Review of Unsane (2018) by Yumbo — 02 Apr 2018

Unsane has a split personality - it's really one movie before it becomes, with real, surprising intensity, another entirely - and yet it works both moment-to-moment, which is a testament to Steven Soderbergh's skill as a director and Claire Foy's interpretation of the character, and it works as a commentary on the hostile world that women face on all fronts, especially from men who idealize them.

Here, a stalker's idealization of Foy's character is part of the harassment, and she confronts that in such a raw, powerful monologue that you're left to reflect on that as much as anything. That's the second movie.

The first movie is a kind of goofy horror flick in which her character can't get out of a mental facility after she unwittingly signs herself into one after a counseling session. Part of what makes Unsane interesting (for awhile) is Sawyer (Foy) is far from a simple victim; she's kind of a snot, and also destructive, and both qualities come out during her stay in the the co-ed commons area.

This makes Sawyer more, not less, likable; she's real and unpredictable, liking who likes, mocking who she doesn't. She's a person, in other words, like the rest of us. Which makes her stalker's fairytale vision of her all the more unfair and selfish.

Not a bad little movie, and Foy's legit good. She balances tough and touching surprisingly. When her key scene - in a padded isolation room - comes, she nails it. It's real acting in a B-movie plot.