These days, if you’re doing any driving at all, chances are you’ve either encountered or at the very least witnessed acts of road rage. Sometimes it’s just excessive honking or someone following another car and acting aggressive, but occasionally it goes to the next level… people getting out of vehicles, full-on fist fights, cars ramming cars, or even someone pulling a gun. Bottom line, road rage can be really scary. It also happens to the be the main theme of the new thriller UNHINGED, the first movie from the new Solstice Studios, and also the first official new movie to hit the big screen since the Coronavirus shut down theaters in March. It’s headlined by Russell Crowe, noticeably more “thick” than we’re used to seeing him, thanks to this being filmed around the time he was shooting the mini-series THE LOUDEST VOICE in which he plays disgraced overweight media mogul Roger Ailes – Crowe had gained a lot of weight to play Ailes, which was enhanced even more by makeup and a fat suit. In UNHINGED, the extra pounds actually work for his character, an unnamed man who is grieving over a failed marriage, and just feeling ignored and insulted by life in general. Gone is that handsomely fit guy from GLADIATOR, and what’s here is more of a sad, tortured-looking bull of a man… not someone you’d want to mess with.

As the movie opens, we meet “The Man” while he’s sitting in his pick up truck in the rain, in front of a house which is now up for sale. While it’s never specifically stated, we can assume this was his home, now inhabited by his ex-wife and a new lover. The Man pops some pills, takes off his ring, grabs a hammer and gas can, and busts into the home… and let’s just say it doesn’t end well for the ex-wife and new guy. It’s here we see this fella isn’t just pushed over the edge, he’s truly dangerous. As the opening credits play, we see various news reports and archived footage of road rage incidents and people that look to be pushed over the edge. It’s prepping us for what lies ahead. We then meet freelance hairstylist Rachel (Caren Pistorius) and her young son Kyle (Gabriel Bateman), running late for her biggest client and getting Kyle to school. Rachel is just out of a failed marriage herself, attempting to raise Kyle on her own and living with her slacker brother Fred (Austin P. McKenzie). As Rachel races through the roads and freeways trying to beat the clock, traffic prevents her from succeeding, even causing her to lose her very important client in the process, and land Kyle a spot in detention for being late. In short, it’s not a good start for their day. While stuck at a red light, Rachel finds herself behind the pick up truck of The Man we saw previously, who is sort of zoned out. The light turns green and The Man doesn’t move, so Rachel lays on the horn, eventually zipping by and dismissively gesturing in the pick up truck’s direction. At her next inevitable delay on the road, Rachel gets creeped out when The Man pulls up next to their car and starts talking to Kyle, asking why the boy’s mother was so rude. The Man apologizes for zoning out, and asks her if she can apologize for her impatient behavior. Rachel states she has nothing to apologize for, which does not go over well with The Man, and he informs her she’s about to find out what a “bad day” really is.

Rachel drops Kyle off at school, and makes dining plans with her divorce lawyer Andy (Jimmi Simpson), then hits the gas station to fill up. While inside, she notices The Man has followed her, and is waiting for her to come back to her car. This is the beginning of a cat and mouse chase from hell that gets progressively worse and worse, and more violent than anyone might expect. The Man isn’t above killing someone for getting in his way, or just to make a point to his victim. Along the way, people Rachel loves become collateral damage too, and she soon realizes the only way this is going to end is with one of them likely dead.

While the basic premise of UNHINGED is fairly easy to follow, and you kind of know what to expect, there are more than a few surprises along the way. And while Russell Crowe is very much the selling point here, the leading performance by Caren Pistorius should not be discounted one bit. She makes for a realistic and sympathetic leading lady. Her Rachel is a rather imperfect heroine, struggling with her own marital woes, and allowing her hectic lifestyle to disrupt her income and the life of her child. In her, we can all see a bit of ourselves, sometimes letting things spiral out of control, and then allowing that spiral to affect our reactions to simple things… like being stuck in traffic and honking at people aggressively. Pistorius is inspired casting, not quite a familiar enough face to place any expectations on, but a confident enough actress to hold her own in the film’s many stressful situations. She is neither a damsel in distress or a fearless fighter, but still makes for a strong protagonist in a film filled with purposely flawed people.

The Man, played by Crowe, is the most dangerous kind of villain – someone who has lost everything he cared about and now literally has nothing to live for, so he has not reason to ease off. There’s a line of dialogue in which The Man explains how his whole life no one respected him or cared about what he did, so he’s now left to bring “violence and retribution” into this world. It’s a horrifying look at a broken soul, the worst kind of monster, no morals and nothing holding him back. Rachel has become the target for his aggression, and all because she was just one more person refusing to treat him with kindness. For anyone who has felt overlooked or unappreciated, it’s easy to understand how someone like this might snap, at least until he takes things just a bit too far. Crowe is best when he’s playing it crazy, which is quite evident in his early work, and here he really gets to let loose. It’s the sort of character where no one is safe around them, and that makes it appropriately unnerving.

UNHINGED is a movie for our time, a film that presents the dilemma of one’s own selfish or perhaps just inconsiderate behavior being the potential spark that sets off a madman. It’s never preachy or in your face, but you can’t ignore the messages hidden within. We’re all one bad day away from taking things too far, and (especially now) it’s easy to imagine our impatience of discomfort giving us bad judgement, which could of course make simple scenarios much worse. You can’t help but wonder, if Rachel had just told The Man “I’m sorry”, would she have been okay? The Man was already broken, all over the news for his actions and bound to be taken down by cops eventually, but was that one simple incident that followed something that could have been avoided? Some people might argue that Rachel’s fate was simply the result of her own actions, though the movie makes that less of a factor when The Man starts to take things to violent extremes with ‘other’ characters, to where in the end you simply can’t put this all on her. The film is directed by Derick Borte, who previous gave us 2009’s smart social commentary THE JONESES, and films like LONDON TOWN and H8RZ. With this latest offering he understands that building tension and keeping the pace intense is all that matters, we have to be on the edge of our seats and scared, and he finds interesting ways to facilitate that. There’s a scene at a diner that is at first amusing and then utterly terrifying, and it all in how it’s presented. Borte also doesn’t hold back on the violence, sometimes showing it to us with lingering nastiness, just to ram home how messed up this guy really is.

UNHINGED is definitely what you’d call a popcorn flick, sort of a mix of horror and psychological thriller, but also a cautionary tale of how you never know who that guy is you’re honking at, or what is going through his mind. As a first offering from a new movie studio, it’s a solid start and should help them make an impression quickly. Some might wonder why Russell Crowe would play a role like this… actors will frequently tell you, it’s always more fun to be the “bad guy” than the good one, and here he is really effectively nasty. And if this film does absolutely nothing else, it might make folks a bit more considerate on the road, or women a bit more nervous about applying eye makeup while driving… you’ll see what I mean.

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