“Question Reality” was always one of my favorite bumper stickers and some movies actually provoke this reaction in viewers.
Lots of movies of recent years can be said to be “consciousness expanding” in one form or another. In trying to put together a brief but meaningful list, I decided to exclude certain types of films -specifically documentaries and movies whose action or special effects aspects outweighed their mind expanding qualities, at least IMO.
This list is obviously incomplete and highly subjective! I will publish more lists of this kind in the future.
Some of these films have already been reviewed on this site, in which case I’ll include a link to the review.
Dark City (1998)
The premise is that the reality we experience is a false construct, created by an alien race. This has some of the same concepts covered in The Matrix, but I believe in a more thoughtful and less hyped up manner. This basic idea goes back to Plato and Gnosticism and is at least as relevant today as in ancient times!
What the Bleep do We Know? (2004)
Ok, this one is at least 1/2 documentary (though skeptical critics say it’s pure fiction, naturally), but since it also includes many dramatized sequences, it can’t be said to be a true doc. Whether you agree with its interpretation of quantum physics or not, it’s certainly extremely thought provoking.
Richard Linklater’s animated exploration of philosophy, consciousness and the perennial question -“How do I know I’m not dreaming right now?” This will be of particular interest to anyone fascinated with lucid dreaming. Waking Life has recently been added to Netflix Streaming.
I just saw this recently, so it’s fresh in my mind. This film explores the fascinating possibility of multiple timelines. Rather than wondering about the road not taken, imagine if many roads are taken, but in different realities!
I’m listing this one partly because it’s a great film that’s not very well known. While many movies have dealt with the boundaries between movies and real life collapsing, none does it better than The Stunt Man, where an egoistical director played by Peter O’Toole orchestrates events that have life or death consequences.
Mr. Nobody (2009), directed by Jaco Van Dormael, is a long (140 minutes), ambitious, fascinating and sometimes confusing film that is both highly original and reminiscent of a few other experimental films of recent years. Whereas many movies deal with the question of decisions and how they impact our fates, none does so in a way that’s more thorough and deep than Mr. Nobody.
The film starts off with a premise that’s quite perplexing, even by the standards of science fiction. The protagonist, whose actual name is unknown, is an apparently confused 117 year old man who is publicly recognized as the last mortal human, in an age when medical advances in stem cell technology have conquered death. This brings up the question of why this man has been singled out for this fate and how, if he’s unknown, they even know how old he is. The film may or may not answer these questions satisfactorily.
The film then focuses on flashbacks, dreams and/or hallucinations that Mr. Nobody has about his past, where he experienced (or imagined) several mutually irreconcilable lives. Not only was he simultaneously married to different women, in certain “lifetimes” he actually died at a young age. We are first taken back to his childhood, where he is compelled to choose between his parents when they split up. The pivotal moment is when his mother is riding away on a train and the boy chases the train and either does or doesn’t -or, rather, does and doesn’t- catch up to it. From this point onwards, the boy’s life starts to branch off into different timelines.
Fans of fantasy, science fiction, and even certain alternative news and conspiracy websites, will be familiar with the concept of timelines. This is also related to possible worlds theory in the realms of academic philosophy and quantum physics. The premise is that every possible reality actually exists in some dimension. Yet Mr. Nobody isn’t content to “merely” examine the notion of timelines. It takes us even further afield, invoking the Butterfly Effect, a future when humans visit Mars and, as alluded to, the technological defeat of death itself. If that wasn’t enough, there is even a sequence with angels and a unicorn, to portray the alleged moment before babies are born and choose their parents.
What can we make of such a complex and seemingly over-ambitious film? I actually found it more enjoyable and accessible than this summary probably indicates. While it is overly complex, convoluted and, ultimately, indecipherable, it is also thought-provoking and philosophical. It also manages to avoid being overly dry and cerebral. Indie actress and director Sarah Polley, plays Elise, a bipolar (or perhaps borderline personality) love interest of Mr. Nobody, and one of the women he marries. Their tumultuous relationship is one of the factors that gives the film some emotional weight. His other two wives are also aptly portrayed by Diane Kruger and Linh Dan Pham.
