Sawyer Valentini (Claire Foy) moved to a new city and started a new job in order to get away from a man who had been stalking her. However, she still occasionally experiences moments of extreme PTSD and delusions when interacting with men. After a particularly bad incident, she seeks the help of a counselor, and arranges an appointment at the Highland Creek Behavioral Center. Upon her arrival, Sawyer soon discovers that she has been “voluntarily” committed to the facility for 24 hours. She demands to be released, but no one listens to her. In her rage, Sawyer ends up hitting another patient, Jacob (Raúl Castillo), which only makes matters worse. She is placed in a large room with other patients, including an angry, rambling woman named Violet (Juno Temple), who carries a homemade shiv, and the seemingly more sane Nate Hoffman (Jay Pharoah), who has managed to smuggle in a cell phone, and appears to be writing some sort of expose.

The next morning, as Sawyer is getting her meds, she has another panic attack when she sees the nurse—it is her stalker, David Strine (Joshua Leonard). She screams and yells, but when she tries to explain the situation, Sawyer just comes off even crazier. The staff informs her that the nurse is not her stalker, and that the nurse’s name is George. Sawyer doesn’t accept this, and starts a physical altercation. She is tied to her bed, and told that she is a danger to herself and others, and that her stay has been extended by 7 days. Sawyer is desperate to leave and get away from this man who has been stalking her, but no one will listen and no one will let her call her mother (Amy Irving). Is Sawyer really crazy and just imaging that George is David Strine, or is there something more sinister at work here? Can she convince the others that she’s the sane one before it’s too late?

Unsane is a pretty solid thriller, exploring this exciting premise as to whether or not Sawyer is truly insane of if she should be legitimately terrified of being locked in this psychiatric ward with her actual stalker. The tension ramps up pretty quickly as the story plays out, and continues at this pace through the exciting conclusion of the film. Claire Foy delivers a strong performance, and really conveys the stress and emotions that Sawyer is going through, both dealing with the aftermath of her past, and with her current situation. I was also impressed by Jay Pharoah’s dramatic performance—I’ve only ever seen him doing comedy on SNL. Matt Damon also makes an uncredited appearance as a police officer.

Director Stephen Steven Soderbergh is always looking for interesting, unique ways to tell a story, and for Unsane, he shot the film entirely on an iPhone 7 Plus, using an unusual 1.56:1 aspect ratio. While I appreciate this experiment, I found the results a bit underwhelming. I didn’t care for the look of the film. The picture is excessively grainy, which must have been added in post production as this was shot digitally. The picture quality ranged from really good looking in some of the outdoor, daytime scenes, to excessively dark and difficult to make out—characters blend into the background in some scenes. On the Blu-ray disc, there was quite a bit of black crush in these darker scenes, though this was not present on the 4K disc. The film uses a lot of pale, washed out colors, which helps to set a certain eerie mood in the psych ward, and the HDR presentation does enhance this color palette quite a bit over the Blu-ray version. There is also some increased detail in faces and the textures of walls in the 4K release. The audio track is also a bit of a mixed bag. As the film opens, the surround channel is well utilized with the sounds of birds chirping, and during some of the more intense moments of the film, you can hear noises all around you and get a sense of the terror that Sawyer is feeling. For the most part the dialogue is clear, but in one scene where Sawyer is screaming at George, the audio is oddly both muddled and noisy at the same time, and just sounds unclear and awful.

Unfortunately the only bonus feature included on this release is a 4-minute montage of behind-the-scenes footage set the film’s score and dialogue. I would have loved to have seen some sort of featurette/interview/commentary with the director explaining how/why an iPhone had been used to shoot the entire movie. The 4K Ultra HD release comes packed in a standard UHD keepcase along with a cardboard slipcover. Inside are the 4K Ultra HD and Blu-ray discs, plus the digital copy redemption instructions (the digital copy redeems in 4K format).

What’s Included:

Film: (1:38:11)

4K UltraHD:

• 2160p / Widescreen 1.56:1
• HDR10
• Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French

Blu-ray:

• 1080p / Widescreen 1.56:1
• Audio: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, English Descriptive Video Service
• Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French

Digital (for redemption deadline, see NBCUcodes.com):

• Digital Copy
  The redemption site redirects to Movies Anywhere for redemption. The included digital copy redeems in 4K.

Extras:
The bonus feature is included on both discs.

• Unsanity (4:26)
  Behind the scenes footage set to the film’s score and audio from the movie. There are no interviews or discussion about the film, just the raw, dialogue-less footage.

Final Thoughts:

Unsane is an entertaining, tense thriller, with a unique look and feel, and a strong performance by lead actress Claire Foy. While I found the film itself satisfying, the technical presentation of this release left a lot to be desired. Both the audio and video quality are a mixed bag, and the discs only contain a single dialogue-less 4-minute bonus feature. For that reason, I suggest a rental first before a blind buy, or perhaps pick up the digital version of the film if that is less expensive than the disc.