Liverpool Sound and Vision 7/10

Cast: Russell Crowe, Caren Pistorious, Gabriel Bateman, Jimmi Simpson, Austin P. McKenzie, Juliene Joyner, Stephen Louis Grush, Anne Leighton, Devyn A. Tyler, Sylvia Grace Crim, Vivian Fleming-Alvaraez, Samantha Beaulieu, Lucy Faust, Scheryl W. Brown, Michael Papajohn, Scott Walker, Kriss Fortunato, Richie Burden, Deven MacNair, Gretchen Koerner, Donna Duplantier, Brett Smrz, Andrew Morgado.

The world is hanging by a loose thread to its sanity, its moral compass has lost the ability to point out true north, and every day we become a little tighter wound up, a little more confused, and a whole lot angrier. It is not as if we are losing our minds over what really matters, the planet, the wholesale destruction of that which gives us life, the systematic abuse of animal, mineral and human being by those entrusted to fight in our corner, instead we have become reduced to being concerned about the petty and paltry, the trivial, and the niggling inconsequential, anxious about having a drink in our hand to mask the pain, too afraid to speak out.

We have become Unhinged in the way we act, rage consumes us, we are offended and offensive in equal measure, but without being able to take responsibility for it, and the pace of life that we all ache for to return, is what was killing us in the first place.

Directed by Derrick Borte and written by Carl Ellsworth, Unhinged is a film for our time, one that has arguably its roots in the classic Stephen Spielberg film from 1971, Duel, but one that is ultimately more destructive, more faithful to the period we live now, for as Russell Crowe’s nightmarish character, known simply as Man, becomes ever more wrathful of society’s treatment of him, of Caren Pistorious’ Rachel seeming disrespect of him and his situation, so Unhinged focuses insightfully on the audience’s own feelings of inadequacy, of the rage they feel when someone cuts them up as they are driving, at the unthinking barbs that pass on social media; and it is to this we have become embroiled in our step away from civilisation, that we have all become unhinged, separated from reality.

The tension between Russel Crowe and Caren Pistorious is cinematic gold, unbearable to watch without turning your head away on occasion for a split second, almost as if you don’t want to be infected by the Man’s spiral out of control, and it is to this, the direction, and the dialogue created between the two that makes it a worthwhile film in which to spend time with.

That is not to say the film lives up to Duel completely, but like the Lodewijk Crijns’ 2019 film Tailgate, its aspirations are clear and honourable, and whilst some films are mere pastiches of a classic, Unhinged pays homage and adds a modern fear into the balance of the story, one of confrontation when anger is replaced by irrational madness.

A film that doesn’t relent in its pursuit of making the heart beat a little faster, Unhinged pays tribute to the classics superbly.

Ian D. Hall