The film it most closely resembles is the better known Cloud Atlas (2012), which, at 172 minutes was even longer, had the advantage of some big name stars such as Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant and Halle Berry. Both movies deal with long periods of time and individuals living out multiple lifetimes. Although Cloud Atlas, which was based on a book, got more attention and, in general, better reviews, I actually preferred Mr. Nobody. I found Cloud Atlas overly long and somewhat sanctimonious. Mr. Nobody, despite what could be called its flaws (but which I’m more inclined to simply call its style), was more an open-ended exploration of some fantastical (but not implausible) theories and possibilities. For what it’s worth, both Cloud Atlas and Mr. Nobody envision a future where guys with intricate face tattoos are prevalent.
Other films that Mr. Nobody can be compared to include Richard Linklater’s exploration of lucid dreaming (among many other things), Waking Life, the reverse aging saga, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and a number of David Lynch films that deal with issues such as multiple identities. Finally, anyone who saw the quasi-documentary What the Bleep do We Know? will recognize the rather farfetched interpretations of quantum physics, such as multiple dimensions.
Mr. Nobody combines philosophy, science fiction and drama in a way that is difficult to reconcile. It’s probably better if you just watch it without trying to understand exactly what it’s all supposed to mean. If nothing else, you should take away from it that life is more complicated and multifaceted than most of us realize most of the time.
The Institute is another entry in that emerging genre that lies on the borderland between documentary and mocumentary. In the tradition of fascinating yet frustrating docs such as Catfish and Exit Through the Gift Shop, The Institute relays a story that obviously has some elements of truth, yet it’s impossible to determine how much of it was re-enacted or even fabricated for the film.
In this case, the subject itself is so nebulous and deliberately confounding that separating fantasy (or, in this case, a game) from reality is a futile enterprise. Yet, that very ontological quandary could very well be the whole point of The Institute -as well as the game upon which it is based.
The Institute is about a city-wide role playing game/social experiment/art project that was (presumably) carried out in San Francisco between 2008 and 2011. It involved a cult-like organization called The Jejune Institute, presided over (allegedly) by a Scientology-like leader. Participants were drawn in after seeing cryptic flyers around the city. Those who followed up were led to a building where they watched a video explaining the Jejune Institute’s vague but noble objectives. Participants were assured, for example, that their view of the world would be utterly transformed. Even more grandiose claims were made, as the Institute allegedly had possession of inventions and formulae that would solve all of humanity’s problems.
Those participants who chose to continue (we can assume that there were many dropouts) were drawn into an increasingly complex and murky scenario where the line between game and reality were collapsed. To make matters even trickier, viewers of the film have another layer of ambiguity to decipher -reality/game/film.
At first, it seems fairly straightforward that the film is simply documenting an extremely ambitious art project. Interviews with the game’s creators, such as Jeff Hull, indicate that it was a long term, open-ended and extremely creative project that encompassed multiple locations, many players and several overlapping plots.
Yet by the middle of the film, viewers will no doubt begin to wonder how much of this really happened as reported. For one thing, this game would have required substantial funding. For another, certain scenes and incidents seem to have been filmed during the time of the game, long before the movie was made. Does this indicate that the documentary was, from the start, a key aspect of the project? Or that some of these scenes were filmed for the movie and were re-enactments or utter fabrications? It’s impossible to say.
One of the bizarre yet interesting plot lines of the game involved making players immediately distrust the very Jejune Institute that had supposedly recruited them into the game. The Institute’s leader was labeled a fraud, someone who had betrayed the cause of “divine nonchalance.” The latter is revealed as the mystical quality that was, once again I must insert the word allegedly, discovered by a mysterious teenager named Eva who disappeared shortly after revealing her discoveries. Eva’s father was said to have been the inventor of some of the Institute’s inventions.
Divine Nonchalance, as the term implies, can be understood to mean going through life in a way that’s open to endless possibilities. It could also be compared to the Taoist concept of Wu Wei, or acting without effort. One image connected to the concept in the film is the tarot card, The Fool -the character who fearlessly stands at the edge of a precipice.
It’s almost impossible to describe the “plot” of The Institute without getting mired in uncertainty and confusion. What’s interesting is that, if you’re open to it, it can motivate you to ask some very basic questions, such as “what is reality?” Parts of it reminded me of Robert Anton Wilson’s Illuminatus Trilogy, a cult classic that involved (among many other things) warring secret societies, where you never knew exactly who the good guys and bad guys were. Wilson was also part of a movement/pseudo religion called Discordianism, which certainly could have been an influence here as well.
Those who are left with questions after watching The Institute might Google some of the people and terms from the film, such as Jejune Institute and Eva Lucien (Eva-Lucien -get it?). In fact, the Journals of Eva Lucien are available for sale online. Yet such a casual search will not prove whether these entries and characters preceded the film.
