When the pandemic shut everything down back in March of 2020, theatres went with it. As things stayed shut down for the entire spring, a brief period began where theatres briefly opened for the summer and fall of that year, with this indie-distributed thriller being the first film to be widely released and welcome back moviegoers. I never went to see this in theatres, since I thought it just didn't look that good. When it come out on Netflix, I decided to give it a chance and man, I honestly wished I saw it in theatres when I got the chance. Rachel is not having a good day. She overslept, is late driving his son to school, is fired from her work, currently in a messy divorce, and stuck in painful traffic. It seems like it can't get any worse, until she exchanges some nasty words with a truck driver and refusing to apologize for her petty behaviour. This unknowingly causes something to snap in the man and is now hell-bent on making Rachel having the worse day she could never imagine. The premise is sort of meant to be shallow in order to have the crazy rampage and violence that the film unleashes and it work well for the most part. However, there are plenty of moments that can cause the viewer to question the situation. Like, how did the man plant a flip-phone and memorize the number to swap it out for Racheal's phone? Also, Racheal is constantly doing brain-dead decisions like not locking her car or leaving her phone in said car to make the whole thing escalate. It is pretty mindless like that, but I think that's kind of the point for this film. It's a turn-off-your-brain and have fun movie like that. It works so well that I wish it could actually have been longer. The tone is overly-serious, despite the insane action and circumstance, and it really works to be both intense and entertaining in how over-the-top it can get.
Russell Crowe as Tom Cooper/The Man is fantastic as the insane mass-murdering psychopath behind the wheel. What makes Tom such a great villain for this type of movie is that Crowe perfectly switches from a calm, almost civil guy to a vicious and monstrous criminal in an instant. Even though we are shown a lot to not sympathize with Tom, Crowe gives enough personality and details in his limited backstory and perspective of society. Caren Pistorius as Rachel is great at playing this stressed, paranoid woman who doesn't want anything bad to happen to the people around her, but the character herself is pretty idiotic at various times and her big mouth got her in trouble in the first place. Gabriel Bateman as Kyle, Rachel's son, is decent, but he doesn't really do much in the film and Bateman's acting can be pretty questionable at times. The side cast is also pretty shallow in regards to their limited development. Jimmi Simpson as Andy, Racheal's friend and divorce lawyer, is probably the best side character in the film thanks to Simpson's acting and the diner scene offering the best of both and Crowe's character working off each other. Austin P. McKenzie as Fred, Racheal's stoner brother, is hilariously miscast since McKenzie looks almost as young as Andy in the film to make me think that he and Racheal are siblings. Juliene Joyer as Mary, Fred's girlfriend, gets nothing to work off since she only gets one scene of existing before getting killed by Tom and her death, while brutal, is too rushed to have a sense of sympathy or tragedy to it. Lastly, there's Rachel's mother and ex-husband, who are essentially offscreen characters despite having actors attached to them. They simply serve as light additives to the world, with the mother moving to a retirement home being critical for the location of the climax and the ex-husband existing so Tom can throw shade at Rachel. The cast isn't the best of its genre and majority of the characters are given little development for the bare minimum, but Crowe gives it his all for his villainous performance as Tom.
Derrick Borte is a German director that has made quite a couple of independent productions prior to this film. While I haven't seen any of his prior work, I can tell that Borte did a pretty good job for what it's worth. The grungy, unfiltered look perfectly fits the grounded tone and raw intensity that will be presented in the film. New Orleans looks cloudy, hostile and unforgiving, which is far different from other vibrant portrayals. The cinematography by Brendan Galvin is solid in serving a hand-held, close-up focused camerawork throughout the feature. It's not a cinematic or overly-ambitious offering, but it perfectly fits the film it shoots. The score by David Buckley is average for the most part, but really shines when the main chase theme plays. It's intense and gets you pumped up for the thrilling action. Speaking of which, the action itself isn't too bad here. There are some moments that can be over-the-top such as when a truck squashes a police car or when Tom causes an insane accident on the freeway, but that just serves the mindless fun that the film offers. The chases are rightfully intense, paced well, and have a gritty feel to them that is just as hard to watch as the brutal kills that are presented. The stunts and gore used is pulled off in a convincing matter that just adds to the rawness of the film. While the film is not as polished as other films from that year or even from its genre, Borte did a solid effort in what is meant to be a schlocky production.
"Unhinged" may continue to fall more into obscurity for just being known as the first film to welcome back audiences to theatres in the summer of 2020, but it's actually far better than it deserves to be. While the story has its plot holes, Rachel is a very idiotic protagonist, and the side cast is certainly lacking, it serves its purpose as a fun action thriller by having a fun premise, serious tone, a fantastic performance and villainous portrayal from Crowe, Pistorius is great in the acting department, Galvin's camerawork is perfect in the use of hand-held and personal-feeling shots that make the viewer part of the action, Buckley's great main theme, some well-made car chases and grisly executions, and Borte's directing offering a gritty, drab appeal that reflects the miserable nature of the lead characters. For what it is, it's quite well-made and offers a lot of fun, which makes me kind of wish that the film itself was fleshed out and expanded upon more to be one of the best of its kind.
Verdict: 7.5/10. Pretty good, even if it has some obvious issues. Check it out if you're having a bad day and just want to have an hour and a half of unapologetic thrills!
