Based upon a novelty classified ad that became momentarily amusing, Safety Not Guaranteed is an altogether unexpected, unassuming breath of fresh air full of personality plus. That aside its actually good too…
When the ad to the right appears in the classifieds promising time travel but nothing else, a cocky young journalist named Jeff tells the editor ‘give me the lesbian and the Indian and I’ll give you a story’.
What Jeff omits is that he is really after a junket so that he can hook up with a girl from his youth.
Darius (Aubrey Plaza) and Arnau are the ‘lesbian’ and ‘Indian’ respectively. Both are interns just happy to be given a task beyond photocopying and fetching coffee, though Jeff treats them both as if they’re lucky to be with him. Darius is pessimistic, sarcastic and dry-witted – though morose and cynical could rightly be transposed there too. Arnau detests being seen as the typical nerdish and studious Indian, but then everything he does and says only serves to reinforce those stereotypes.
Jeff hams up his first meeting with Kenneth, the writer of the ad, and flames out before even the audition. Undeterred he heads to his one time girlfriend’s home expecting explosive and urgent passion, and is disgusted to find that she is no longer a teenage bombshell. He is, for lack of a better term, a dick.
Darius tries a different tack with Kenneth, and while his suspicions seem perpetually raised, he reluctantly allows her to try to prove herself worthy of his ‘mission’.
Kenneth is undoubtedly the hub of the movie. His character could easily have degenerated into a parody or veer into a lazy caricature, but Mark Duplass plays the role straight at all times, with no trace of irony nor a smirk on his face. As Darius eventually comes to realise, Kenneth might indeed be the very definition of paranoid, but that doesn’t mean people aren’t out to get him.
Kenneth is the type of character that Saturday Night Live would give to Will Ferrell and let him go to town. While Mark Duplass plays him as an extremely odd and intense individual, there is nothing unnecessarily extreme in his performance. If anything I would gladly watch another film with Kenneth as the central character tomorrow.
On the other hand Aubrey Plaza has already lost me with her ‘I’m so alternative that it doesn’t matter what you like or say I won’t like it or laugh, because even if I did like it once I am so mysterious and enigmatic that by the time you do or say it I will have already changed’ shtick. That said her one–note personality and hang-dog demeanour are the perfect foil for Kenneth’s muted intensity and awkward sincerity.
This leads to some great scenes as Kenneth first screens then trains Darius so that she might be ready for the journey he firmly believes they will soon embark upon (sample dialogue “How are your hamstrings holding up?”). By day, the training continues, by night Darius heads back to the shared hotel room to discuss progress with Jeff and Arnau, who for their part grow increasingly derogatory regarding Jeff’s mental state and plans – well Jeff does anyway.
As the article rounds into shape, Darius wonders if her part in writing it might in fact be a betrayal of confidence.
Safety Not Guaranteed is not action packed. It is not laugh a minute. What it is though is an imaginative and clever film with believable and well drawn characters, who could actually exist in real life. While you might not want a paranoid service station attendant with aspirations of time travel in your book club, every now and then such a character can make a 90 minute film worth tracking down.
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Every year a low budget film is warmly received and bestowed with titles like ‘unassuming’, ‘unexpected’ and boasting ‘personality plus’.
These films aren’t flashy or boosted by star power, they are usually fuelled by the strength of personality and the uniqueness of the characters – a trait I refer to derogatively as ‘quirkiness’.
These films rarely make much money and usually miss out when it comes to awards and recognition. The films of Wes Anderson might be a notable series of exceptions.
Aside from Wes, other primo examples are Little Miss Sunshine (hated it), Punch Drunk Love (hated it) and Napoleon Dynamite (OK but over-rated), the latter spawning a bunch of lesser rip-offs.
Which begs the obvious question; why bother?
Then comes Safety Not Guaranteed, and I find myself wishing there were more films like these. (This will change very soon, probably with the arrival of the inevitable cash-ins.)
Final Rating – 7.5 / 10. It’s surprising given it was based upon a faked classified ad that only existed to fill space, that Safety Not Guaranteed is in fact such a necessary film, unlike the try-hard crap mentioned above.