The Institute will fascinate some, bore/confuse/confound others and be of mild interest to still others. If you like to ponder the borders between fiction and fact and suspect that films such as The Matrix are not mere science fiction, The Institute may be just what you’ve been looking for. It’s available on Netflix streaming right now.
Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus (2013) is a drug movie that is not really about drugs as much as a group of people who use them as an excuse for a pilgrimage in search of meaning. Written and directed by Sebastian Silva, the movie can be viewed in a number of ways.
On one level, it really is about the modern fascination with the transformative potential of psychedelic experiences. It’s also a kind of anthropological study of contemporary backpackers who drift around the world seeking memorable experiences. Finally, it reveals how people in other countries (Chile in this case) have very stereotyped views of Americans -which are, no doubt, justified in many cases.
Even though the film is about a group of youths -2 Americans and a group of Chileans, the spotlight is on the Americans, who are indeed stereotypes. Jamie (Michael Cera) is obnoxious, impatient and immature. He apparently lives from one drug experience to the next. He is obsessed with finding the hallucinogenic San Pedro cactus, a mission for which he recruits his native Chilean friends (Juan Andres Silva, Agustin Silva and Jose Miguel Silva).
Joining them is Crystal Fairy (Gaby Hoffmann), who is -if her name doesn’t give this away- a flaky, new age-hippie type who spouts spiritual platitudes and psychobabble. The film is largely about the ongoing tension between Jamie and Crystal Fairy, as the others in the group look on with resigned amusement at the antics of the crazy Americans.
Crystal Fairy does, however, manage to be more than a superficial portrayal of annoying American travelers. Both Jamie and Crystal Fairy evolve to some degree and become actual individuals. While the San Pedro cactus plays a role in this, it is not really the dominant factor. In fact, the film only deals very briefly with the psychoactive experiences of the drug. Much more time is spent cataloging their quest for the plant and the elaborate preparations of it. When the characters finally reveal something of their true selves to one another, we get the idea that it’s less due to the cactus than that they were simply tired of all the posturing.
Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus is a slow paced character study that will disappoint people who are expecting action, sex, raunchy humor or intense portrayals of people tripping (though there is considerable female nudity). The performances are quite realistic, which almost works against the film at times, considering how unlikable the two protagonists are in many scenes.
This film’s realism is grounded in the fact that much of the dialogue was improvised. Furthermore, the director and Chilean actors are brothers. According to IMDB, Cera actually lived with the Silva family to prepare for the film. So the naturalistic style of the film did not have to be faked.
Crystal Fairy & the Magical Cactus is a small film that is quite engaging in places while it drags in others. It does not offer any profound insights into psychoactive substances, but nor does it pretend to. Nevertheless, it will be of interest to anyone who studies this topic -or anyone who is fascinated by the myriad forms human interactions can take.
The Millionaire Tour (2012)
Director: Inon Shampanier
Written by Inon and Natalie Shampanier
This direct-to-internet movie is a bit obscure, but it can be found on Hulu and perhaps other video streaming sites. Having never heard of the film or anyone associated with it, my expectations were not especially high. However, it turned out to be a surprisingly well-crafted and well-acted twisty suspense thriller, much better than not only the average streaming movie but the average Hollywood paint-by-numbers thriller as well.
The premise is simple, with a cast so small that it could almost have been a stage play -if it weren’t for the fact that it mostly takes place in a moving vehicle. It stars Jordan Belfi as Greg, a businessman who, just getting off a plane, is offered a ride by a cab driver named Sammy (Rick Gomez). Before they even leave the parking lot, the taxi hits a young woman. She is not badly hurt so she and her boyfriend arrange to share the taxi with Greg, which, naturally, proves to be a big mistake.
The young couple, Billy (Agnes Bruckner) and Casper (Dominic Monaghan) are a rough looking and talking pair who introduce the topic of The Millionaire Tour -a scheme where a wealthy victim is forced at gunpoint to drive from one ATM to another, withdrawing the maximum amount until all of his cards are maxed out. As we can expect, this turns out to be more than a hypothetical story when Casper pulls a gun and takes command of the taxi.
