Big Beach Films, Duplass Brothers Productions,
Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake M. Johnson, Karan Soni, Jenica Bergere, Kristen Bell, Jeff Garlin, Mary Lynn Rajskub
Darius (Aubrey Plaza) is an intern at a magazine. One of the writers gets the assignment of investigating a strange ad requesting someone as a partner to “travel back in time, safety not guaranteed, bring you own weapon.” He brings Darius who is very anxious to go, and another reluctant intern and sets off on the journey. When they get there, the writer is much more interested in reconnecting with an old flame, while Darius spends time getting to know Kenneth (Mark Duplass) the strange man who has a wish to travel back in time to save the life of an ex-girlfriend he feels he let die.
This is one of those rather strange independent films. But this is actually an interesting film. It’s slow and plodding, but it seems everything has a purpose, and each of the characters is developed before our eyes. We can see the ulterior motives of everyone, and as things things go by we get to know them little by little.
This is one of those films where you never know exactly what’s going on, and as soon as you’re sure you do, things go off in a different direction. It’s unnerving as you try to figure out what’s exactly going on. Is this guy Kenneth dangerous, or just extremely crazy. He’s one paranoid freak, that’s for sure, thinking everyone is after him. Aubrey takes on her first lead role in a motion picture (You might remember her from Parks and Recreation on TV) and she does a wonderful job.
Then there is the ending. Truly, you’re never going to know what’s actually happening, and that’s exactly the way it should be. Often this type of film ends up being so artsy that it’s unwatchable. This one doesn’t. This is actually a very interesting, though strange, kind of story, and one that I really enjoyed. For something totally out of the ordinary, check this one out!
EdG – EdsReview Dot Com – A Movie Review Blog
Movie Review - Safety Not Guaranteed (2012) {R},
