(Streamed via Amazon Prime)
Steven Soderbergh filmed Unsane on his iPhone, partly to show aspiring directors you don’t need a lot of fancy equipment. You just grab what’s available and go out and make your movie. Of course, most fledgling filmmakers can’t attract an eclectic cast like Soderbergh can… or receive a sweet distribution deal… but you get the drift.
Sawyer (Claire Foy) is an office worker who is constantly looking over her shoulder in fear she’s being stalked. She goes to a hospital for psychiatric treatment and to her horror, is immediately locked up against her will. Sawyer becomes increasingly paranoid when she begins to think her stalker (Joshua Leonard) is a nurse in the hospital.
Unsane is an intense psychological thriller that very rarely calls attention to its limited resources. In fact, you get a sense that using a camera phone was immensely freeing to Soderbergh, as he is able to achieve some interesting angles he might not have otherwise got. Heck, even when he does something as simple as setting the phone down on the desk, it creates a unique perspective. These odd angles sometimes have an unsettling effect, which enhances the feeling of the character’s paranoia. The use of available lighting also adds to the mundane, yet potentially threatening atmosphere of the hospital.
For something that was shot on someone’s phone, it’s all very well done. Only in the last ten minutes does Soderbergh resort to some night vision shaky-cam Blair Witch bullshit. Thankfully, all that’s kept to the bare minimum.
Honestly, you really didn’t need a bunch of high-tech gear when you are blessed with such an intense (I hesitate to use the word “committed”) performance by Claire Foy. It’s a real tightrope act since so much of the movie rests on her shoulders. Her face fills the frame in many scenes, and with such a small screen size and claustrophobic setting, there’s no room for a false note, because the camera would instantly pick up on it. She pulls it off miraculously and delivers a performance that deserves to be talked about in the same breath as Jennifer Lawrence in mother!
Soderbergh does a good job at making the audience second guess what they’re seeing. Does Sawyer in fact, have a stalker? Is she only being imprisoned because the hospital wants to drain her insurance money? Or is she… well… crazy?
It must be said, it is mostly (but not always) men telling Sawyer she’s crazy. There is a distinct (but not overt) subtext here of how women must feel when they are dismissed, criticized, corrected, and talked down to constantly by men. It’s almost enough to send anyone to the snake pit.
Soderbergh also delivers on a quality freak-out scene when Sawyer takes the wrong medication. Although simply done, the overall effect is surprisingly unnerving. The final confrontation in “the blue room” may go on a bit long, but it helps to hammer home the character’s isolation and the time she’s spent locked away.
In addition to Foy, the supporting cast is uniformly fine. SNL regular Jay Pharaoh fares well in a dramatic role as a fellow inmate trying to help Foy. Juno Temple really makes an impression as a dreadlocked, tampon-throwing nutzo with her sights set on making Sawyer’s stay a living Hell. Amy Irving (who I haven’t seen in a while) does a bang-up job too as Sawyer’s worried mother. We also get a Big Name Cameo (who I won’t reveal) that reminds you this is, after all, a Soderbergh flick. However, he plays such an average schlub so well that you’re actually impressed with his ability to fit in with the low-key aesthetic of the movie.
AKA: Paranoia.
No comments:
Post a Comment