Safety Not Guaranteed, directed by Colin Trevorrow, opens in theaters with a limited release today.
This indie-comedy sci-fi drama stars Mark Duplass from FX series The League, Aubrey Plaza, Jake M. Johnson, and Karan Soni.
The plot revolves around three Seattle magazine writers investigating a story about a man Kenneth (Duplass) who claims to be able to time travel after they find his classified ad that reads, “Wanted: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You’ll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. I have only done this once before. Safety not guaranteed.”
Kenneth, a paranoid super-market clerk who believes federal agents are after him, wants to travel back to 2001 to save his girlfriend from dying. He enlists the help of the intern Darius (Plaza) to assist him, not knowing that she plans to write an editorial on him since the ad was seen as a joke.
The team that produced Little Miss Sunshine, which was nominated for several Academy Awards in 2007 and won the Independent Spirit Award, focus less on the science fiction of this film and more of the emotional element of the relationships between the characters.
The movie’s script was inspired by an actual classified ad listing that originated from a 1997 issue of Backwoods Home Magazine, and became a popular Internet meme on ytmnd.com in 2005. The late Don Lafontaine, known for his voice over work for hundreds of movie trailers and commercials, even recorded a dramatic reading of the ad several years ago.
The film has garnered favorable critic reviews and has a fresh rating of 93 percent at Rotten Tomatoes. It premiered at the 2012 Sundance Film Festival and won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award.