The film, which starts out as a suspenseful crime drama turns more complex when it’s revealed that Greg was not chosen at random. He is, according to Casper, a well known con artist who has allegedly ripped off Casper’s sinister boss The Roman. We are soon left to wonder if Greg is really who he claims to be (the victim of mistaken identity) or a true criminal mastermind. There is also the question of Sammy who, we learn early on, has a taxi license with someone else’s name on it. There is even the obligatory reference to Taxi Driver with Sammy uttering the familiar line, “You talkin’ to me?” Gomez actually resembles the young Robert DeNiro, which may or may not be coincidental as far as his being cast in this film.
Many of the best moments in the movie are small scenes that focus on tense dialogue or situations that can play out in a number of ways. For example, when Casper leads Greg into a crowded store to cash a check, there is a drawn out conversation with the naive salesgirl while we can practically hear Greg thinking about his options.
If you’ve seen quite a few suspenseful, noirish thrillers -especially the kind that became popular in the 1990s- you will not be too shocked by how things turn out. The real quality of The Millionaire Tour is in the quality of the acting, script and dialogue. Monaghan as Casper exudes the right amount of menace as a volatile thug. Billy is his confused and conflicted partner and/or girlfriend. Belfi does a masterful job at making Greg (if that’s who he really is) a resourceful guy who seems almost too adept at thinking on his feet. Gomez remains an enigma as the apparently fatalistic driver.
It’s always a nice surprise to find an impeccably created film of this type. Even if you can mostly guess where it’s headed, in this case the ride is enjoyable enough that it doesn’t really matter. Hopefully, we will see more from this talented crew in the future.
Take This Waltz (2011), directed by Sarah Polley, is a good example of the type of character and dialogue driven independent film that is too nuanced and slow paced for the average movie audience. It stars Michelle Williams as Margot, a young married woman who very tentatively slips into an affair with her neighbor Daniel, played by Luke Kirby.
Take This Waltz has certain contrivances and affectations that will alienate certain viewers as well as critics. The way that Margot and Daniel meet, for example, is more than a little farfetched. Not knowing that they live within a stone’s throw from one another in Toronto, they just happen to meet at an obscure historical reenactment event in Novia Scotia. They also happen to be sitting next to one another on the plane ride home.
What I admired about the film was the way it did not make Margot’s choice between Daniel and her husband Lou (Seth Rogen) easy. Both men are portrayed as decent people who truly care bout Margot. Everything about the film is ambiguous and fluctuating. While some people may find this disturbing, this is actually more like real life (though the film can hardly be considered realistic in other ways).
Margot and Lou have an odd but believable relationship that contains lots of teasing and flirting alternating with hostility. While Margot seems restless and not particularly happy, we sense that this is something intrinsic to her and not really Lou’s fault. Lou’s sister Geraldine (Sarah Silverman) adds a dimension to the movie. She is a recovering alcoholic who is almost as outspoken and unpredictable as Silverman is in real life.
As played by Williams, Margot is revealed as a fascinating yet frustrating character. Her facial expressions are constantly shifting between smiles and frowns and she conveys sense of being confused and adrift. While we can sympathize with her actions as she spends more and more time with Daniel, we can also sense that it will be hard for things to end well for anyone involved. All of the performances in Take This Waltz are excellent, and the script keeps us completely uncertain about the future for these characters.
One of the things that I found a little irritating about the film is that it inhabits a kind of indie film fantasy world where ordinary factors such as economics barely apply. Everyone seems to live in near luxurious circumstances despite the fact that no one has a real job. Margot is a writer who confesses that she hardly ever writes. Lou is a writer of cookbooks who spends the day experimenting with recipes. Indeed, one of Margot’s complaints is that he’s always cooking chicken.
Although late in the film it is revealed that one of his books becomes a big success, this doesn’t explain how they maintain a spacious apartment in a fashionable neighborhood up till that point. Daniel is a rickshaw operator who seems to always be free during the day to pursue Margot. Towards the end of the film, we see a montage sequence where two of the characters are living in a vast loft that looks like something out of Architectural Digest.
These issues don’t directly lessen our enjoyment of the film, but they do undercut its credibility in a subtle way. Take This Waltz is certainly not the only movie that is guilty of this, of course. It seems that many filmmakers feel that audiences want to be reassured that all of their characters live a life of relative luxury and can spend their days focusing on their emotions and relationships.
Take This Waltz gets its name from a Leonard Cohen song, which is played during the film. Despite some quibbles about contrivances and economic unrealities, I enjoyed this film and admire the way Polley micro-focuses on conversations and minute changes in emotional atmosphere. This is exponentially more complex than the type of relationships portrayed in a mainstream romantic comedy.
