Unsane

Dir: Steven Soderbergh

2018

***

I’m all for guerrilla film making but I’m not sure shooting a feature on an iPhone on a DJI Gimbal while sitting in a wheelchair having a crew member push you around really counts. Steven Soderbergh has threatened to quit directing many times and if getting back to basics is his way of staying in the game then all power to him but I hated the way Unsane looks and it really bugs me that someone with talent who can make big films isn’t making big films. I don’t want to watch films made on mobile phones just as much as I don’t want to watch films on a mobile phone. I will admit that the realism captured in the 16:9 aspect ratio was suitably claustrophobic but having two black lines on either side of the screen was more than I care to stomach. Unsane tells a clever story and deserved better direction, as well as a better title. Steven Soderbergh is a director who likes to try new things and I can’t fault him for that but as it stands his films are either brilliant or unwatchable, until now. Unsane might be Soderbergh’s first average film. It is a psychological horror that involves a troubled woman, Sawyer Valentini, who moves away from home to escape a stalker. Sawyer finds she is still triggered by interactions with men as a result of her experiences. She makes an appointment with a counselor at Highland Creek Behavioral Centre. At her appointment, she unknowingly signs a release voluntarily committing herself to a 24-hour stay. She calls the police but they do nothing when they see the signed release. After physical altercations with a patient and a staff member, Dr. Hawthorne says she is being kept for seven more days. Another patient, Nate Hoffman, gives Sawyer an introduction to the place. He explains that Highland Creek is running a scheme to milk health insurance claims for profit. They trick people into voluntarily committing themselves as long as the patients' insurance companies continue to pay; when insurance claims run out, the patient is "cured". One day, Sawyer sees David Strine, her stalker, working as an orderly under the assumed name George Shaw. She has an outburst and is restrained. Her outbursts result in the repeated use of restraints and sedation. As a viewer we are not sure whether she is seeing things or if Strine really is now working at the centre. Nate shows Sawyer that he has a secret cell phone, and she uses it to call her mother, Angela, who attempts to get her out. Sawyer reveals to her mother for the first time about having been stalked, and explains that David is at the hospital. David intentionally gives Sawyer an overdose of methylphenidate, causing her to become violent and disoriented. That evening, he convinces Angela, who had never seen him before, that he is a hotel employee, and gains entrance to her room. Meanwhile, Sawyer confides in Nate about David, saying he was the son of a patient with Alzheimer's disease when she worked at a hospice job. After David's father died, he became obsessed with Sawyer. David sees Sawyer and Nate together and feels threatened. He knocks Nate unconscious and takes him to the basement, where he tortures him with an ECT device before killing him with an overdose of fentanyl. When they find Nate's body, the staff conclude that Nate's overdose was a result of his drug addiction. Sawyer finds a phone under her pillow, with images of Nate badly beaten. She tries to alert the staff, but they put her in solitary confinement. David visits Sawyer and says he has a secluded mountain cabin he wants to take Sawyer to. Sawyer mocks him for his obvious inexperience with women. David attempts to strangle her, but stops and leaves. David later returns and says Highland Creek administration believes Sawyer is gone, as he has changed information to make it appear that her insurance ran out. Elsewhere, outside the hospital, the body of the real George Shaw is found in the woods. Looking for a way out, Sawyer feigns concern that David is a virgin, and that she does not want to be his first. She convinces David to have sex with another woman to prove that he will only want Sawyer after losing his virginity. Sawyer suggests Violet, another patient who previously threatened Sawyer with a shank, and he brings her to the solitary confinement cell. Sawyer uses Violet's shank to stab David in the neck and flees as he kills Violet. He recaptures Sawyer outside, and she wakes up in the trunk of his car next to her mother’s corpse. Sawyer escapes and flees into the woods with David in pursuit. Meanwhile, the news reveals that Nate was an undercover reporter sent to Highland Creek to investigate the rumors of people being committed against their will. David catches Sawyer and breaks her ankle, but Sawyer uses her mother's crucifix to stab David in the eye before cutting his throat. The police discover Violet's body and Nate's notebook detailing the criminal activities within the hospital and they arrest the hospital administrator. Six months later while at lunch with a coworker, Sawyer thinks she sees David sitting in the restaurant. She approaches him armed with a knife, but upon realizing it is not him, runs away. The unraveling mystery and Claire Foy’s intense performance make up for the questionable direction. Joshua Leonard is suitably unhinged as David Strine, Sawyer's stalker, and Jay Pharoah is great as Nate Hoffman, his performance making much more sense once it is revealed he is no ordinary inmate. There are a few scenes involving needless running around and wobbly camera but overall the story unravels nicely. The real success of the film is that the idea – as terrifying as it is – is totally believable. I do wonder whether they even needed the stalker element of the story, as being held against your will for bureaucratic profit is a very real and frightening threat. Say what you will about Steven Soderbergh but you never really know what he’s going to do next and his films are never boring.