Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)

Safety Not Guaranteed Movie Review

Safety Not Guaranteed is a 2015 sci-fi comedy romance film directed by Colin Trevorrow and starring Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass and Jake Johnson. It is such a stupendous, authentic indie.

This is such a good movie that really took me by surprise with its evident quality. It is a weird movie, very weird. And although it took me some time to adapt to it, I really liked it in the end and it rewards your patience with such a great, very satisfying ending. A magazine intern gets to investigate an ad for time-travel and meets the man who really believes that he is going to time travel. But she eventually really starts to care for him and she starts to question whether he is really building a time machine. The concept is very off-beat and weird, but thankfully in a good sense as it was pleasant and engaging for the most part.

I really liked the characters in Safety Not Guaranteed. Darius is excellent. She was quite funny at times, but I really liked her as she is not only realistic, but also in the end very sweet and caring. Kenneth is a likable creation as well and such a weird, different character than usual. The relationship between the two is the heart of the movie. Arnau is okay, but underused and Jeff is problematic. On the one hand, he is quite likable at times and I really liked the character interactions between him and the others. But on the other hand, he is still a typical Jake Johnson character and the filmmakers didn’t quite knew what to do with him, leaving his subplot somewhat disappointing.

The acting is really good. Jake Johnson is solid, but Mark Duplass is really good and gave such a good performance. Aubrey Plaza is the standout because she gave the best performance and was the most charming person in the most likable role. Both are excellent together.

Safety Not Guaranteed is an indie, very low-budget movie and although that can be too evident at times, it is mostly admirable what they did here because the effects in the ending look good and the film is really well made regardless of its small budget. This is such a great low-fi, slow burn movie that worked for me as I really like those films. It succeeds as a science fiction tale, but it also succeeds as a comedy despite not having that many laughs. But those moments that are funny are really good and it can bring a smile to your face.

However, the movie succeeds mostly as a romance which was quite interesting and unexpected. But the romance here is really good and well handled and the film is not only romantic, but also very emotional from time to time and it deals with some interesting themes with regret being well dealt with. It is such a crazy, weird, but ultimately satisfying mix of romance, science fiction and comedy. And it surprisingly works.

I liked the tone and I liked that it has not only funny and charming tone to it, but also the more heartwarming and serious as well with some fine dialogue too. The film has such a big heart and the ending itself really brought a big smile on my face and I enjoyed the film from start to finish. I found it to be very unpredictable and unique with an outstanding script, but it was always fascinating and riveting to watch as well. It is well paced and really well directed with Colin Trevorrow proving his skills here. And I have to talk about the score. This is one of the few modern scores that I liked as it has such a fine quality to it, it is at times catchy, but also often beautiful and accompanying its emotional scenes in a great way. In the end, the film is flawed, but all of those flaws can be forgiven for its sheer authenticity and charm.