Unsane (Steven Soderbergh, 2018)

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mfunk9786
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Re: Unsane (Steven Soderbergh, 2018)

#76 Post by mfunk9786 » Fri Jun 29, 2018 1:48 pm

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What a fun guy, folks - or should I say fungi, 'cuz he's spreadin' all over showbusiness!!

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Re: Unsane (Steven Soderbergh, 2018)

#77 Post by Werewolf by Night » Fri Jun 29, 2018 3:03 pm

mfunk9786 wrote:
Tue Jun 19, 2018 7:07 pm
Blu-ray.com was spot on with their evaluation of these discs - the UHD has a really unique look to it that elevates it over the Blu-ray by unexpected leaps and bounds. The way HDR boosts the whites (stray sun-drenched strands of Foy's hair, light reflecting off of tables in dimly lit bars, and of course any number of scenes inside of the mental hospital) is really something. Highly recommended!
I watched it via a streaming rental and thought it was a harshly UGLY movie (and I actually liked the way all those late-90s movies like The Celebration, 28 Days Later, and Julien Donkey-Boy shot on SD digital video looked). I imagine seeing it at its full, uncompressed resolution might be an improvement.

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domino harvey
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Re: Unsane (Steven Soderbergh, 2018)

#78 Post by domino harvey » Fri Jun 29, 2018 3:10 pm

I think Wenders' Land of Plenty is the best looking film to be shot on cheap digital cameras, but then again, me and Armond White are the only two people alive who think that's one of the greatest films of the last twenty years, so what do I know

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Re: Unsane (Steven Soderbergh, 2018)

#79 Post by The Narrator Returns » Sun Aug 26, 2018 4:58 am

I just watched this again, and I was even more impressed by it this time, to the point of even wanting to call it one of Soderbergh's best. At the very least, I think it's the purest representation since Schizopolis of Soderbergh's disdain for how language has been perverted and twisted over the years; he holds bureaucratic happy-talk and stalker language in the same level of contempt, for how disconnected their candy-coated surface is from their horrifying true meanings.

And speaking of Schizopolis,
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I think the Strine/Shaw thing works as a representation of the Munson/Korchek doubling in that, where you can instantly assume a different self and use it for puerile fantasies. I can even easily imagine Strine writing Korchek's obscene letter to Attractive Woman #2.

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Re: Unsane (Steven Soderbergh, 2018)

#80 Post by All the Best People » Thu Sep 13, 2018 12:33 am

Finally caught up with this last night (on Blu-Ray) after having shamefully missed it in theaters. I found it a very good thriller, despite certain plot implausibilities. This was my first exposure to Claire Foy, and she was excellent, and I, like some of you above, liked the ambiguity of the character.

The opening scenes, with her in the office, I found stunningly ugly, but, as so often happens with digital, it looked better when the lighting was more minimal. As I usually do, I liked Soderbergh's decoupage very much, and he set the tone effectively here.
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Above, there's a string of spoilers about Matt Damon's various cameos, but as they aren't identified as that, the spoiler tag defeats its own purpose. I will be reckless and state outright that the most bizarre Damon cameo I've encountered, by some distance, was in EuroTrip.

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Re: Unsane (Steven Soderbergh, 2018)

#81 Post by domino harvey » Thu Sep 13, 2018 1:14 am

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Re: Unsane (Steven Soderbergh, 2018)

#82 Post by John Cope » Thu Sep 13, 2018 2:23 am

MOD NOTE: This is a spoiler for a significantly more recent film (a comic book film) and related to the earlier string of spoilers. However, it is not a plot-based spoiler
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And don't forget his brief appearance in full redneck makeup in Deadpool 2. That one was probably the most elaborate ruse.



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Re: Unsane (Steven Soderbergh, 2018)

#83 Post by All the Best People » Thu Sep 13, 2018 3:15 am

I mean, when you see the spoiler tag, you assume it will be about the movie the thread is about, and thus will click on it if you've seen the movie (or don't care about the spoiler) ... but the way it is now, several other films are being spoiled, because the spoiler tags don't tell you the spoilers aren't about this movie.

On the other hand, I don't think I plan on ever seeing any of those movies.

