SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED - IMAGE: Benjamin Kasulke
There is something heartbreakingly real
in witnessing a wizened writer in his mid-30s demand of an intern: “Why
are you sitting there in front of that screen? You’re a young man!”
That’s a truer basis for Safety Not Guaranteed than its
origins as an Internet meme, a late-’90s want ad of sorts that sought a
time-travel companion. For our purposes, screenwriter Derek Connolly has
reimagined the infamous clipping by tracing it back to a sleepy seaside
town in Washington. It’s there that tenured magazine contributor Jeff
(Jake M. Johnson) drags two listless interns (Karan Soni and Aubrey
Plaza) in an attempt to secretly profile an earnest if unhinged
grocery-store clerk who fancies himself a regular Doc Brown (Mark
Duplass). The skeptical trio stumbles onto what is possibly the greatest
space-time paradox: You can never go back, except when you can.
- Showing at: Laurelhurst, Academy.
- Best paired with: Occidental Hefeweizen.
- Also screening: Batman (Bagdad Theater. 11 pm Friday, Sept. 7).
