Unsane (2018) (Review)


Steven Soderbergh returns after his terrific work with Logan Lucky last year, this time on a much smaller scale. Filmed entirely on iPhone, Unsane is a psychological horror-thriller shot, directed and edited by the man himself and starring Claire Foy as lead alongside supporting performances from Joshua Leonard, Jay Pharoah, Juno Temple, Aimee Mullins and Amy Irving. Does Unsane turn its iPhone filming format into a gimmick, or does it benefit from a decidedly tighter scope and scale?

After making a flippant remark to a psychiatrist about occasional suicidal thoughts after becoming the victim of stalking and harassment, Sawyer Valentini (Foy) unwittingly signs documents committing herself to the hospital's psychiatric ward. When her stay is involuntarily extended, she begins to question whether she really is insane.

A film like Unsane live or dies by the magnetism of its lead star. Thankfully, on the strength of this performance, Claire Foy makes it very difficult for you to ever take your eyes off of her. Unbelievably well-calibrated and balanced, Foy so excellently blurs the line between sanity and insanity, utilising the unpredictable narrator technique to terrific effect. She sells the confusion, the fear and vulnerability, alongside her character's strength and persistence. Even as the film becomes more claustrophobic and begins to lose its way gradually, Foy's presence is enough to keep us reeled in, hooked on to her every unhinged move and motive.

Soderbergh doesn't phone this one in either. Always an engaging direction, he enhances the paranoia quintessentially to the genre perfectly. The filmmaking style and decision is suited to the film and its subject matter, never handled only as a gimmick: it is much more than that, drawing out tension from the slightly fuzzy aesthetics suitably. He finds some striking imagery and there's some decent, almost grungy, lighting used to solid effect. Kept to a tight 98 minutes, it is a taut and suspenseful piece of filmmaking; while it's not particularly scary, it sure raises your heart beat from time to time.

Jonathan Bernstein and James Greer's script is the biggest problem the film has. It relies on a few too many coincidences and pushes the boundaries a little too far to be completely believable, resulting in a final act that begins to lose its way. It delays committing to a solid outcome and becomes awkward and clunky with its language and dialogue. The brilliance of Foy keeps its head above ground although I do wish the ending was as assured as the rest of the film.

Still, Bernstein and Greer do a solid job with the previous two acts and eventually land on a satisfying-enough conclusion. The first two-third unfurl fantastically, providing numerous twists and turns in the process -- most of which stick the landing, when it's not being too audacious that is. The sinister nature of the film benefits from Thomas Newman's wonderfully creep soundtrack too, appropriately overbearing and disorientating at times.

 Soderbergh's dark, unhinged thriller hinges on us believing in Foy's character's instability which she expertly sells. By providing her with an intense, impressive star vehicle, the pair craft a unique and successful film that uses its directorial style to great effect. Unsane is a glowing example of fine filmmaking on a smaller, less resourceful budget and may open the floodgates for a more experimental approach to filmmaking -- it's certainly inspired me to rush my own short film into production, so thanks for that Soderbergh!


★★★★★★★
(7/10)

Summary: Unsane is an effective little thriller that soars because of Claire Foy's fantastically well-calibrated performance and Steven Soderbergh experimental approach, which heightens the tension and suspense superbly.