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Re: Unsane (Steven Soderbergh, 2018)

#84 Post by domino harvey » Thu Sep 13, 2018 3:49 am

All of these posts are related to a spoiler for this film, which is why a mod edited your post. I would say, with the exception of John Cope's post, these are all fair game given the statute of limitations and that none of them are plot-based spoilers

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Re: Unsane (Steven Soderbergh, 2018)

#85 Post by mfunk9786 » Thu Sep 13, 2018 11:26 am

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Right. Within the context of this thread, that discussion instantly becomes a spoiler since his appearance is uncredited. Otherwise why would you be discussing Matt Damon in here? You have to think about people who haven't seen the film yet and might not want to expect it going in.

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tenia
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Re: Unsane (Steven Soderbergh, 2018)

#86 Post by tenia » Thu Sep 13, 2018 11:39 am

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As someone's who don't care (at all) about reading spoilers before watching the related movies, I knew about Damon before seeing Unsane, and having now seen it, I can only state how trivial this element is (I actually wondered what was the fuss about it being consider not to be spoiled).
I understand the point about the info technically being a spoiler, but etymologically speaking, "spoiler" says something, and I think we often believe that revealing certain things people is automatically spoiling the movie. In this case, and many others (including the other one mentioned above), I don't think it is, and I actually don't think people should care about learning about it before.

An other example would be some movie visuals (say, a BD cover) that uses late elements of the movie. I often find people saying "hey, that's spoiler-y !". Except it might not be, because nobody who hasn't seen the movie will know what it is, what it means, or put it in a reveling context. It only is because of the prior knowledge of the movie... which then means it can't be spoiling the movie for us, since we've already seen it.
In any case, being usually on the more conscious side regarding spoilers, I'd agree putting these under the tag, but I also understand the more general point about how some elements could be learnt prior to the movie without spoiling it.

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Re: Unsane (Steven Soderbergh, 2018)

#87 Post by mfunk9786 » Thu Sep 13, 2018 11:48 am

I agree completely with what you're saying, tenia. Just think it's a YMMV situation where something isn't "spoiled" wholesale but a pleasant surprise within it is, and for some that is maybe even more important than a plot point. I'd rather leave it up to users here to make that determination for themselves.

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Re: Unsane (Steven Soderbergh, 2018)

#88 Post by nitin » Sun Feb 09, 2020 9:47 pm

Not sure the iPhone gimmick really added that much, I can see the bulk of the film working without what the iPhone had to offer and it would have looked less ugly too.

For the most part, I was on board despite the shaky script because Soderbergh knows how to cut and pace a movie and Claire Foy really is terrific in this. But when we get to that final half an hour, his detached style does not mesh well with the more ludicrous and pulpy turns the script starts taking almost on a minute by minute basis.

Disappointing overall but worth watching at the same time.

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Re: Unsane (Steven Soderbergh, 2018)

#89 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Mar 30, 2020 7:43 pm

I thought I already wrote about this one (maybe in another thread) but mfunk essentially expressed my own feelings when I saw this in theatres (and still on subsequent home video viewings). After getting passed the eye rolling idea that hospitals are committing people to drain insurance companies for money (being in this field, I can say that while sketchy capitalist nonprofits exist, they don’t operate like this- there is a waitlist for beds in metropolitan areas not a deficit) it was easy to surrender to the horrific feeling of being trapped: physically and psychologically through gaslighting and the terrifying realization in the cameo that this is a lifelong process of anxiety, a terminal diagnosis of an unmanageable life. This is the closest I’ve ever come to comprehending the life of a stalker victim, as well as a jarring, dizzying, assaultive vision at having one’s life upended in claustrophobic hell of hopelessness and threat. If the feeling of being trapped is as frightening to you as it is to me, it doesn’t get much more aggressive than this depiction of unpredictable oppression stripping us as surrogates of all choice. Claire Foy plays the character perfectly as a logical and resilient person, who may not be the most likeable person, but who is as innocent and emotionally reactive as anyone would be, humanizing her in all the ways that count without the distraction of warm characteristics. This is fight/flight, and nothing more.

The film goes off the rails and is implausible in several respects
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from the stalker being real rather than a mirage, having infiltrated the facility, capable of killing, and not to mention the multiple endings of him coming back and finding her after the escape
but all is well because the moment the ridiculous mental health facility’s evil plot is revealed as truth, nothing can or should be taken as realism other than the feelings this elicits, and the nightmare of agency deprivation and fear of powerlessness it exploits. I think that this may be Soderbergh’s most effective genre picture, but it’s not going to work too well if you take everything literally. Neither is Side Effects though, my other favorite pure genre pic, which sets itself up as another message movie - about medication (which would also send me running) - only to fall into all the amusing noir trappings and nothing-to-lose vigilante thriller beats. Looking for realism in either exercise beyond the very real individualized psychological engagement is like expecting snow in July.

