Safety Not Guaranteed

Director: Colin Treverrow
Writer: Derek Connolly
Starring: Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson
Release Date: June 8, 2012
Length: 1 hour 25 minutes

      Young comedian turned actress Aubrey Plaza has always succeeded in making awkward hilarious with her small roles in films like Scott Pilgrim Vs. the World and Funny People, and most noticeably as the droll April Ludgate on NBC’s Parks and Recreation. For the first time though, Plaza makes awkward unexpectedly endearing in this summer’s independent comedy Safety Not Guaranteed, directed by Colin Treverrow and written by Derek Connolly.

The Sundance favourite tells the story of Darius (Plaza), a social outcast intern at a Seattle Magazine who volunteers to help egotistical journalist Jeff (New Girl’s Jake Johnson). They are accompanied by Arnau (Karan Soni), a young shy Indian American intern, who’s impressive IQ sets him a part from Jeff and Darius, making for a humorous dynamic between the three. When the small team arrives in the beautiful beach town of Ocean View, Washington, where the ad was posted, Darius investigates and stalks the subject until she finds out his name is Kenneth Calloway (played by Mark Duplass).

After a failed attempt by Jerry to “join” Kenneth’s ambitious mission, it is up to Darius to use her seductive charm to convince Kenneth she’s trustworthy to be his time-traveling companion. And of course we are all wondering, how? Darius however, appears at her most natural when presenting herself as a top secret time traveling agent, asking Kenneth the type of machinery they will need and giving vague intriguing details about herself. She meets Kenneth’s high level of intensity with ease, and throughout the movie that residual intensity throws the audience for being incredibly funny but surprisingly real at moments as well. As much as Kenneth is amazed by Darius’ introduction to him, we are too, for seeing this shy girl find something that clicks with her offbeat personality.

As Kenneth learns to trust Darius more and more through his rigorous training process, we become more sure of that connection Darius is finding, especially when we learn both characters have dark reasons for wanting to change the past. Their relationship grows in a clever way done by Connolly because it doesn’t build like a romance. There are spare sweet moments when the characters are purely themselves, but they are mostly masked by their determination of the mission. As we go deeper into the film, our questions build and become more anxious. Does he actually think he can time travel? Does Darius believe he can time travel? If so, is this actually real or is there possibly something mentally wrong with both of them? By the time we get our answers, we have fallen so completely in love with these fascinating and feeble characters that we don’t care whether they can time travel or not. We just hope the shy different and adorable Darius and Kenneth can be happy.

Connolly’s beautifully weaved story is brought to life by the best-chosen cast of Indy actors which we may or may not recognize. Aubrey Plaza cements her status as one of Hollywood’s It Girls by showing how effortlessly she can carry a film and how amazing it is to make socially awkward an appealing trait. Mark Duplass, better known for writing and directing films like Cyrus and Jeff, Who Lives At Home with his brother Jay Duplass, steals almost every scene he’s in. His performance is best described as impressively but not overwhelmingly dynamic. We are beyond intrigued by Kenneth, attracted to him, worried for him, disturbed by him and wholly enamored by his unstoppable spirit, which leaves us at a standstill for what to believe in.

Jake Johnson, best known for being the funniest guy on New Girl, provides most of the humor in this film as our straight guy, the one character we can connect with for not automatically believing in time travel and constantly wondering where Darius is headed with this. He proves he’s more than just a funny actor in his romantic sub-plot with the girl that was his reason for traveling to this town in the first place. He tops it off for us as an incredible actor in his hilarious but heartfelt effort to get Arnau laid. Karan Soni plays the slightly stereotypical Arnau, the weird shy Indian guy, without an ounce of any stereotypical acting. We truly believe how simply nervous and awkward he is around other people, which is something refreshing for the small character we have seen a million times before in comedies.

It’s important to keep in mind though that this multi-emotional film is at it’s core, a comedy. Putting aside that you will be pulled deep into the heart of the film and anxiously wait for something to happen between Darius and Kenneth, you are sure to laugh throughout the entire thing. That is a guarantee.