Russell Crowe is Unhinged in a trashy road-rage thriller peeling into theaters this week
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Note: The writer of this review watched Unhinged from home on a digital screener. Before making the decision to see it—or any other film—in a movie theater, please consider the health risks involved. Click here for an interview on the matter with scientific experts.
It’s with the reckless, relentless determination of its behind-the-wheel bogeyman that the new road-rage thriller Unhinged has pursued a dubious goal: to be the first movie to open wide in American theaters since they all shut down back in March. And though there have been speed bumps along the way—namely, last-minute rescheduling, steering the release date from early July to late August—the film does appear to be screeching onto screens this Friday, with all the caution of a daredevil drag-racer playing chicken during rush hour. The irony is that Unhinged, a loudly sadistic bad-guy vehicle for Russell Crowe, is the kind of discount pulp trash that might struggle during normal times to even secure theatrical distribution. It’s a wait-for-Redbox programmer, promoted by default into the (only) multiplex event of the summer.
There was a time when Crowe could loom without qualifiers over blockbuster season. Twenty years out from Gladiator, he’s started to slouch into a character actor’s career—for most recent example, see his hoot of a supporting performance in True History Of The Kelly Gang. Really, about all Unhinged has going for it is the spectacle of Crowe breaking truly bad for the first time since, what, Virtuosity? He’s used his bulkiness as weapon or deterrent before, and tapped, a few times also, into a steely anger—look into his fiery embers here and you’ll see traces of the “father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife.” But this may be the first role that’s really capitalized on Crowe’s celebrity reputation as a hothead, even if the unnamed lunatic he’s playing only barks threats into a phone instead of chucking it at anyone.
First seen putting a bludgeoning, fiery punctuation on his broken marriage—an opening act of brutality that, unfortunately, leaves Crowe nothing to build toward in the menace department—the disgruntled driver eventually redirects his psychotic resentment to blandly frazzled single mother Rachel (Caren Pistorius), who gets stuck behind him in traffic and unwisely lays on the horn. With no delusions about turning his life around, “The Man” embarks on a single-minded campaign of harassment and intimidation, tailing Rachel and her son across the most nondescript roads and expressways of New Orleans, before escalating his tactics to violence against her family and friends. (On the plus side, one of the latter is played by Jimmi Simpson, a welcome addition to the supporting stretch of any big- or small-screen call sheet.)
If you squint hard enough into the film’s rearview mirror, you can make out glimmers of older, better highway-stalker films, from ’80s cult classic The Hitcher to Steven Spielberg’s first turn in the driver’s seat, the elemental man-versus-truck thriller Duel. Not that Unhinged has any of the mounting suspense or elegance of those movies. It’s a nasty but preposterous potboiler; the uglier the mayhem gets, the less believable it becomes. Though nominally unfurling a cautionary tale about the dangers of pissing off the wrong person on your morning commute, Carl Ellsworth’s script (his first since the Red Dawn remake eight years ago) seems just as goofily paranoid about the road map to personal ruin your cell phone could provide an enterprising maniac. A sturdier hand on the wheel might have rescued Unhinged, but director Derrick Borte gets precious little claustrophobic tension from the scenario. He’s no David R. Ellis, late purveyor of superior B-movie trashiness like Cellular.
Maybe the film wants to say something about the stresses and nonstop conflict of modern life; the opening credits strain for an apocalyptic topicality, using viral footage of roadside meltdowns and traffic-jam brawls to imply a powder keg just waiting to be lit. There are hints of misogynistic grievance, too, in Crowe’s character—a divorcee, just like Rachel, who complains of a legal system stacked against men. But seeing Unhinged as any kind of 21st-century Falling Down would require locating a sliver of humanity in this hulking slab of misdirected spite and fury. Crowe seethes and growls and furrows his sweaty brow and carries his bulky frame like a wrecking ball even when he’s not bashing in doors or skulls. But since his descent into madness happens essentially off camera, before the movie even begins, the Oscar-winning star has no other notes to play but blinding hostility. And seeing him just foam at the mouth for 90 minutes may leave the audience searching for an off ramp—or at least more reward for the present risk of a night at the movies.
58 Comments
So it’s a documentary?
At first glance I saw “peeing”, not “peeling.” And I have a strong hunch that would be just as fitting.
Excuse me, my middling director is also named Borte.
Sounds like we only wished we’d run out of Borte filming licenses.
“Come along, Borte. We’re over budget.”
Isn’t that the director Mickey Rourke insists on working with?
Here, take your star.
Thanks! XD
I thought the Rachel character was interesting but I didn’t really have a basis of reference for the actress. Russell Crowe was more like Javier Bardem’s character in No Country for Old Men: No backstory necessary, just the token bad guy in the film.
I thought the explosion at the beginning was “en media res” and that he blew up the house at the end because he did that at night, right?
And nice to see the disclaimer/warning.
I found it patronising myself – I would assume the average AV Club reader doesn’t need handholding like that – but each to their own.ETA: that last bit isn’t meant to sound as confrontational as it might – genuinely, fair play to those who find it helpful.
The more reminders it’s okay to not put yourself in danger unnecessarily the better. There’s a lot of pressure from certain politicians and, depending on where you live, peers to engage in magical thinking that if we pretend Covid isn’t happening, it won’t hurt us.
after months of relatively safe masked-on grocery shopping, I imagine that some people are ignorant of the differences between a quick grocery run and sitting in an A/C stew of shed viruses for 2 hours. purely based on my Facebook, I’m ok with any kind of assumptions about ignorance.