Sarah Polley, though still in her early 30s, has had a long career as an actress. After some roles as a child actress, she appeared in films such as The Sweet Hereafter (1997)Go (mentioned in the chapter on Ensemble Films), and Guinevere (1999). She also directed Away From Her (2006) and the documentary Stories We Tell (2012).
Branded (2012)
Directors: Jamie Bradshaw, Aleksandr Dulerayn
This movie is a confused mess, but an interesting and sometimes thought-provoking mess. I actually wanted to like it, as it had some compelling social themes and displayed some real originality. Unfortunately, the lack of focus and editing waters down any message about the role of brands in the modern world.
The story is set in Moscow and is a Russian-American production, though most of the film is in English. The hero is Misha (Ed Stoppard), a marketing wizard who eventually discovers (in a truly bizarre manner) that brands are not merely a manipulative force in the world, but are living, predatory monsters who literally consume people.
Branded is basically a dystopian sci-fi satire that is sort of an updated Brave New World. The main focus is on fast foods, and how large corporations set out to make it fashionable to be fat. Even though the film definitely contains the element of satire, the mood is too often deadly serious. This is part of the problem, as more humor could have made the bizarreness of it all more palatable.
There are two main problems with Branded. The first is that it has a long middle where it drags. There is an extended period when Misha drops out of the ad game, has a strange vision, performs a Biblical style animal sacrifice and learns the weird truth about brands. Even if we are to accept this at face value, this part of the film dragged on longer than necessary and should have been edited.
The other problem is that the concept of the living brands isn’t really coherent. We never learn how these monstrous creatures were created Was it deliberately done by corporations or did it just happen, the way Godzilla was a byproduct of nuclear radiation? The film never tells us. There also seems to be some confusion about what the real nemesis is here. At one point, Misha helps a company create a vegetarian chain of restaurants to dismantle the evil burgers that are making everyone fat. As if there weren’t enough subplots, people are dying from a mysterious disease that may or may not be Mad Cow Disease. This is another potentially interesting and topical point, but it creates more ambiguity as far as the film’s main plot is concerned. Is the problem with beef and unhealthy food or brands per se? Aside from addressing the problems of fast food, there are also stand-ins for Apple and other popular brands that are not food related. The theme so broad that it’s just too difficult to keep it hanging together.
The romance between Misha and Abby (Leelee Sobieski), the niece of Misha’s boss, is sometimes interesting and provides some relief from the dystopian sociology. Yet this too drags out as the two are constantly coming together and breaking up until the very last scene.
Branded is a movie that deals with some important and serious topics. In many scenes it does so in an intelligent and original manner. Yet it is ultimately too muddled to make the kind of impact it should have made.
The Comedy, the ironic title to a relentlessly ironic film, may appeal to fans of Borat. Yet this film goes beyond the mockumentary style of that film, asking us to believe that a series of sketches is a depiction of real life. The Comedy is an example of how a movie can be clever and well acted and still be fundamentally lacking in authenticity.
The antihero of the movie is a slacker/hipster named Swanson (Tim Heidecker), a bearded, pot-bellied character whose entire life is devoted to being obnoxious. He lives on a houseboat and cavorts with a group of male friends who share his taste for psychological pranks.
In the opening scene, we are privy to a bacchanal where these guys drunkenly dance around naked and grope at each other simulating sexual acts. Aside from the fact they are all in their mid-30s or older, the scene could have been shot at a frat party.
The rest of the movie follows these decidedly uncharming guys around as they engage in non-violent but not quite harmless pranks at the expense of taxi drivers, gardeners and other hapless victims (at least as they are portrayed here).
The underlying premise of The Comedy, to the extent that it can be said to have one, is that Swanson and his friends are wealthy or at least relatively affluent. They don’t have to work at 9-5 jobs, though Swanson takes on a dishwashing job for no apparent reason (except to harass his co-workers, of course).
The Comedy can be seen as an expose of the excesses of hipster culture. Yet I’m not sure that the subculture depicted here actually exists. They are perhaps meant to be a 21st Century version of the ne’er do well playboys or cads of much older films. Yet those type of characters took great pride in their personal appearance and cultivated a charming, debonaire aura. Even today’s hipsters usually try to look, well, hip. Swanson and his crew flaunt their lack of style and personal hygiene.
These are more like refugees from the 1978 film Animal House -if those characters aged but didn’t mature and had enough disposable income to avoid regular employment. They don’t seem to have the usual hipster fetishes for art openings, gourmet foods, alternative rock or the other activities you might see on Portlandia (if you’re not lucky/unlucky enough to live near real hipsters). They do, however, live in a state of perpetual irony -mocking everything and everyone at all times, including each other.
