Why should we have to like her? She is still a victim. The lead is no nonsense. At first we might see her as disagreeable, but as the audience meets other characters her personality is put into context against the real obnoxious.
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Did Sawyer’s stalker exhaust her patience? It doesn’t matter. Our protagonist is not portrayed as blandly perfect. She does not have a trite character arc. No formulaic personality lessons for her to learn. As with all regular humans in a similar situation when alone, Sawyer is vulnerable. One arguable lesson from Unsane: The gentle souls of this world will not inherit it. Be hardcore or be chewed up. Does it take a sociopath to combat a psychopath? That is a tough allegory to swallow perhaps. However, look deeper and the narrative is saying to stand up for yourself. Bullies go for the weak. One ended up really rooting for Sawyer. She is drolly funny and is unafraid of confrontation. There is a time for being nice, and there is a time for jettisoning the concept. Wait till you see how she deals with the aggro Violet (Juno Temple).
Sawyer keeps seeing her stalker, and wonders if he is only in her mind. She goes for help at the Highland Creek Behavioral Center [sic]. At a lunchtime session, the counsellor asks about suicide. The point being raised is, who hasn’t thought of such? Filling out a form afterwards, Sawyer unintentionally signs for involuntary commitment. The institution can keep her as a danger to herself and others. The organisation wants her health insurance money. There follows humiliation, a strip search down to underwear by a ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST Nurse Ratched-type, Nurse Boles (Polly McKie). Sawyer’s property is seized. Pills are forced on her. Power is exerted. UNSANE is also concerned with unchecked capitalism meeting medical care. The film is a cry for universal healthcare separated from the need for profit.
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Even though called, the cops do not satisfactorily intervene, showing how the police can be stooges of the system, instead of protecting citizens. And how when they wake up to the scenario, their hands are tied. Those labelled mentally ill are particularly defenceless, as they are not taken seriously.
David Stone ends up working at Highland Creek. Or does he? Being a thriller, the movie asks if this is all in her mind. Sawyer speaks the intentional cliché, “There’s been some sort of mistake. I’m not supposed to be here.” The audience has to question the reality being portrayed. It is Sawyer’s perspective. Could she be imagining conversations she is not privy to? She might actually need help. David Stone looks like a serial killer out of TV show MINDHUNTER. So not only is Sawyer fighting a nefarious corporation, there might be someone obsessed who has control over her.
Do not worry, UNSANE is not dour. The odds appear overwhelming, then Sawyer meets an undercover journalist, Nate Hoffman (Jay Pharoah). The film demonstrates how you need teamwork and community as a bulwark against corporate authoritarianism. Like all excellent horrors UNSANE opens up a new arena to be fearful of, and here mixes in vital political commentary.
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