The latest film from the Duplass brothers is Safety Not Guaranteed, a film about a
sad young magazine intern (Aubrey
Plaza) who joins her boss
(Jake Johnson) and fellow intern (Karen Soni) in tracking down a man who has
left an advert in a local newspaper. The ad 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.” Intrigued and hoping to
discover a crazy man worth writing a story about, the three of them set off
from Seattle to
Ocean View to track the man down. They find Kenneth (Mark Duplass), a paranoid
man who believes the Government are following him. Slowly Kenneth begins to
accept Darius (Plaza) into his plans but is he crazy or is he on to something?
I was recommended this film by Malone on Movies and had heard
very little about it beforehand. Just this morning I saw it was on The Vern's
worst of 2012 list which made me worried. What also worried me was my total
lack of interest in Jeff Who Lives at Home, a film I really disliked. I have really enjoyed the Duplass’ work in
the past though and to be fair this film was written by newcomer Derek Connolly
and directed by Colin Trevorrow but retains a lot of the quirky plotting,
expert dialogue and unusual situations which has made some of the Duplass’ work
great.