What I found most annoying about The Comedy is that many of the scenes simply didn’t ring true. At least in a scenario like the show Punk’d (and its predecessor Candid Camera), or Borat, it’s understood that we are watching scenes that are set up for an audience.
As drama or comedy, scenes require a certain sense of truth if they are to be accepted. The Comedy doesn’t really deliver on this count. For example, we watch as Swanson, a soft looking white guy, goes into a bar full of black men and proceeds to fearlessly make racially charged comments to everyone in the room. How likely is this?
Similarly, women seem to find Swanson attractive no matter how unappealingly he behaves. At his dishwashing job, he begins his seduction of a waitress by making blatantly offensive comments to her. This would more likely lead to his immediately losing his job than to her ultimately falling for his (non-existent) charms and eventually sleeping with him.
If The Comedy is saying anything at all (a dubious proposition), it’s that this is what you get when you take hipsterism too far. A bunch of completely unlikable, borderline sociopaths who go through life in a soulless haze of perpetual irony.
Yet it doesn’t even really say this much. It hedges, making Swanson borderline human towards the end -for no apparent reason, except because it’s a rule of cinema (even indie cinema, it seems) that characters are supposed to change over the course of the 90 or so minutes we get to spend with them.
Swanson and his friends are never established as bona fide people with motivations that make sense. Perhaps we could believe that one person, such as Swanson, might have a personality disorder that leads him to act as he does. But a whole cadre of friends who share these characteristics? Who are they and how did they get this way? Who supports their idle lifestyle? Swanson has a wealthy father who is about to die, but the others have no back story whatsoever.
The Comedy is, despite its basic emptiness, funny at times, in a similar way that a mindless action movie can provide moments of excitement. Yet it ultimately leads nowhere. Though, I suppose, that might be the whole point.
Note: an edited version of this review has recently been published on Devtome.
Safety Not Guaranteed (2012)
Director: Colin Trevorrow
Writer: Derek Connolly
Starring: Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson, Karan Soni
Safety Not Guaranteed is the latest in a series of highly original and entertaining indie films by producers Jay and Mark Duplass (the latter also stars in this one). Some of their previous efforts include The Puffy Chair and Jeff Who Lives at Home.
All of these are unmistakably indie films, unlike many contemporary movies (say, by Quentin Tarantino or the more recent Steven Soderbergh movies) that lurk on the increasingly murky line that divides indie from mainstream. No one could confuse Safety Not Guaranteed, for instance, with a Hollywood romantic comedy, even though it has some of the same elements.
This is what makes a film like this such a pleasure to see. If you’ve watched enough movies over the years, your mind has become so accustomed to movie cliches that you have certain expectations. In a film such as this, however, cliches are not so much turned on their heads as gently transmuted into something less definable yet infinitely more satisfying.
The hero (or perhaps antihero) of Safety Not Guaranteed is Kevin (Duplass), a possibly delusional inventor who claims to have discovered the secret to time travel. Kevin, who lives in a small town in Washington, places an unusual ad in the classifieds -he’s looking for a time travel partner whose “safety is not guaranteed.”
He is pursued by a team of journalists desperate for an offbeat and funny story. When one of them, a young intern named Darius (Plaza) becomes at first fascinated and then attracted to Kevin, things get quite complicated. A pair of government types are also following him around.
Despite the interesting story, this is primarily a character driven film. In a conventional movie (or novel, for that matter), it’s a rule that the leading characters must develop or evolve in some way. This usually results in some hackneyed event where a lesson is dutifully learnt. Here, the characters don’t develop as much as reveal increasing layers of complexity.
Is Kevin a delusional loser with paranoid tendencies? You might be tempted to conclude this, but then you also see that he’s sensitive, sincere and brilliant. Is Darius’ boss (Johnson) a superficial and cynical manipulator? Yes, but he also reveals a whole different side.
Safety Not Guaranteed does have a geeky, sci fi side to it, but that is secondary to the characters, dialogue and relationships. Yet the time travel element remains significant throughout, so the film has some appeal for fans of this genre -as long as you’re not expecting aliens, spaceships or laser shootouts.
To recite the plot of Safety Not Guaranteed would make it sound like a typical cute, quirky indie film. Like the characters I just described, this film does fall loosely into that category, but it also transcends it by being truly moving and original.
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