Last weekend my brother came up to Laramie to visit me. I always love when he comes up because it gives us a chance to hang out and I can show him around the town that has shaped who I am over the past three years. Usually when he comes to town that means one thing: movies. My brother and I have always shared this bond over movies, and I knew exactly the movie I wanted to go see while he was here: Unsane, directed by Steven Soderbergh.
For those of you who haven’t heard of it, here’s the trailer:
video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7KZrt_cHH0 align:center]
For those of you who are too lazy to watch the trailer, here’s a quick overview:
Woman has a stalker for two years.
Woman moves towns, get restraining order, and changes her live to escape from stalker.
Woman still has issues.
Woman decides to go to counseling.
Woman goes to a therapist and unknowingly commits herself into a 24-hour behavioral center.
Shit goes down, doctors question her sanity and they prolong her stay.
SURPRISE! Her stalker is now an employee at the facility and no one believes her.
Woman must escape for her life.
Sound like a good movie? You’re right, it is. But there’s one kicker to the film that is guaranteed to blow your mind…
The entire movie was shot on an iPhone.
This may not shock you as much as it did me when I first heard this, but trust me, it’s pretty incredible. I saw the entire movie without knowing it and I had no idea that what I was watching came from an iPhone 7 Plus. As a film lover and a (somewhat) aspiring filmmaker myself, this movie opens up a world of possibility for the movie industry. If you choose to go see Unsane, which I highly recommend, take note of these few things with this information in the back of your mind:
1) Continuity
The continuity of the film was consistently spot on. Never once did my critical eye catch a frame switch with one character looking one way and mysteriously looking another way in the next frame. Steven Soderbergh did a fantastic job keeping his frames in line and it never once looked like a cheap film made on a phone.
2) Viewpoint
Thinking back on the movie and my experience without knowing I was watching a movie on an iPhone, I can definitely tell where this tool came in handy. There were multiple frames throughout the movie that looked as if the camera was sitting on a desk and looking up at the characters. This provided an uneasy kind of tone and feel to the film that kept me on the edge of my seat. The main character is constantly in an uncomfortable environment, and the way the director used the iPhone vantage point to capture that makes you feel just as uncomfortable.
3) Quality
You really can’t deny how amazing technology is in this world. Us young whipper-snappers have lived through an outrageous change in technology and have seen firsthand what is possible. I had no clue that this movie was filmed on an iPhone until my brother told me afterward, and it really amazes me. Never once did the scenes look cheap, gritty or glitch and even though I know a crap-ton of editing was involved in the production, you still can’t deny how cool it is that the entire thing was shot on a phone that most of us have sitting in our pockets right now.
So, if you are a lover of films and are down for a thriller shot on an iPhone, this is the movie for you. Steven Soderbergh knew what he was doing when he made this film, and I highly recommend going to see for yourself when I say, this movie is INSANE.