Despite being one of only two films Quentin Tarantino said he would have paid to see in theaters during the pandemic, Unhinged It feels like a movie perfectly set up for a big night out on Netflix. It's a thriller that's both scary and silly, it has a movie star giving a terrific performance as a loose-weapon killer, and at just 81 minutes long (before the credits) it knows exactly how not to overstay its welcome. Now that it's on Netflix, it's the perfect time to watch it.
The film follows Rachel (Caren Pistorius), a young mother going through a divorce, living with her exhausted brother and his fiancé, and trying to keep her life on track. One harassed morning (which we know is the norm for Rachel), in the midst of trying to get her son to school (late) and getting fired from her job (for being late), she suffers a satisfying fit of rage in the road and honk because the driver of the truck in front of her does not want to move forward even though the light is clearly green. The only problem for Rachel, her son, and everyone she's ever met is that the driver of that truck (Russell Crowe) had just returned from killing his ex-wife and her new husband, and decides that the rude driver behind him is leaving. . be his next victim.
Rachel's character is part of UnhingedIt's a particularly fun secret sauce. A lesser film might have given in to the temptation of making Rachel feel fairly anonymous, to help the audience identify with her or even make her a perfect angel for the audience to root for while Crowe's demon chases her in a van. But Unhinged does something smarter than that: it turns Rachel into an absolute disaster. He makes enough mistakes in the first 10 minutes, whether due to rudeness or carelessness, that it's no surprise that something terrible happened. She's like everyone's worst habit or worst day rolled into one person, in a way you can't help but relate to and cringe at at the same time. All of this over-the-top characterization also makes for the perfect justification for when Rachel begins making a series of incredibly bad decisions as she tries to escape her torment, something few thrillers like this incorporate from the start. And of course, it all dovetails perfectly with the fact that everyone watching knows that no mistake or act of vaguely selfish cruelty could ever justify the horror the host decides he's going to unleash.
But for all the fun to be had in the absolute disaster that is Rachel, it's Crowe who is the real star of the show here. In his hands, driver Tom Cooper is absolutely terrifying, a cross between a relatable person you might shy away from at Home Depot and a slasher villain who would feel right at home in Haddonfield. Crowe plays the Fury as well as anyone in Hollywood, and his movie-star charm is brilliantly displaced in this killer who has decided to make his terrible day everyone's problem.
However, all of that is pretty expected from a mid-career Russell Crowe performance. What you might not expect is how physically imposing Crowe becomes here. It is rare that a film allows you to make use of its full frame (outside of The good boyswhich uses this brilliantly), but director Derrick Borte lets Crowe be his huge, menacing self here. When he finally catches up to Rachel and the two get into some sort of fight, Crowe bounces her off the walls with ease, making the true real-world threats of this film feel viscerally evident.
And that brings us back to the alchemy that makes Unhinged Great: It combines these moments of relatability and genuine fear with enough high-speed minivan chases and unexpectedly massive car crashes to effortlessly jump between horror and silliness, making it a perfect movie to throw on Netflix over the weekend. week at home. Just make sure you watch it on a day when you haven't honked at anyone.
Unhinged is now streaming on Netflix.