Safety Not Guaranteed

There was alot of hype for this movie coming out of SXSW! It seemed to have a fairly original story and great cast featuring Aubrey Plaza. You might have seen her as the nerdy girl that Jason Schwartzman somehow tricked into getting in the sack with him in Funny People. As if I didnt already have enough reasons to hate him! Plus she was the perpetually angry coffee shop girl in Scott Pilgrim. Defintely see this film if you havent; it is full of smart humor about hipsters and is an ode to video game geeks! She is known for her dry humor and her nerdy and uncomfortable cuteness. Her role is slightly different here. She is still an undercover cutie but is more sad than nerdy in this film; which draws you to her even more because unlike most Hollywood actresses you truly believe that she's just like the girl who lives or works next to you. Unless of course you live in Dallas where every girl looks like an NBA groupie who practices their condom hole punching techniques while at happy hour ( i kid Dallas, i kid). The other star in the film is Mark Duplass. He's been around for a while mainly as a director and stars in the unbelievably funny The League. I'd stick to the movies he's in versus the movies he directs because both Baghead and Cyrus have about one funny joke per hour of film. But he's great in this film as the likeable but slightly off Kenneth.

The movie starts off with Darius (Plaza) working as an intern for this cool Seattle magazine who decides they need to shake things up and find a different type of story for their next issue. So one writer brings up this personal ad he saw that said "Wanted: Someone to go back in time with me...This is not a joke...Must bring your own weapons". The ad gets the attention of their boss so they decide it would be a good idea to go undercover and try and team up with this guy to gain some insight as to  how truly crazy he is for material . After they drive down to Ocean View to answer the ad, they find that it was written by Kenneth (Duplass); a paranoid conspiracy theorist who works at the local grocery store. It takes some time but Darius is able to gain the trust of Kenneth, as she plays up her weird, not so in touch with normal society self. And he decides to accept her as his partner for time travel. As they begin to bond you find out the real reasons why both of them are interested in going back and its for very different reasons than you'd think. However these reasons are what made them the people they are today and the screenwriter Derek Connelly does an awesome job of letting the story develop without it feeling forced or trite. However the entire time you're still not sure if Kenneth is just some paranoid weirdo who never really grew up or if he actually knows what he's doing. Things really get weird when they find out that Kenneth is actually being followed by federal agents.

There's also the story of Darius's boss Jeff, who is on his own mission while in Ocean View. He's the comic relief in an already funny story. He's a ladies man who is trying to score with an old flame while on this trip. There are a few memorable scenes with him and the other intern that went with them as they go out on a bender on the town with 3 local high school kids, one of which is a emo goth punk. The emo kid steals every scene he's in without ever saying a word. Reminded me of this girl I knew in high school who wore all black for an entire year because the lead singer of INXS died. Really? INXS??? I mean when Tupac died, we poured out some of our Bud Ice 40oz on the freeway as we were driving and listening to Picture Me Rollin but thats about it. Anyway, Jeff also has his own wonderful story in the film and it plays in well with the overall theme of the movie.

This movie is a pleasant surprise and takes you places you werent expecting to go when you initially walked into the theater. It's funny, moving, and thought provoking which is rare these days. So far I'd put this in my top 3 of the year and rate this movie as definitely TIGHT!