Unsane
20th Century Fox | Release Date: March 23, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
63
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 45 Critic Reviews
Positive:
33
Mixed:
9
Negative:
3
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
85
TheWrapTodd GilchristMar 20, 2018
Whether shot on an iPhone or just screened on one, Unsane effortlessly flexes Soderbergh’s skill as a storyteller and a technician, injecting the atmosphere and mechanics of a creepy scenario with a substance that deepens and elevates it to the stuff of a harrowing, intimate reality. Read full review
83
The Film StageRory O'ConnorFeb 23, 2018
What first appeared to be a fun riff on One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest soon transforms into something much darker. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesJustin ChangMar 22, 2018
This is very much Foy's movie, and if the role of a woman trapped and surrounded by crazies couldn't feel farther removed from Queen Elizabeth II (or could it?), this superb English actress brings furious conviction to every agonizing moment of Sawyer's journey. Read full review
80
Village VoiceApril WolfeMar 22, 2018
Simple and well acted, Unsane has tension enough to knot the stomach. Read full review
80
The AtlanticDavid SimsMar 21, 2018
Unsane is a great worst-nightmare movie from Soderbergh, a tense piece of low-budget auteurship that plops the viewer into an absurd scenario and then ratchets up the tension for the next 90 minutes. Read full review
80
Paste MagazineTim GriersonMar 20, 2018
Not all of Unsane’s twists and gambits work—you have to accept a certain amount of movie-movie ludicrousness to get on the film’s loopy wavelength—but Soderbergh’s vision of a smart woman eternally held down against her will has a wonderful, nasty kick to it. Read full review
80
Total FilmMatt MaytumMar 19, 2018
A short, sharp shock of a thriller that demonstrates the versatility and range of both Soderbergh and Foy. Read full review
80
EmpireDan JolinMar 5, 2018
A raw, lean and abrasively effective thriller from Steven Soderbergh, which features Claire Foy as we’ve never seen her before. Read full review
80
VarietyGuy LodgeFeb 21, 2018
We’re in schlock corridor here and Soderbergh runs with it, cellphone in hand; under the buzzing suspense mechanics, however, a cautionary note on the perils of disbelieving women is just audible. Read full review
78
IGNWilliam BibbianiMar 28, 2018
Unsane is a creepy little thriller, with a concept that could terrify just about anybody, and a plot that wobbles but ultimately stays on the rails. Claire Foy gives a standout performance and Steven Soderbergh’s intimate visual style sells the idea that we are watching something horribly sinister get revealed. Read full review
75
Vanity FairRichard LawsonApr 25, 2018
Despite a wildly uneven “Americarrr” accent (through which the voice of Queen Elizabeth sometimes shines), Foy is excellent in the film, rigid poise giving way to feral anger in always convincing shades. Read full review
75
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliMar 23, 2018
Although the ending is generic and needlessly protracted, the production as a whole is suspenseful – full of diabolical little twists as it ventures deep into an uncomfortable territory using the trail blazed by "Misery." Read full review
75
New York PostSara StewartMar 23, 2018
If there’s a flaw in Unsane, it’s that the screenplay by Jonathan Bernstein and James Greer doesn’t play its hand closer to the vest. The pleasure here is in watching and wondering what’s real and what isn’t, but all too soon it’s spelled out for us. Nevertheless, it’s great fun to watch it all come together — or, more accurately, fall apart. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperMar 22, 2018
Claire Foy (“The Crown”) delivers a smashing performance. Read full review
75
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldMar 22, 2018
Unsane has an uncanny way of reflecting the world through Sawyer’s eyes, sometimes amplified by the medication she’s forced to take. It’s not a pretty place. Read full review
75
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonMar 22, 2018
Foy is quite good in this role. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversMar 21, 2018
Foy's performance is something you don't want to miss. Whether spewing f-bombs, kneeing a suspected assailant in the balls, or promising a blowjob to Nate for a few minutes on his secret cell phone, Foy comes on like gangbusters. Fans of her prim, proper regent on "The Crown" are in for a shock. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comBrian TallericoMar 21, 2018
On the surface, Unsane is a potboiler, a routine stalker thriller. But it works because of how much there is going on within that familiar structure, courtesy of Jonathan Bernstein & James Greer’s smart script, Soderbergh’s claustrophobic direction, and Claire Foy’s committed lead performance. Read full review
75
The Associated PressJake CoyleMar 21, 2018
Unsane, a pulpy psychological thriller, is an exercise in both genre and technology. It’s a B-movie iMovie. And it’s 98 minutes of proof that the laborious apparatus of filmmaking can be not only light on its feet, but fit snuggly inside your pocket. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrMar 21, 2018
A deft, disturbing piece of work, as cold around the heart as the Kubrick film, if infinitely more dismissible. It gets in, it messes with your mind, and it vanishes, leaving only an unsettling aftertaste of unresolved narrative. It’s an exercise, but some exercise leaves you gasping. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleMar 21, 2018
Unsane is Soderbergh in his best mode. As in “Haywire” and “Side Effects,” he takes what easily might have been a lowbrow genre entry and realizes it so completely that he turns it into something extraordinary. Read full review
75
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonMar 20, 2018
Despite the occasional tonal hiccup, so much of Unsane feels fresh and new, using bold formal techniques to spice up a complex throwback to B-movies of the past. Read full review
75
Slant MagazineSteve MacfarlaneFeb 21, 2018
Even Unsane's most ridiculous moments coast on the sheer energy of Steven Soderbergh's aesthetic gamesmanship. Read full review
75
IndieWireBen CrollFeb 21, 2018
Unsane brims with curiosity about digital technology, discomfort with corporate bureaucracies, and is spiked through and through with icy wit – in short, it could never be anything but a Soderbergh film, and a particularly delicious one at that. Read full review
70
The New YorkerAnthony LaneMar 26, 2018
The performance that lingers, once the tale is told, is that of Jay Pharoah as Nate, a fellow-patient on Sawyer’s ward, who has furtively kept hold of his cell phone (she was deprived of hers), and who lends the film an understated calm. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisMar 22, 2018
Mr. Soderbergh’s quick-and-dirty approach works here better as a conceptual gambit than as an entertainment. What keeps you watching even as the story becomes more off-putting are the actors and Mr. Soderbergh’s filmmaking. Read full review
70
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzMar 22, 2018
Foy is terrific, as is Pharoah. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinMar 20, 2018
In spite of the somewhat-cheesy climax, I came away admiring Unsane. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisMar 22, 2018
When the movie shifts from psychological to physical terror, the film (like Sawyer) unravels and finally loses its bearings. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyMar 21, 2018
Most of the thrills here come from watching one of our canniest directors perform rattling wheelchair dollies on a waxed hospital floor while over-punctuating video-noisy close-ups and cheesy music cues. Read full review
67
The PlaylistJessica KiangFeb 21, 2018
Topicality is not mandatory, and it’s clear the agenda here is for salacious genre thrills rather than anything deeper or more profound, but when the film’s form is such an embrace of modernity, it feels like cognitive dissonance to have the story skew so old-fashioned. Read full review
63
Movie NationRoger MooreMar 23, 2018
Unsane makes a creepily watchable thriller, but it’s so light on thrills and suspense that its Hitchcockian twist feels like an afterthought, a cheat not earned by the movie we’ve watched come before it. Read full review
63
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsMar 22, 2018
It’s a grubby, fairly intriguing genre exercise given a weird, did-it-myself-in-a-hurry visual quality. Read full review
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