Unsane - Review - Mind on Movies

UNSANE is in theaters on March 23rd, 2018.

Unsane follows Sawyer Valentini after she moves to get away from her stalker and struggles to find her balance in a new city. She decides to visit a psychiatrist and unknowingly gets herself admitted into a psych ward. At every turn there are events that all lead to one question: is she sane or not?

This movie is gaining hype being that it was filmed entirely on an iPhone. That may lead you to think that it has bad quality but on the contrary since videography is getting better at the palm of our hands it worked well. It also made the angles in the scenes very up close and personal which built up the psychological thriller effect because it felt like something tangible.

Another thing that worked well in this movie is all the underlying tones that lead you to one direction then may continue to lead you there or completely turn into another direction. Since it starts off slowly it lures the viewer into wanting “more” and wondering how everything is going to play out especially when Sawyer gets placed in the facility. When it does pick up it hits the ground running and does not stop from there. At every corner there are clues but it’s almost impossible to put them together because the plot is so realistic because of the decisions made.

The acting in this movie wasn’t the best from some of the characters but the main character Sawyer was really good at teetering on the line of sanity. That was enough for the movie to push along and the majority of the supporting characters were believable as well. Some of them felt like people you might know or have seen in everyday life or if you were put in that situation, what you might do adding to the push back to reality of how this could really happen to someone.

Unsane is the psychological thriller that I don’t think has been done before. From watching its trailer I would have never expected it to play out how it did but I was surprised in a good way. Its raw nature from having been shot on a phone mixed with the idea that sometimes reality is how we individually perceive it left me wondering how often something like this happens daily.

Rating: 3.8 out of 5

Ashley (Senior Contributor) is an Orlando native who loves watching movies. Her favorite genres include comedies, thrillers and sci-fi.
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Wow – Unsane was INsane (haha, get it?). Get ready to live through your worst nightmare. Steven Soderbergh’s psychological thriller taps in to one of America’s biggest issues – mental illness. Clare Foy stars as Sawyer Valentini, a young person living through a messy, typical millennial life, yet with clear mental health issues due to escaping a 2-year long nightmare stalking incident. When she goes to a mental health facility to seek a therapist to talk to, she somehow ends up signing papers that unwillingly see her committed to an involuntary 24-hour stay. Not surprisingly, this frightens her and she freaks out, easily causing the 24-hour stay to then be extended to 7 days. The story follows her in the facility trying to figure out what is going on while it appears her stalker has gotten a job there and wants to continue terrorizing her. The biggest question is figuring out Sawyer’s psyche – is she or isn’t she crazy!?

Now I don’t know the legitimacy of this because I’ve never done any research, but the way these facility evaluations and psych holds are explained in the movie as trying to get money from your insurance through loopholes is downright FRIGHTENING if true. Soderbergh shot this entirely on 3 iPhone 7 Plus phones, giving this the exact creepy, weird vibe it needed. Clare Foy really showed off her acting chops – delivering a lot of very gritty, real scenes as Sawyer Valentini. Mental health is a serious scare in this country and the way these facilities can turn this against you is easily one of the craziest ideas in and of itself. Soderbergh took these issues and amplified them for a very, very creepy thriller. This also gives a great outlook into the seriousness of stalking and how it can completely polarize and uproot a person’s life. If you’re ready for a crazy psychological thriller – go see Unsane.

PS – get ready for a surprising, funny A-lister cameo!

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

Lauren (Contributor) is born and raised in South Jersey. When she isn’t yelling at Philly sports teams on the TV, she enjoys seeing the latest action films and true crime documentaries.
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