I’ve been curious to see the film Safety Not Guaranteed, starring Aubrey Plaza of TV’s Parks & Recreation since I first read about the film’s premise months ago. With an engaging script by Derek Connolly, Safety Not Guaranteed tells the story of a group of Seattle-based journalists who set out to investigate and report on the story behind the person who placed a classified newspaper ad that reads:

“Wanted: Someone 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.”

That’s supposedly a real ad placed in an unnamed newspaper back in 1997, but the rest of the story is fiction, and it’s just the perfect blend of quirky laughs, unexpected suspense and compelling, heartfelt characters to make this probably my favorite film of the year so far. I’m so glad I let my fondness for Aubrey Plaza and the universally glowing reviews for this film convince me to see it, despite the fact that the film co-stars actor/producer Mark Duplass — who has either starred in or had his name attached to four (4!) of the most unbelievably disappointing and just plain heinous indie films in the history of cinema (those films being The Puffy Chair, Bag Head, Hump Day and Cyrus). Seriously, the guy was maybe one film away from becoming the Indie Film version of Adam Sandler to me. Thank god that Duplass, who plays Kenneth, the charming, loner sci-fi geek seeking a time traveling companion, is terrific in this film! Maybe that’s because he didn’t write the script? Who knows; maybe he just finally hit his stride. I’ve always wanted to like him, but have you seen Cyrus? Even Marissa Tomei and John C. Reilly can’t save it from being complete torture to sit through!

Anyway, there are lots of fun surprises in the film, great chemistry between Duplass‘ and Plaza‘s characters and hilarious supporting performances by Jake Johnson and Karan Soni as Plaza’s boss and fellow magazine intern respectively. In two hours I grew to care about these characters and was so excited to see if there would be any actual time travel involved. I don’t want to write any spoilers in this post so if you like Aubrey Plaza and the plot sounds interesting to you, I’m guessing you’ll love this movie. Go see it while it’s still in theaters!

The Worley Gig Gives Safety Not Guaranteed Five out of Five Stars!