Safety Not Guaranteed

Plot synopsis:
Darius Britt (Aubrey Plaza) is a disillusioned college graduate who lives at home with her widower father (Jeff Garlin) and interns at Seattle Magazine. One of the magazine's writers, Jeff Schwensen (Jake Johnson), proposes to investigate a newspaper classified ad that reads:
Wanted: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. P.O. Box 91 Ocean View, WA 99393. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before.
Jeff's story idea is approved by his boss, Bridget (Mary Lynn Rajskub). Jeff selects his team, made up of Darius and a man named Arnau (Karan Soni), the latter of whom is a studious biology major interning at the magazine to diversify his resume. They travel to the seaside community of Ocean View to find and profile the person behind the ad. Jeff later reveals an ulterior motive for this assignment: to track down a long-lost love interest who lives in town.
Darius discovers that the person behind the ad is Kenneth Calloway (Mark Duplass), a stock clerk at a local grocery store. Jeff's attempt to approach Kenneth alienates him, so Jeff orders Darius to make contact. Darius' disaffected attitude serves her well, and she quickly endears herself to Kenneth as she poses as a candidate to accompany him on his mission. While Kenneth is paranoid and believes that "secret agents" are tracking his every move, Darius gains his trust as she participates in a series of training exercises in the woods around his house and begins to develop feelings for him. She tells Kenneth about the death of her mother when she was young and that her mission is to prevent it. Kenneth says his mission is to go back to 2001 and prevent the death of his old girlfriend Belinda, who was killed when someone drove a car into her house.
Meanwhile, Jeff tracks down Liz (Jenica Bergere), his fling from his teenage years; although she is not as attractive as his memories of her younger self, they reconnect and sleep together. He asks her to come back with him to Seattle, but she believes this is just another fling for Jeff, so she refuses. Upset by her rejection, Jeff takes Arnau out on the town, and they pick up some young women. Jeff tells Arnau to not waste his youth and convinces him to spend the night with one of the women.
The next morning, Jeff receives a phone call from Bridget, who has been following up the team's notes on the story; she informs him that Belinda (Kristen Bell) is still alive. During an interview, Darius learns Belinda was only friends with Kenneth and that Kenneth had driven into her then-boyfriend's house, but no one was injured. After the interview, Darius is questioned by two government agents who have been following Kenneth and believe that he may be a spy because of his communication with government scientists.
Darius returns to Kenneth's house to confront him about Belinda, but Kenneth rationalizes that his time traveling must have worked. Jeff then comes in to warn them that the government agents are also on the property. Kenneth panics and runs into the woods. Darius follows him and finds Kenneth has boarded his time machine, which has been integrated into a small boat. Darius apologizes for lying to Kenneth, tells him everything else they shared was real, and joins him on the time machine. Kenneth tells Darius that his mission has been updated, saying he now wants to go back for her. As Jeff, Arnau and the two government agents watch, Kenneth activates the time machine and it disappears, along with himself and Darius.

Tags: entertaining, romantic, cute, sentimental, flashback

Review:
Aubrey Plaza plays Darius, one of the interns who at first seems pretty disinterested in the whole situation, ends up being the one who has to pretend like she wants to time travel.
She expects to be working with a total nutjob, completely off his rocker, but instead she finds that Kenneth, the man who put the ad in the paper, is actually an incredible insightful, sweet, and softhearted person and that time traveling is more a facade for finding yourself and it's more of a metaphor for fixing old mistakes.
There's nothing here that will floor you or blow you out of the water, but it truly is a lovely and heartwarming story.Normally feel good movies aren't my thing, but Safety Not Guaranteed is sincere enough and of a quality that makes it an absolute joy to watch.
LOGLINE: Mark Duplass (Puffy Chair & Humpday) plays Kenneth, the local small town weirdo who bags groceries and places a classified ad seeking a companion for time travel.
Writer Derek Connolly weaves in and out the possibilities of what is true and keeps the audience guessing until the film's final second payoff.Actors Duplass and Plaza are so great radiating weirdness off of each other.
Safety Not Guaranteed (2012) *** 1/2 (out of 4) Grocery clerk Kenneth (Mark Duplass) places an ad in a local paper asking for someone to go with him as he time travels.
A magazine writer (Jake Johnson) hears about the story and takes a long a couple interns, one named Darius (Aubrey Plaza), quickly gets caught up with the time traveler as she applies for the job without him knowing that she's actually on a job.
