[yasr_overall_rating]
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?
What’s it like to be stalked by someone? I mean, we joke about it when we pull up that crush on Facebook and really deep dive into those middle school photos. We laugh about it and joke about it, even though it’s embarrassing to be caught. But there’s a difference between the harmless Facebook stalking and the paranoid-inducing, fear-driven, male fantasy stalking we see in Soderbergh’s “Unsane.”
The film wastes no time in skipping past the setup and going straight to the build-up, the railroading. What starts as a simple check-in at the therapist, turns into an overnight stay at the mental health clinic turns into a weeklong stay turns into an insurance scam turns into an elaborate plot by mysterious forces. I don’t want to give away too much because I feel like this movie revolves around its rapid devolution into paranoia that makes the audience question the intentions of everyone around Claire Foy.
Yes, it was shot on an iPhone. Yes, you can tell. You always will. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. While the brighter scenes clearly demonstrate the upper limits of iPhone filmmaking, pretty much everything else demonstrates the sheer ingenuity required to shoot something on an iPhone. With intense color grading and harsh lighting, the iPhone medium helps us travel deeper and deeper into Claire Foy’s waking nightmare until it services more than the plot. The aesthetic choice transcends its novelty to become a truly elemental component of the overall story.
I don’t want to say this movie is a text everyone should see. Not everyone should see it. It’s dark and visceral and foreboding and the decline is steep. It is every bit as scary and intimidating as it’s marketed to be. By the same token, the story is about something so relevant and profound that I want everyone to watch this: if not for the sheer terror then for the accurate portrayal Soderbergh weaves into his film of male-female power dynamics.
From the very beginning, we’re treated to your typical workplace sexual harassment. Claire Foy’s boss suggests a promotion and invites her to a conference – just the two of them. Recognizing it for what it is, she tactly removes herself from the situation altogether. Between that, the Police harassing the desk clerk, and Claire’s stalker, we see a day in the life of a woman on the streets. You may say “Well this is just a movie” but the scariest part of this entire movie is it could be real. All of the plot mechanisms are so tightly wound and expertly placed that this story seems as much something fresh out of a Harvey Weinstein exposé as fiction. It’s not just the harassment.
As Claire Foy’s character, Sawyer, tries to convey the danger she’s in, nobody listens to her. At every level they ignore her. From the moment she signs the paperwork she gets taken advantage of. They use her for insurance money. The doctors all ignore her pleas for help, abiding by the “system” in place to treat mentally unhealthy patients. The other patients feel no sympathy (except for Jay Pharaoh) for another victim. The men all around her tell her she’s crazy for seeing her stalker within the confines of a mental clinic. Even the higher order Administrative woman (who looked an awful lot like Anna Paquin) gaslights her, telling her she needs to stay to “get better.” The problem isn’t the stalker, it’s the woman seeing the stalker. When someone doesn’t just ignore your pleas for aid but convinces you that you’re not in danger, that’s called being gaslit. I know it cause I’ve been there before.
The movie’s tale literalizes the process of discrediting and destroying women’s egos through a very real process. So real that you start to wonder what news article the writer read before he put pen to paper (or fingers to computer.) It is a cautionary tale that this destruction happens mostly by men with fantasies so powerful they will murder others in order to fulfill them. (I may be reading into it, but I think it says a lot when the person of color and the woman are victimized by a straight, white man. It speaks for itself.)
With a minimalist production design to enhance the garish colors of the camera, “Unsane” takes us down a very scary rabbit hole. We watch as Sawyer falls into the hands of predators and struggles to find an escape route. While clearly incredibly low-budgeted, the movie’s story, editing, and cinematography help to lift it beyond what felt, at times, to be a student film. It’s so much more than that. Strong performances by Claire Foy, Jay Pharaoh, and Joshua Leonard (who’s been the creepiest sociopath I’ve seen in quite some time) to anchor this otherwise minimal flick we see a peek at the trials of womanhood and the victimization that even simple stalking can do. It’s strong, it’s powerful, and its realistic plot trappings ground the whole thing. I highly recommend if you want to freak yourself out. Go check this thing out!
P.S. There’s a great cameo I don’t want to spoil for you, but it’s Stephen Soderbergh so just try and guess who would show up in one of his movies. Here’s a hint: It’s not George Clooney.
In theaters Friday, March 23rd
