Safety Not Guaranteed :: Film :: VUE Weekly

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Oct. 03, 2012 - Issue #885: Fall Style 2012

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Safety Not Guaranteed

Josef Braun / josef@vueweekly.com
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Think this thing can hit 88 MPH?

Don't be confused by the title: there's nothing that isn't played very, very safe in this calculatedly quirky shaggy sci-fi/rom-com. It has its charms, Aubrey Plaza's deadpan and Mark Duplass's ear being two of them. The title in fact comes from a classified ad found in a 1997 issue of Backwoods Home, placed by someone who said they invented a time machine and wanted a travel companion. Sometime later one John Silveira confessed that he placed the ad as a way to find a girlfriend. The movie would probably work better if it were also about a guy who just wanted to find a girlfriend.
Seattle staff writer Jeff (Jake Johnson) somehow scores clearance to "investigate" said ad in nearby Ocean View, with several days expenses and two interns thrown in. (Anyone who's ever worked for an alt-weekly is by this point guffawing.) One of the interns is Darius (Plaza), our mopey, wise-cracking heroine. The other's your token South Asian tight-assed computer nerd who can't talk to girls. Jeff, we quickly realize, contrived the assignment so he could hook up with an old flame. And he does! And the racial stereotype hooks up with a sympathetic local girl and Darius hooks up with Duplass's kooky survivalist with the Loverboy haircut and the weird ear. Can Duplass really travel back in time in that hovercraft of his? Boilerplate shifty dudes in suits seem interested.

Metro Cinema at the Garneau 
3
Safety Not Guaranteed
Opens Sun, Oct 7 – Mon, Oct 15
Directed by: Colin Trevorrow

Showtimes »

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