Mark Duplass and Jake Johnson are excellent, and that new kid Karan Soni...well, you'll be seeing more of him in the future is my guess.This is a film I would see again and again, each time it appears in the future.
Travel in time is definitely my favorite sub-genus of science fiction, and even though I equally adore the creativity of the Back to the Future trilogy, the historical humor of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure and the apocalyptic solemnity of The Terminator, I also appreciate the independent films which deal the subject with more sobriety and philosophy.
Films like Primer and Suspension have compensated their low budget and visual simplicity with provocative ideas which leave the mechanics of travel aside in order to focus on the melodrama created by the characters, proving that there's no need of flying cars or phone booths when there's an ingenious narrative inhabited by realistic and interesting human beings.
Even though I didn't like it as much as Primer or Suspension, the film Safety Not Guaranteed fits into that group, even though it doesn't necessarily include too much time travel.
The first point makes it a comedy but the second point, the main one, makes it a drama so be prepared for a more thoughtful journey than just a laugh riot.It is fairly original, especially with the much talked about ending, but I personally found that the low-budget indie "Juko's Time Machine" (2011) handled a similar concept in a much more ingenious way.
If you like smart dialogue, an imaginative narrative, and well developed character, SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED is your film.
If Safety Not Guaranteed was made 5 years ago, no doubt the character played by the hilarious Aubrey Plaza, would've been played by Ellen Page and Mark Ruffalo would have replaced Jake Johnson as Jeff.Now, as mentioned, Plaza is very funny, but sadly, she, almost note-by-note, reprised her Parks and Recreation TV role.
Not in the least.) -The climax ,one of the best ending I ever see (it will spin your mind for half in hrs) Well in the end (as always ignore my faulty English :P but I am improving :) ) I recommend it from my heart , Yes It start on a slow note but the movie worth it for 1 time watch.
In Seattle, the editor of a magazine, Bridget (Mary Lynn Rajskub), assigns the cynical reporter Jeff (Jake Johnson) and the interns Darius (Aubrey Plaza) and Arnau (Karan Soni) to find and interview the author of an advertisement inviting a companion for a time travel.They travel to a coastal town in Washington and Jeff leaves Darius and Arnau watching the PO Box. Darius finds that the man is Kenneth Calloway (Mark Duplass), who works in a supermarket.
Now Darius has to find whether Kenneth is a lunatic or has really invented a time machine."Safety Not Guaranteed" is a comedy with a promising beginning, with funny and witty dialogs and situations.
While the two other magazine workers drift away from the story, Darius grows closer to Kenneth and starts to wonder if he isn't crazy after all.'Safety Not Guaranteed' contains possibly the most likable character of the year, Kenneth played by Mark Duplass.
This shows us that she looks at Kenneth as friend and as someone she can trust rather than just the subject of an article.The other two magazine writers who are "working" on the story, Arnau (Karan Soni) and Jeff (Jake Johnson), are very different people.
It is just as interesting to watch these two characters evolve and in a way come-of-age, as it is to watch the main story of Darius and Kenneth.The movie is written brilliantly and is full of deep and often humorous dialogue.
well these are my reasons -After a long time I saw this movie which make you care for the characters when this most of the big budget movies failed to do the same -Characters are so real in the movie that you will not feel as they are acting or faking their emotions but We can see anyone of those in our real life -The climax ,one of the best ending I ever see (it will spin your mind for half in hrs)Well in the end (as always ignore my faulty English :P but I am improving :) ) I recommend it from my heart , Yes It start on a slow note but the movie worth it for 1 time watch.
Leaving too many questions unanswered and generally undoing the good feeling you get from it in the first 50 or so minutes makes me wish I could go back in time to stop myself from watching this movie.
Take a sci-fi premise and mix it with a gentle love story, add a few metaphysical Charlie Kaufman-like touches...and voilà...the perfect movie for a hot summer's day.
Acting was good in this movie...I just didn't like the characters or the script or the story.And one more thing - SHAKY CAM!!
I always had fascination with people that are outsiders because of how colorful in persona they are, their live life though their own wavelength, their never boring, they have a lot to offer the world, but most of all are truly honest about their feelings; I myself am one of them.This film is one of the most bizarre yet strangely cleaver and beautiful time travel tales and romances I've seen.
And the guy is sweet, the moment when he plays an instrument and sings a song to Darius was great.I really love the chemistry between the two, I feel this is another of those rare times of romance done the right way because it has two factors, suttle build up but most of all likable and believable characters.
