Safety Not Guaranteed
(USA, 86 min.)
Dir. Colin Trevorrow, Writ. Derek Connolly.
Starring: Aubrey Plaza, Jake M. Johnson, Mark Duplass, Karan
Soni, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Jenica Bergere.
Wanted: Somebody to go to the movies with me. This is not a joke. You’ll get paid with laughs and whatnot. Must bring your own refreshments. I have done this many times before. Satisfaction guaranteed.
How much time does
one spend trolling the pages of the Internet, browsing classified ads and
Missed Connections on Craig’s List? All those ill-fated encounters are
easily the net’s best time amusement this side of Maru, but does one ever
wonder about the stories behind these funny little volleys at human connection?
Fun and relevant, but without the faux-shizzle pretension inspired by Juno,
Safety Not Guaranteed is a funny and unconventional indie comedy that
explores the people behind such mysterious messages.
The film is based
on a weird but true story about a personal ad that was placed in a local
newspaper. The message appears in the film during an editorial meeting at
Seattle Magazine. It reads, “Wanted: Somebody to go to back in time with me. This
is not a joke. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons.
I have only done this once before. Safety not guaranteed.” A columnist, Jeff
(Jake M. Johnson), suggests that the ad offers a lunatic fringe story that is
ripe for the plucking. His editor, played with wonderful bitchiness by Mary Lynn
Rajskub (24’s Chloe O’Brien), agrees: if it involves real time travel or
a legitimate nutcase, this ad poses a great story.
Joining Jeff on a
trip to cover the story in the small seaside town of Ocean View, Washington is
Darius (Aubrey Plaza), the narrator and disillusioned young protagonist of Safety
Not Guaranteed, and Arnau (Karan Soni), a dorky biology student.
Darius and Arnau are both lowly interns who tag along with their chauvinist pig
of a boss as he exploits their eagerness and lets them do the grunt work. (Ah,
the joys of unpaid work.) Rather than simply reply to the ad and follow the
story in the conventional route of hook and bait, Jeff puts the interns on a reconnaissance
mission at the local post office. Darius spies a man open the fateful P.O. Box marked
91.
After Jeff botches an attempt to befriend the man, Darius approaches
him stealthily and seductively in his place of work: a discount grocery outlet.
Whilst he stacks cans of Campbell’s Soup – a lovely image of contemporary
mundaneness – Darius learns that her subject is Kenneth (played by Mark
Duplass, co-writer/director of Cyrus
and Jeff, Who Lives at Home). Darius
pretends to offer a response to Kenneth’s ad. The tactic works and Kenneth
invites her to do some preliminary auditions and recon work for their
time-travelling expedition.
Meanwhile, Jeff pursues the real lead that inspired him to
come to Ocean View. An old flame or, as he describes it ever so delicately, his
first blow job, recently accepted his Friend Request and he thinks that it is
time to mend a Missed Connection. The girl, Liz (Jenica Bergere), works in a
nearby hair salon and is willing to meet again.
As Jeff works to get his bone smooched (and Arnau’s, whom
Jeff thinks is acting a bit too dweebful in the prime of his youth), Darius
pursues her relationship with Kenneth and gets to the heart of the story. Kenneth
seems a bit off. He is paranoid, prone to rage, and just a little bit gun crazy,
but Darius sees a lot of heart in him as his desire to revisit the past is to
save the life of an old girlfriend. Darius, on the other hand, opens herself up
to Kenneth and tells him that her motivation for time travel is to take back
the unkind last words she spoke to her mother before she died. Better yet, she
can save her mother if Kenneth’s plan is true.
With a story so eccentric and characters so real and
developed, it’s no wonder that Safety Not
Guaranteed scored screenwriter Derek Connolly the Waldo Salt Screenwriting
Award at this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Safety Not Guaranteed is a quirky little tale and a fresh, welcome film
that manages to be hip, funny, and on the pulse of today’s generation, but it
avoids the annoying self-conscious precociousness that too often passes for indie
greatness these days. Director Colin Trevorrow gives the film just the right tone
and energy, too, and the film has just the right edge of cynicism within its
bright look and madcap glimpse into small town America and the kindness of strangers.
Safety Not Guaranteed is a laudable exercise
in quality filmmaking, and shows what kind of greatness one can do with economical
running time of eighty-six minutes and an
equally tight budget of approximately $750 000,
A lot of credit is due to leading lady Aubrey Plaza, who
gives a hilarious performance as the droll and jaded Darius. She’s is dark and deadpan,
but also a little bit like the girl next door. It’s the kind of winning
performance that should make her a star. (Look at Ellen Page.) The rest of the
ensemble is equally sprightly and funny, especially Duplass in his weird, but
endearingly philosophical performance as Kenneth and Johnson as the love-struck
ass Jeff.
It’s the parallel storylines between Darius/Kenneth and Jeff/
Liz that give Safety Not Guaranteed much
of its spark and substance. Kenneth tries to reverse time so that he can have
the life he desires, while Jeff tries to revisit the past and make amends for a
fresh start. In spite of its highly original premise, then, Safety Not Guaranteed is not about time travel, but about how we can’t
go back in time and erase the mistakes we have made. The wanderers of Safety
Not Guaranteed are forced to evaluate their situation and use the lessons
of the past to guide the present, for, as the narrator says at the end of Todd
Field’s Little Children, “You couldn't change the past. But the
future could be a different story. And it had to start somewhere.” The story of
Safety Not Guaranteed is how an
unruly group of misfits overcomes the odds and succeeds. It’s a fun, triumphant
underdog story, and it’s just the right tale for what could be the sleeper hit
of the summer.
Rating: ★★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Safety Not Guaranteed is currently playing in limited release.
It plays in Ottawa at
The ByTowne on August 29 and 30, but we’ll let you know if it’s in town
beforehand!
*Photos courtesy of FilmDistrict and Big Beach