Again, maybe it’s me given the readership of The AV Club too much credit from my years on here and mingling with the comments. Just recently – with this and some of the BLM write-ups – the message is good but it’s delivered in the fashion of a teacher talking down to their students. Maybe I should consider the wider world of Kinja who migrate here now.
Yes, but the commentariat does not represent the vast array of readership. I would assume there are plenty of idiots that are just dying to go back to the theaters and looking up reviews of this movie because they are planning on going. Those folks likely know nothing of the original AVC or the general intellignece of the commenteriat.
To be fair, D-FENS in Falling Down is already kind of nuts before we meet him, we just don’t realize it at first. It seems like he’s commuting to some 9-5 job, but then we find out he’s been unemployed for a while and merely re-enacting a routine. And we find that he’s divorced for some of the same tendencies we see him display throughout the film.
Seems like part of the problem here in this flick is that we see all of that character development handed to us in the beginning of this film, while in Falling Down we learn about the ruin of a life that D-FENS has been living with and how he caused it. We learn about D-FENS as Detective Prendergast does.
I was kind of hoping the Note at the top would end with something like “but if you insist on seeing a movie in an actual theater, don’t make it this shitpile.”
The Insider feels like such a long time ago…
This is more LA Cough-ifdential.
And Master and Commander. I really wish that had turned into a franchise given the number of books they could have adapted.
“Name a shrub after Russell – something prickly and hard to eradicate.”
If you’re looking for something more recent that Crowe is good in, The Nice Guys is great.
“Discount Pulp Trash” and “Road Rage” are both perfect names for a band trying to make their mark at The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.So the film is not without its merits.
It really works best if you just assume that Crow didn’t have to act one minute to portray this character…
He IS right about the honking, though.
Movie Reviews need to add a “Worth risking COVID-19?” category.Sounds like this one is a No.
I’d like to know what would be worth a “Yes!”
A fully-restored print of Robocop.
“I’d see that for a dollar!”
Raiders.
AV Club just recommended ‘To Die For’, if that’s worth it …
It looks like MAGA: The Movie.
the risks are really low with the seating capacity at AMC. I just watched it and there were 6 people in the movie theater total. When you reserve a seat, every seat in your immediate facility is taken as well.
Remember, this is supposed to grease the skids to get Tenet released
remember when Crowe had the reputation of being an arrogant “act-or” type who bitched when the dialogue wasn’t up to his expectations? Guess we’ve moved past that stage into the “just collecting a paycheck” mode.
Upset that this is not a Nic Cage movie. I’d accent him as the aggressor, the woman, hell, even the car. But put him in there!
Obligatory “Fightin’ ‘Round The World”:
TUGGAH!!!
As you have mentioned, there will always be only one road psycho for me; RIP Mr. Hauer:
You know what might’ve been fun, a movie starring both Rutger Hauer and Klaus Kinski.
Oh hell yes! Klaus was the Kanye of 70s films! The contrast in acting between the two would have been a hell of a thing to play on!Anyone who hasn’t seen his tantrums off screen is in for a treat:
Putting aside the actual movies he’s working in and just looking at his performance, I actually prefer fat Crowe over fit Crowe. Even during his heydey, he had to put on some weight for what’s arguably his career best performance in The Insider.
I agree but it played better in The Nice Guys.
I haven’t seen Crowe this mad while piloting a vehicle since he stumbled his way around Jay Leno’s Tonight Show stage on a Segway.
Good idea, release it in theaters now so you have a plausible excuse for poor box office performance..
Unhinged II —a man gets the wrong color T-shirts from Ebay, but instead of sending them back, he goes to the seller in person, leaving a trail of destruction in his wake! Tagline: “Does this look like blue spruce to you?!?!”
A.A. Dowd cries after sex.
I mean yes that is what the world needs right now, a movie about an angry white man stalking a woman based on an alleged slight to his ego. I mean we aren’t living in this current hellscape because a white man with a low IQ and a large ego felt disrespected by a more intelligent black man? No thanks. Is this piece of shit worth getting ill over?
So I get that this is a mediocre piece of schlock, but is it a mediocre piece of schlock worth dying over?
That North-Korea-pretending-to-be-China Red Dawn remake was eight years ago??
i think it was filmed 2-3 years before that, too.
When did Russell Crowe turn into John Goodman?
MAGA: The MovieALL. LIVES. MATTER. Masks are for Sheeple
Ah, snarky reviews of new movies – I missed you.
It’s a wait-for-Redbox programmer, promoted by default into the (only) multiplex event of the summer.I can’t understand how you could say that about any movie featuring both the great Caren Pistorius AND the inimitable Gabriel Bateman.
Risking COVID for this? Seems like a bad idea.
So this movie is about this woman being terrorized and brutalized by some angry white guy? And she’s being played by Caren Pistorius? So was Elizabeth Moss just busy that week, or was there just not enough left in the budget for her after they got Russell Crowe?
Crowe broke bad playing a skinhead in a movie called “Romper Stomper” that was a critical and cult hit here in Australia, before he made it in the USA. The film is known for its grittiness, violence and a sex scene that looked so, well, real, that people were asking if the actors did it for real, LOL.