A Tale of Two Indie Thrillers
We sat down to write this review of Unsane, the new thriller from Steven Soderbergh, with a sigh. You see, Unsane is a gimmick movie. Shot entirely on iPhone, it is more like a dare than a real film; Soderbergh is throwing down the gauntlet, daring us to criticize his “groundbreaking” attempt, lowly poseurs that we are.
For those who have followed the many waxes and wanes of Soderbergh’s career, the challenge will feel familiar. 12 years ago he released The Good German, a film shot entirely using 1940s technology.
Our response was then as it is today: we forgot about the format fifteen minutes in; sadly, we remained woefully aware of the story the entire time.
Unsane’s camera work is, indeed, evidence that it is possible to shoot a great picture on an iPhone. It’s a matter of your ability to frame a shot, and Soderbergh is a learned hand in this department. But when your film also includes aerial footage, a hospital set-piece, and recognizable faces (including SNL’s Jay Pharaoh, The Crown’s Claire Foy, and a cameo from Matt Damon), you wonder what the point of such a gimmick could be.
We open with a lonely girl with a new job, a new city, and a sleazy boss who wants to take her on a “business” trip. This is Sawyer (Foy). And we get the feeling this isn’t her first unwanted advance. In a Soderbergh movie, it never is. As it turns out, back in Boston she had a stalker, whose face she now sees everywhere, in every man. Seeking treatment, Sawyer goes to see a therapist, signs on the wrong dotted line, and immediately finds herself committed to a mental ward. Sure. Okay.
For such an unlikely story, Unsane shows about as much as imagination as its title – with every attempt to prove her sanity, the less sane she appears, and the more bored we get watching her.
You might think that the appearance of her actual stalker as a nurse in the ward would spice things up. Sadly, even that rather remarkable twist doesn’t know what to do with itself. By the time Soderbergh and Co. figure it out, we’ve already considered walking out. Had we been watching at our home, we would have surely turned this plodding mess off well before the energetic, yet pointless climax.
Instead, we might have switched to another indie thriller, the excellent Midnighters.
Available on iTunes, this thriller – with no famous names before or behind the camera – easily draws us into a psychological (and sometimes quite physical) battle royal between a suburban husband and wife, the wife’s sister, and a career criminal played by Ward Horton whose wide, wolf-like grin must surely be the sneer of the year. Our first thought, upon seeing him, was: “don’t let this man anywhere near grandmother’s house.”
But beware: he may look like a wolf, but there are far more vicious predators lurking about.
The fun begins with Lindsey and Jeff on their way back from a New Year’s party. Jeff starts getting frisky at the wheel, though his motives may not lie in any real desire so much as they do in an urge to prove himself still capable of bringing something to the relationship. Lindsey is breadwinner. The party was an office function.
Jeff’s base parlay at power, and resultant lack of attention, comes with a fatal consequence: they hit a stranger on the road. Fearing a breathalyzer, they take the man to their home.
What happens next may not be what you’re expecting, even as a seasoned fan of the genre. And we won’t get into it, since to describe the story further would be to rob you of all Midnighters of can offer. We’ll only say that gradually you begin to suspect that there are no genuine sheep in this movie.
What makes Midnighters all the more a triumph, especially when compared with Unsane, are its origins. The writer, Alston Ramsay, is a former speech writer from D.C.; Midnighters is his first script. The director, his brother Julius Ramsay, had directed and edited some television, but never before a full feature. The brothers financed the movie themselves. We hope the success of Midnighters gives them the momentum for another picture.
...Midnighters seen on iTunes
...Unsane seen at The Senator Theater