Unsane (2018)

Sawyer Valentini was stalked by a man named David in her hometown. To escape, she uprooted her whole life and moved to a city where she doesn't know anyone. She excels at her job, but isolates herself and avoids her coworkers. Sawyer's release is therapy where she feels free to vent about her woes. She's honest about some past suicidal thoughts and signs a contract without reading it on her next appointment. The contract was actually her voluntarily committing to a 24 hour hold at Highland Creek Behavioral Center. Sawyer has no recourse to leave and is forced to stay as long as the people who run the center see fit. Then she sees David, but no one takes her seriously. Is David actually there or is it a hallucination due to the trauma she has experienced?

Unsane is a psychological thriller centered around a traumatized woman. We never experience what Sawyer did when she was being stalked, but we see how carefully she stays away from people and how she's still looking over her shoulder. Every so often, she'll see a similar looking man and panics, transported back to probably one of many traumatic events. When she goes to therapy, she expects a safe place to talk about all this and only finds exploitation and manipulation. This aspect of the film is a commentary on our health industry motivated by profits rather than actually helping or healing people. Sawyer tries to do what she can to move on and protect herself, but the trauma obviously affects her more than she admits to others.

While I like parts of the film, especially how the back and forth between if an attendant in the hospital is her stalker or not, Sawyer is a frustrating character that rarely acts in her own best interests. It's overwhelming to be imprisoned essentially against your will, but never sign something without reading it first. Right after that, she tries to call the police (which obviously doesn't work) and then becomes more and more violent, giving the authorities more fairly legitimate reasons to keep her even longer than the 24 hours required. This behavior continues for days afterwards and leaves her further and further from freedom. Sawyer also treated others like they were beneath her consistently through the film perhaps to keep that distance and protect herself, but the result was offputting.

This movie that was entirely filmed on an iPhone 7. For most of the film, I wouldn't even have noticed, but some of the shots later in the film didn't look grainy and out of focus. The shots inside the asylum weren't affected and the method contributed to the claustrophobic atmosphere. I think it's an innovative way to show other filmmakers that they don't need expensive equipment to make a film. On the other hand, the low budget approach led to some very bad acting on the part of the side characters. The main three actors stood out while the others paled in comparison. Stephen Soderbergh is not an indie director and the success of the film was more due to his name and the number of screens it played on.

Unsane is a bit frustrating to watch, but I still feel for Sawyer as she fights through. The ending goes places I didn't expect and shows that with this capitalistic, corrupt health system, people are expected to go on with their lives and act normally even if they are still living with trauma, PTSD, and/or anxiety. It's a well made film for the budget with a few good performances. It's worth your time, but nothing spectacular.

My rating: 3/5 fishmuffins