"Unsane" Review
Steven Soderbergh's new movie, "Unsane" follows a woman played by Claire Foy who is unwillingly admitted to a psychiatric hospital. The stereotypical psych thriller paranoia doesn't overstay its welcome (you know, the thing where a character thinks they're not delusional but they totally might be). Instead it wisely focuses on a story about abusive authority and toxic masculinity. Although leads Claire Foy and Joshua Leonard skillfully capture frantic yet calculated characters, the material they're working with isn't exactly Soderbergh's best. There are several moments that contradict the logic of the main characters and it feels cheap and simply done for repetition, especially with Foy's character. It's not a very nuanced script and this isn't a very nuanced movie but once you embrace it for the b-movie that it is, it works extremely well.
Let's address the elephant in the room, this movie is shot entirely on an iPhone. Although no one shot looks boring or lazy, there are many times where the ambition of the scene is undercut by the limited capabilities of the camera. Often times, the shots look a bit too saturated, jittery, and flat. Besides some good uses of the fish-eyed lens look and distorting what appears in the frame, there aren't any obvious benefits to shooting on an iPhone. That being said, this looks better and more vibrant than most big budget Hollywood movies out there.
Unsane is a fun little psychological thriller that's fun to watch and should be recognized as much more than "that Soderbergh iPhone movie". Whatever the movie lacks in its cinematography and writing is effortlessly eclipsed by how fun and easily digestible it is.
PS Apparently, Soderbergh wants to shoot more movies on iPhones. So we'll see where this will take us.