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Re: Unsane (Steven Soderbergh, 2018)

#90 Post by HernandoBiggies » Mon Mar 30, 2020 9:26 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Mon Mar 30, 2020 7:43 pm
I thought I already wrote about this one (maybe in another thread) but mfunk essentially expressed my own feelings when I saw this in theatres (and still on subsequent home video viewings). After getting passed the eye rolling idea that hospitals are committing people to drain insurance companies for money (being in this field, I can say that while sketchy capitalist nonprofits exist, they don’t operate like this- there is a waitlist for beds in metropolitan areas not a deficit) it was easy to surrender to the horrific feeling of being trapped: physically and psychologically through gaslighting and the terrifying realization in the cameo that this is a lifelong process of anxiety, a terminal diagnosis of an unmanageable life. This is the closest I’ve ever come to comprehending the life of a stalker victim, as well as a jarring, dizzying, assaultive vision at having one’s life upended in claustrophobic hell of hopelessness and threat. If the feeling of being trapped is as frightening to you as it is to me, it doesn’t get much more aggressive than this depiction of unpredictable oppression stripping us as surrogates of all choice. Claire Foy plays the character perfectly as a logical and resilient person, who may not be the most likeable person, but who is as innocent and emotionally reactive as anyone would be, humanizing her in all the ways that count without the distraction of warm characteristics. This is fight/flight, and nothing more.

The film goes off the rails and is implausible in several respects
SpoilerShow
from the stalker being real rather than a mirage, having infiltrated the facility, capable of killing, and not to mention the multiple endings of him coming back and finding her after the escape
but all is well because the moment the ridiculous mental health facility’s evil plot is revealed as truth, nothing can or should be taken as realism other than the feelings this elicits, and the nightmare of agency deprivation and fear of powerlessness it exploits. I think that this may be Soderbergh’s most effective genre picture, but it’s not going to work too well if you take everything literally. Neither is Side Effects though, my other favorite pure genre pic, which sets itself up as another message movie - about medication (which would also send me running) - only to fall into all the amusing noir trappings and nothing-to-lose vigilante thriller beats. Looking for realism in either exercise beyond the very real individualized psychological engagement is like expecting snow in July.
Closer to reality than you might think: https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ro ... .vk2wzz044

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Re: Unsane (Steven Soderbergh, 2018)

#91 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Mar 30, 2020 9:49 pm

K well that’s wild and all, and I guess I’m not surprised that an occurrence like this has happened before in this crazy world, but the film’s insider character seems to indicate that it’s common practice which put me off in the possible condescending readings of mental health facilities as harmful shams, filled with cold narcissistic workers who dehamunize their patients. It’s just a set up for a movie after all, but if taken beyond that fluke story as a realistic sample of the environment and robotic capitalist conspiring mindsets for all down the food chain, it’s both silly and offensive. Good thing I don’t read it that way, though I admit each viewing challenges me to go beyond that element for its insinuations do get relentless at times. Still it’s just too damn great as a genre pic to get caught up in personal politics that don’t align with the rest of my take on it.

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Re: Unsane (Steven Soderbergh, 2018)

#92 Post by HernandoBiggies » Mon Mar 30, 2020 9:58 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Mon Mar 30, 2020 9:49 pm
K well that’s wild and all, and I guess I’m not surprised that an occurrence like this has happened before in this crazy world, but the film’s insider character seems to indicate that it’s common practice which put me off in the possible condescending readings of mental health facilities as harmful shams, filled with cold narcissistic workers who dehamunize their patients. It’s just a set up for a movie after all, but if taken beyond that fluke story as a realistic sample of the environment and robotic capitalist conspiring mindsets for all down the food chain, it’s both silly and offensive. Good thing I don’t read it that way, though I admit each viewing challenges me to go beyond that element for its insinuations do get relentless at times. Still it’s just too damn great as a genre pic to get caught up in personal politics that don’t align with the rest of my take on it.
Oh I agree with you completely and love your reading of the film, it’s one of my favorite Soderberghs, just wanted to link that article as I believe I read somewhere it was an inspiration for the script.