I laughed a lot -- watching it with my mathematician/computer geek husband and three tech-absorbed sons heightened the experience (some of the youngest male character's lines are absolutely priceless) -- and was amazed to find myself bursting into tears during the final clip.Fantastic casting, great acting, wonderful writing, excellent music, and camera work that perfectly suits the story.
You are a young writer and you saw that someone wants to an assistant to go back in time with.So what you will gonna do?A wonderful movie about science fiction and relationships and it is also very imaginative.It also makes you understand that you have only chance to live your youth.I enjoyed every minute of this movie.It was such a lovely story.The end of the movie really made me surprised.Storyline was really interesting.Travel in time is my favorite topic in science fiction movies.That is why I wanted to watch it.Maybe you can think that it would be ridiculous but it start to be more interesting and really makes the movie more amazing.
'SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED': Four and a Half Stars (Out of Five)Touching and hilarious little indie film about three magazine employees researching a story about a guy who posted a classified ad looking for someone to go back in time with him.
The film stars Aubrey Plaza, Jake Johnson and Mark Duplass (who has written and directed popular indie films himself, with his brother Jay, like 'CYRUS' and 'JEFF, WHO LIVES AT HOME').
When a staff writer named Jeff (Jake Johnson) proposes doing a story on a guy who placed an ad looking for a time travel companion Darius enthusiastically agrees to assist him on the project.
Plaza plays Darius, a directionless magazine intern for a Seattle magazine, who is given a job, along with two others, to investigate a man who put a strange ad in the classifieds section asking people to contact him if they were interested in traveling through time.The ad reads something like this: "WANTED: Somebody to go back in time with me.
For the remainder of the film, we watch as these two quirky, yet vulnerable human beings (not characters) build up a stable relationship, as Kenneth trains Darius for the event of time traveling.While Kenneth painstakingly puts Darius through endurance tests, Jeff decides to look up a formal flame, who is not chubbier yet still packs a wholesome wallop, while at the same time, harasses poor Arnau, a young college student who is a virgin, taking the job of a journalist because diversity looks good in college.
The entire cast fits together and play off each other in a delightful way and the ending is great without being sappy sweet or maudlin.I don't want to get into the plot, but Aubrey Plaza's debut as a lead actress is right on target and I see much success for her in the future in a lot more movies.
The entire cast fits together and play off each other in a delightful way and the ending is great without being sappy sweet or maudlin.I don't want to get into the plot, but Aubrey Plaza's debut as a lead actress is right on target and I see much success for her in the future in a lot more movies.
SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED.PLOT: Parks and Recreation's Aubrey Plaza plays Darius, an intern at a Seattle news magazine roped into investigating the cryptic personal ad with lead writer Jeff (Jake Johnson) and fellow intern Arnau (Karan Soni).
The screenplay weaves Jeff's journey back into the past through connecting with an old girlfriend against Darius's burgeoning respect and love for Kenneth as they fire pistols, run through the woods, break into low-level scientific installations searching for crucial pieces of the time machine.
The filmmakers of Safety Not Guaranteed most likely thought, "Well, we have this character straight from Parks & Rec, I guess we'll hire the same actress." Darius (Plaza) is a direct rip-off of April Ludgate; however, instead of working for Amy Poehler in Pawnee, Indiana, she is an intern at Seattle Magazine.Darius and fellow intern Arnau (Karan Soni) volunteer to tag along with one of the magazine's journalists, Jeff (Jake M.
Kenneth (Mark Duplass) seeks a partner for time travelling, but the prospective partner must bring their own weapons and he warns them that their safety is not guaranteed.
This is not a foundation for the hardest hitting journalism, but then again, the film does not make out Seattle Magazine to be the most informative periodical.Picking up where Jeff fails, Darius uses some of her feminine skills to convince Kenneth she is interested in being his time travelling partner and they embark on training.
But the music is great and the story is completely original, so Safety Not Guaranteed is a fun small film that can definitely be enjoyed by anyone.+Lead quirky performances +Originality +Writing -Lack of focus at times7.0/10.
The acting is good all around, but the stars are Aubrey Plaza and a pleasant surprise from Mr. Mark Duplass, I thought his performance was the best in the movie.
The story is science fiction, fantasy and real-life relationships.This is a film I would see again and again.I enjoyed every minute of this movie.
Fantastic casting, great acting, wonderful writing, excellent music, and camera work that perfectly suits the story.I like this movie a lot, it is something quite different from the usual comedy, drama, love story.
Fantastic casting, great acting, wonderful writing, excellent music, and camera work that perfectly suits the story.I like this movie a lot, it is something quite different from the usual comedy, drama, love story.
