Directed by Steven Soderbergh

Starring: Claire Foy, June Temple, Joshua Leonard, Amy Irving, Jay Pharaoh

If you had told me you could make a Hollywood feature film on a phone, that small brick like thing we use to call people typically, I would think that the filmmaker would be some student director... like me I guess. But then again I've never had the idea of making a film with a smart phone. But Steven Soderbergh did it, and I admire him. He said he had quite the liberating experience making the film, and that intrigues me as a filmmaker. But unfortunately, with Unsane, I really don't think that the gimmick of filming on a phone is much more than... a gimmick. Insane is pretty unsatisfying.

Sawyer Valentini (Foy) is a career woman suffering from PTSD, after a stalker (Leonard) pries on her life and sets her into a state of dismay, where she believes she can see him everywhere after getting a restraining order on him. In order to counter this, she involuntarily commits herself to a Behavioural  Centre where she finds out that her stalker is working now, to get to her... or is he?

I will start by saying that Claire Foy puts in an absolutely amazing performance as Sawyer. There's not a moment where her acting does not pull you into her head, to make you feel like you're not with her the entire time, experiencing the anxieties and fears she encounters. She definitely carries the film, but in terms of narrative it can get difficult to get too attached to her story. The idea of the film, or from the first act anyway, we are inclined to believe that we don't know if Sawyer can see her stalker in the facility or if he is actually there, allowing us to perceive this film in interesting ways. Yet, the answer to this question is given to us literally not long into the second act, and the whole idea of the title becomes pointless - in which I lost interest, if it weren't for at least Foy's performance. Leonard's stalker also just feels so... generic. Quite comical at times, and I wasn't convinced by his line delivery. He may be a threat for Sawyer, but for me - I just want to laugh him.

And what really should have helped amplify this feeling of seclusion, uncertainty and madness, the iPhone 7 gimmick does nothing. Sure it looks intense and interesting for the first act but when the reveal comes along the cinematography doesn't do anything to pull you back into the sense of what it's like to be in our protagonists head. I didn't want the filming techniques to be a gimmick but in the end I completely forgot why it was used and if it was just done to sell tickets, and not for any interesting filmmaking choice.

Having said that, it does look different at least. And with the colour choices and lighting, this film does look visually appealing at times. I've seen a lot of critics complain about the colour and lightning but I quite like it. It makes you feel like you're in the film with Foy, like a home movie you've just made and you're watching it back. It's hard to explain without seeing it but in a similar way to David Lynch's Inland Empire the lighting feels very natural and as if you are in this serial world. 

There's not much really to pull this up very high. It's not a bad film and I do appreciate new techniques being used by Soderbergh but the narrative doesn't go hand in hand with the cinematography at all. It's ambitious and Foy is a joy to watch and I'm looking forward to seeing her do a lot more. I like the idea of a stalker being used in film and showing the anxieties victims have from experiencing them but here it's just been presented funnily. This might be worth watching on your phone when it arrives on digital, but even then you'll forget this after witnessing some disappointing writing.

5/10