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Re: Unsane (Steven Soderbergh, 2018)

#93 Post by knives » Mon Mar 30, 2020 10:34 pm

therewillbeblus wrote:
Mon Mar 30, 2020 9:49 pm
K well that’s wild and all, and I guess I’m not surprised that an occurrence like this has happened before in this crazy world, but the film’s insider character seems to indicate that it’s common practice which put me off in the possible condescending readings of mental health facilities as harmful shams, filled with cold narcissistic workers who dehamunize their patients. It’s just a set up for a movie after all, but if taken beyond that fluke story as a realistic sample of the environment and robotic capitalist conspiring mindsets for all down the food chain, it’s both silly and offensive. Good thing I don’t read it that way, though I admit each viewing challenges me to go beyond that element for its insinuations do get relentless at times. Still it’s just too damn great as a genre pic to get caught up in personal politics that don’t align with the rest of my take on it.
It's definitely more common than it ought be though. Literally that situation in the broad contours happened to my boss at the beginning of the year. There are of course a lot of good people in the system, but there are also a ton of crooks.

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Re: Unsane (Steven Soderbergh, 2018)

#94 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Mar 30, 2020 10:54 pm

Like I said, there do exist a lot of capitalist nonprofits that operate in scary ways and whose ethics aren't always in the right place (i.e. the agency I currently work for, who is telling us to send kids with families home so we can collect their funded money during our current crisis, stating that this is to help staffing but then taking new admissions which means we need more staff for ratio, all while we are openly stating there are not enough of us to staff the place- nice overhead there though). I should have been clearer that I meant that the film seems to weave the idea in there that this is the norm for the system. I've been surrounded by and worked in these fallible systems for about half my life, but the exaggerated nature of the one in the film that appears at times to be taken as reality rubs me the wrong way if we are going down the 'this is real life' rabbit hole, which extends to forcibly holding people against their wills to fill beds that somehow cannot be filled in a city which is typically full of people needing diverse services that these places provide. I think what makes me particularly annoyed by any notion that this is synonymous with reality is how the direct care staff who are getting no benefits seem to be in it with the top dogs, which is laughable. They may be burned out and desensitized, but in cahoots? Insane.

That makes a lot of sense that it was based on that article though, Hernando, it's wild enough to inspire anyone to write a script!

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Re: Unsane (Steven Soderbergh, 2018)

#95 Post by Mr Sausage » Mon Mar 30, 2020 10:56 pm

I think the reason I didn’t find its depiction of mental health facilities silly and offensive is because it’s working on the same level as paranoid 70s thrillers, where powerful institutions are webs in which people can be unknowingly caught, robbed of agency, and put in positions of horrible vulnerability, all from those we’d been taught to see as benign helpers. It works because the paranoia is directed at institutions and the power dynamics within them rather than the front line workers, none of whom are demonized or treated as smirking villains (they show basic competence, eg. knowing the difference between a drug freakout and true psychosis). The movie plays on a legitimate fear: that those who set the rules for mental health have all the power, and if they choose to exercise that power on you, there’s little recourse for you the individual. In a context of madness, doctors become like the police in Hitchcock: authority figures who seem endlessly suspicious of you.

The most unnerving part of the movie for me was the opening where Foy’s character finds herself suddenly in the jaws of the institution, knowing something is deeply wrong and yet constrained to follow the obscure commands of the authority figures who refuse to explain what’s happening and yet expect immediate compliance. It’s terrifying and insidious, and played so straight that one has no qualms believing that one’s status as a free, sane citizen is more tenuous and contingent than is comfortable. Like a nightmare of being caught in an irrational, totalitarian system, except transplanted into the calm, banal everyday world of American cities and hospitals. Unlike movies like Gothika or The Ward or even Shock Corridor, this movie was persuasive on a surface level and properly exploited our common fear of institutions by treating them as banal and organized rather than evil or symbolic.

As a vision of total helplessness, this movie is excellent.

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Re: Unsane (Steven Soderbergh, 2018)

#96 Post by therewillbeblus » Mon Mar 30, 2020 11:10 pm

Thanks Sausage that’s exactly what I tried to say in my initial post, with more welcome details on why the problematic pieces can be easily ignored. None of this bothers me unless taken at face value outside the film, but few things are as terrifying as being stripped of all control and the embrace of this fear via 70s paranoid thrillers to the point of suffocation is incredibly effective.

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