“Stormtroopers
don’t know anything about lasers or time travel, they’re blue collar workers.”
Released this past summer “Safety not Guaranteed”
is one of those small films that slip through the Hollywood cracks only to be
discovered on video. I didn’t even see
it in the theater, just like everyone else I was too busy re-watching “Avengers”. It’s a story about people who are so out of
touch with the present and unsure about the future that they are willing to
believe in the possibility of traveling to the past to make their life better. Whether it’s an actual machine or hooking up
with an old high school flame, the characters in the film struggle to find
their place and who they can share that place with.
Aubrey Plaza
(Scott Pilgrim vs. The World) is Darius a typical intern with typical intern
woes. Re-stocks toilet paper, gets
yelled at, and is labeled a lesbian because she looks emo and doesn’t have a
boyfriend. She’s one of those girls who
as her dad played perfectly in one scene by Jeff Garlan (Curb Your Enthusiasm) describes
her, someone with a cloud over her. She
decides to tag along on a story for her magazine about a classified ad posted
by a guy needing a partner to travel back in time with him. Naturally this would make a great story
because the guy has to be crazy, so Darius and another intern Arnau (Karan Soni)
with their staff writer Jeff (Jake Johnson) go to check the guy out. Kenneth the time traveler in question is
played by Mark Duplass, who is one half of the directing duo with his brother
Jay. Here he acts, and does a pretty
good job as the slightly off Kenneth.
Darius willingly gets recruited by Kenneth as he trains like a twelve
year old before a fake raid on a tree house.
Though with Darius’s help actually breaks into a research facility to
steal parts for his time travel machine.
While this
is going on and Darius is evidently getting too close, elsewhere Jeff is trying
to recapture his youth by finding an old girlfriend in the town they are
in. The relationships work for the most
part, mainly because Plaza and Johnson fit the roles really well. The whole film is really good, it has a charm
of indie and doesn’t feel forced even in the formulaic nature of the
story. The characters are funny and charismatic
and the story doesn’t overstay its welcome.
It goes from point A to B to C, and you are satisfied when you get to C.
“Safety Not Guaranteed” is a great little film, and is worth your time, whether
you believe in the travel part or not.
--Robert L.
Castillo
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