Safety Not Guaranteed

Well, somehow I had not heard of this movie at all as of two weeks ago. Luckily, I have some of the best friends around and one of them, thankfully, told me about this wonderful movie and went with me to see it in one of the few theaters showing it's limited release. It's a little indie comedy that's currently showing in 46 theaters, one of them being the Regal Arbor in Austin.

The movie is from the producers of Little Miss Sunshine and from first time writer and director, Derek Connolly and Colin Trevorrow. The story follows a magazine reporter, Jake Johnson, and two of his interns, Aubrey Plaza and Karan Soni, as they investigate the man who wrote the classified ad looking for a partner to go back in time with, played by Mark Duplass. It's a totally made up story about the totally real-life classified ad.

The writing was superb in the film and the dialogue had oh about one million great quotable one-liners. The characters were flawed, likable, real, funny, and just all around great. The story didn't follow the expected hollywood arches and plot lines and it was quite refreshing. The first half of the movie did have a faster pace than the last half but was barely noticeable and certainly didn't affect the likability of the overall movie. There were some genuine scenes in the movie about the connections between the characters and there were also some really humorous scenes thrown in there without ruining the genuine feeling of the plot and characters.

The movie had the shallow depth of field in a lot of scenes which I've come to expect and love from these microbudget indies. The soundtrack was also pretty great. The time was taken to frame the scenes as to capture the feeling and tone of the action taking place, instead of just doing close-ups, mids, and wides to advance the plot along.

Aubrey Plaza rocked my socks off in this movie. I loved her performance in Scott Pilgrim and she's also my second favorite character from my new favorite TV show, Parks and Recreation. She is an expert at dead-pan comedy and plays the part well in this film. In addition to the funny moments she pulled off with ease, she also had some really genuine dramatic parts in there as well. Jake Johnson, who is officially impossible not to like, was also great. There were many douchebaggery aspects to his character but you couldn't help look past his faults because he's just so damn likable. I hope these two do more movies together! Oh, Mark Duplass was pretty fantastic as well. Even though his character was most likely certifiably crazy, he was still so sweet and awesome. Oh, and look out for a Kristen Bell cameo and a little cameo from the actual dude who wrote the real classified ad!

I really like the movie. I had high expectations and wasn't disappointed one bit. It was a super cute movie. It's definitely for the audience that likes these little subdued quirky movies. It's listed as a 'sci-fi comedy' because of the time-traveling aspect but the movie is really just about the connections we make with people and what's really important in life. "Have you ever faced certain death? If it was so certain, I wouldn't be here, would I?" "There's no sense in nonsense, especially when the heat's hot".