Safety Not Guaranteed - A Mind-Bending, Engaging, Indie from Director Colin Trevorrow

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Category: Indies, Docs, Foreign Film

Published on Thursday, 10 May 2012 21:42

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Safety Not Guaranteed,a mind-bending, engaging, comical indie film tells the story of a magazine reporter and his mismatched intern crew who set off on an investigative journey that alters each of their lives.

 Produced by the Academy Award winning team, from LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE, Marc Turtletaub and Peter Saraf along with Stephanie Langhoff Safety Not Guaranteed was written by Derek Connolly and directed by Colin Trevorrow.

Safety Not Guaranteed, stars Aubrey Plaza as Darius, educated, bored, magazine intern who longs for something that catches, Jake Johnson, as Jeff, urban Seattle elitist, hiding behind a collection of toys and by-lines, and intern number two Karan Soni, as Arnau, a super intellectual, career student working on the triple crown of degrees. And finally, Mark Dupalss stars as Kenneth, the walking wounded, high strung, kind hearted, conspiracy theorist mystery man who brings the trio together.

Safety Not Guaranteed, has two stories, the front story which is interesting, unusual, funny and clearly depicted as a ‘What happens  in Vegas’ or in this case the coast of Washington State, stays on the   coast, and then the back story! It’s the back story that seems to stick around long after one has left the theater.  

The back story of Safety Not Guaranteed, has its own unique voice and, on a theoretical level, speaks to various stages of personal relationships and the obstacles that rise up along the way!  The mismatched trio of bored, elitist and super intelligent represent, three phases in relationships that begin with Jeff, a seasoned magazine writer, approaching mid life with all the toys, apparent successes and no relationship; he has rejection in his past and he’s longing for more meaning and in reality the greatest love story he’s already written, tweaked, re-written and finalized just hasn’t materialized.

With our lonely, bored, waiting for life to begin interns, each on a different path, and both still waiting for the mini-earthquake that changes our direction, can we move out of prescribed, well thought out strategic plans, mapped out strategies and change course allowing for the unexpected blip that manifests and invite them to stay?

Are we always looking to rekindle a past fling or at least the “wow” feelings and stay mentally locked or blocked in a relationship that had long since passed its clear end?

And what if, as in the end of Safety Not Guaranteed, we find the “one,” not a cookie cutter relationship; the one that transcends space and time, who reaches through all our embedded beliefs, societal structures, the good friend naysayers, the concerns, the ‘what if’, ‘what if,’ ‘what if,’ and say “to hell with it” and join the one who asks us to take the leap? Can we, are we ready to make the leap, walk the plank, into the unknown world of personal relationships?

As in the end of Safety Not Guaranteed, each of our characters rises to the challenges and makes the transition, removes the old label, and becomes the conqueror of hope!

Safety Not Guaranteed was an official selection of the 2012 SUNDANCE Film Festival where it won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. Safety Not Guaranteed opens everywhere June 8, 2012.