UNSANE: Deliciously Pulpy Thriller Pits Foy Against Foe

Steven Soderbergh’s short-lived retirement in 2013 was a decision fuelled by his growing ennui towards filmmaking. He may not have explained his return, but his latest could have the answer: if the boredom is slowly getting to you, why not try something different?

Enter Unsane, a black sheep of an entry in the director’s filmography. This is Soderbergh like you’ve never seen before, Claire Foy like you’ve never seen before, and – unless you’re one of the few to have caught Sean Baker’s under-seen and undervalued Tangerine – camerawork like you’ve never seen before.

For Unsane has been filmed with an iPhone, giving the picture a paranoia-fuelled low-fi fuzz. This is more than just a marketing gimmick, as Soderbergh’s film centers on the idea of stalking – a timely focal point considering the mass of sexual allegations that Hollywood has found itself mired in. What better way to get across that sensation of lurking then by filming Claire Foy up close and personal with a smartphone?

Friend or Foy?

Foy plays the unfortunate stalkee, the ridiculously-named Sawyer Valentini, whose prior experiences with a pathetic and hapless stalker are still lodged in her psyche. She’s filed a restraining order and moved to another state, but still can’t get the man out of her system – the wobbly and anti-climatic Tinder date that follows is this first act stretch is the least of her worries.

Her efforts to escape her tormentor lead her to a seemingly well-intended therapist, who manipulates her into signing herself away into a behavioural centre for 24 hours. Her bewilderment is exacerbated when one of the centre’s staff looks exactly like her prior stalker – and Soderbergh musters up a seductive sense of dread and escalating situational horror at this reveal.

What he doesn’t do, however, is suspend the mystery, as the revelation that, yes, the staff member is indeed who Valentini thinks he is, arrives early on. That’s not a spoiler – Unsane is less about the questions surrounding the mind-frazzled perspective of Valentini, and more about how she copes with her pursuant. Sure, it takes a while to re-adjust, but Unsane’s serpentine narrative will have you squirming in your seat in no time.

Foy is fantastic, a queasy sadistic edge setting her apart from both her straight-laced roles in Breathe and The Crown, and the atypical victim character model – at times, it’s difficult to tell who’s prey and who’s hunter in this twisted relationship. Less defined is her assailant, played by Joshua Leonard. He’s dressed up and played up as the stalker stereotype, his exaggerated everything requiring more suspension of belief than the machinations of his plan to get hold of Valentini; he’s all clammy fingers and no fingerprints.

Juno Temple, too, languishes in a role as a deranged, souped-up mental patient, a damaging representation of an undeservedly maligned fringe group. In the end, her character amounts to nothing more than a blatantly foreshadowed plot point.

Chock-Full Of Schlock

Though perhaps this is all in keeping with Unsane’s penchant for midnight movie antics: endearing low-budget frames are spliced together as Valentini suffers through a drug-induced panic attack, and images of her stalker hound her in quick, ragged cuts. This is Soderbergh’s most unabashedly pulpy offering yet, and there’s something giddy about all the ham: there’s enough of it to turn butchers into millionaires.

The riveting first two acts, where deliciously unsubtle plot points and character arcs light the screen like grimey fireworks, do eventually push the farce beyond the realms of believability. The more ridiculous Unsane becomes, the more it lulls, it seems. Yet, for a while, it remains intensely watchable – Soderbergh is unafraid to go for the dark and dirty, and the fate of more than one character plays out in excruciating fashion. A midpoint flashback – an expository detailing of Valentini’s dynamic with her stalker – is largely unnecessary, but allows for a cracking cameo and more room for Foy to flaunt her ability in front of the iPhone.

Soderbergh has claimed that he may shoot his next batch of films with this iPhone – it is easy to operate, after all. I’d hope not though – the technology isn’t quite advanced enough to match the high-definition vibrancy of a modern film camera, and a grainy image would do a film like Logan Lucky and its contemporary sheen a disservice.

What Unsane does share with Logan Lucky, however, is a scathing political undercurrent. There’s a distinctly charged backdrop to proceedings, Soderbergh making sure to condemn care facility scam operations and their overall negligence of patients in the process. If the indictment is slightly undermined by the blatant abstraction of Unsane’s unlikely narrative, there’s still sting in the message, its relevance to America’s political climate substantiated by the pointed intent of the film’s foreground plot.

Conclusion: Unsane

It’s best to view Unsane as a low-budget experiment by a high-profile director. It’s not quite a fully-fledged success – Soderbergh lets the midnight movie throwback and all of its hackneyed stylistic quirks and plot devices overcrowd the meat of a narrative that may have suited a more nuanced take – but this is ridiculously entertaining stuff, chock-full of schlock and fully committed to the atmosphere readily splattered into life by its bravura camerawork.

Unsane may be unbelievable, and its certainly unsubtle, but with Claire Foy’s brazen, full-throttle performance a fine match for its gripping low-budget flourishes, it’s difficult to see how you’ll leave unsatisfied.

Do you think filming with smartphones will be normalised in the future? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!

Unsane will be released in the US and UK on March 23rd 2018. For all international release dates, see here.