Film of the Week: Safety Not Guaranteed

This is a spoiler free review. If you haven’t seen it, then I recommend you watch it without researching it beforehand. This is a film you need to go in blind, which I was happy that I did.

A simple yet thought provoking film, and a different take on the whole time travel concept. We don’t see any of the characters go back in time, but instead explores the concept leading up to the grand moment. All throughout the film, we’re led to believe that a character is crazy and believes his plan will work, and we’re given the choice of whether to believe that he’s telling the truth or to think he’s lying.

A journalist enlists two interns to write a story about a guy who put an advert in the paper, requesting time travels, and that their safety isn’t guaranteed. Of course anyone would immediately dismiss that advert as a bunch of nonsense, put there by someone who’s only looking for someone to fool. Kenneth Calloway (Mark Duplass) notices the ad and convinces his boss to let him explore and write a story about it. The two interns he takes along with him are Darius Britt (Aubrey Plaza) and Arnau (Karen Soni). It is later revealed that he initially wanted to go down to try and hook up with his former girlfriend once more. Kenneth first tries to speak with the main who put the ad in the paper, Jeff Schwensen (Jake Johnson) but is turned away straight away, leaving it up to Darius to get close and find out all the facts.

All three main characters has a story arc. Darius, being the main character, has the biggest, followed by Arnau, who goes from a stereotypical nerd with social awkwardness to someone who has a bit of experience, allowing him to grow and develop. Kenneth’s story arc doesn’t go the way he planned. He succeeded in doing what he wanted to do, but upon attempting to take it further, it all becomes problematic for him and his story comes to an end. We learn more about Jeff’s life as Darius grows closer.

The final few scenes are made to make Darius and us believe he is really just a person who believes in nonsense, but what makes a true thought provoking film is the end. We’re left with all the necessary questions that are designed to keep us wondering what really happened. Instead of the main characters bouncing around time, creating complicated paradoxes left right and centre, we’re led on a story building up to the moment of truth. It explores an area of time travel that really hasn’t had much attention to. The real world, and someone is claiming time travel is real – of course that’s going to be seen as a magazine worthy story to sell copies.

As a film that’s independently made instead of a big production company spending millions to make it, Safety Not Guaranteed dedicates its time to only what really matters, giving exposition where necessary and not adding scenes that are just filler here and there. I was hooked from the beginning and kept flipping backward and forward on whether Jeff was really telling the truth.

Everyone’s performance was excellent throughout. Each storyline was explored brilliantly, and most importantly, it set up a lot of moments that will get you thinking about for some time after.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)