The story is science fiction, fantasy and real-life relationships.This is a film I would see again and again, each time it appears in the future.
Safety Not Guaranteed has a definitive quirky streak that runs through every aspect of the film I enjoyed every minute of this movie.
If time travel was possible I wonder if there is a timeline where Aubrey Plaza won an Oscar for La La Land and Emma Stone starred in Mike and Dave need Wedding Dates!Three Seattle journalists go to investigate a story about a classified ad where a man seeks a companion for time travel.The ad was placed by Kenneth (Mark Duplass) a paranoid eccentric store clerk.
The highly talented, but mostly unknown, cast delivers an entertaining feel good drama revolving around the exotic idea of a time machine.The story follows an intern magazine reporter (Aubrey Plaza) trying to write a story about a social outcast (Mark Duplass) who declares himself a time traveler.
This movie is the science fiction, so I expect the characters go back in time in the early stage and the story goes on in the past scene.
it were shot with with millions and had few major "stars" it would be a box office smasher.There is a conversation that takes place between the two main characters in Safety Not Guaranteed, Aubrey Plaza's Darius and Mark Duplass's Kenneth, in which Kenneth talks about his first girlfriend.
it were shot with with millions and had few major "stars" it would be a box office smasher.There is a conversation that takes place between the two main characters in Safety Not Guaranteed, Aubrey Plaza's Darius and Mark Duplass's Kenneth, in which Kenneth talks about his first girlfriend.
Colin Trevorrow's Safety Not Guaranteed, a film with a more unpleasant opening than anything I've seen recently, tried valiantly to win me back but was sadly only around halfway successful.The film stars Aubrey Plaza as Darius an interning magazine journalist sent with two colleagues to research a story about a bizarre and mysterious classified ad seeking a partner in a time travel mission.
Plaza is her usual moody self, yet is allowed to strip away some of her trademark cynicism as her character warms to Kenneth (Mark Duplass), the potentially damaged loner responsible for the classified ad, showing a tender side not seen from her before.Their relationship is a cute coming together of two social misfits, and works pretty well despite some questionable plot holes and an ending that doesn't quite add up.
However, this is only half of Safety Not Guaranteed, and Darius and Kenneth's story is hampered by a brief runtime (86 minutes), too much of which is spent on the secondary story concerning Darius' fellow intern Arnau (Karan Soni) and boss Jeff (Jake Johnson).Any warmth Trevorrow generates in scenes of Darius and Kenneth is obliterated every time the film switches to the mean-spirited, creepy antics of Jeff, who is using the trip to rekindle a past romance with Liz (Jenica Bergere), dragging troubling ethnic stereotype Arnau along for the ride.
SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED.Jeff takes two interns on assignment with him: Darius (Aubrey Plaza) and Arneau (Karan Soni).
Safety Not Guaranteed, then, represents a real achievement, entering into a fraternity of select films that tell a worthwhile romantic story while displaying a healthy respect for the science fiction that brings the pair together.The classified ad read, "WANTED: Someone to go back in time with me.
If you like time travel movies with a story and a good cast, I wouldn't suggest watching this one.
Despite the movie's newbie director (Colin Trevorrow) and first time big-screen writer (Derek Connolly), Safety Not Guaranteed achieves the difficult balance between quirky humor and witty dialogue and a sentimental love story.
The plot enables key trademarks of the actors' TV personas to shine in unlikely settings effectively convincing viewers that they are indeed watching new characters.Unhappy (and slightly lost) interns Darius (Aubrey Plaza) and Arnau (Karan Soni) are apathetically selected to join Jeff (Jake Johnson) on a weekend trip to Ocean View, Washington to investigate the author of an unusual classified ad.
Writer Jeff (Jake Johnson) offers it as a story idea and brings along interns Darius (Aubrey Plaza) and Arnau (Karan Soni).
A simple classified advertisement for a man seeking a time travel companion could inspire a few different movie ideas, so I was surprised to see SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED approach it as a romantic comedy.
As the time of his mission approaches, Darius and Kenneth grow closer while the question continues to loom: can he really travel through time or is he insane?SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED definitely feels like a hipster indie film.
He had a great screenplay to work with, also from a first time screenwriter, Derek Connolly, who happened to write the story specifically with Aubrey Plaza (from Parks and Recreation) in mind to play the lead character.
Darius is chosen along with Arnau to help Jeff write a story in their magazine about a suspicious guy who posted a wanted partner ad regarding nothing less than time travel.