Premiering in the UK last month at Sundance London, Safety Not Guaranteed was my favourite film of the festival, and if you haven’t seen it yet, you need to watch the trailer right now.
Starring Aubrey Plaza and Mark Duplass in the leads, the film marks Colin Trevorrow’s directorial debut and Derek Connolly’s writing debut, and they make one of the finest debuts in recent years, earning the film every one of its five stars in our review.
“From the producers of Little Miss Sunshine – When an unusual classified ad inspires three cynical Seattle magazine employees to look for the story behind it, they discover a mysterious eccentric named Kenneth, a likable but paranoid supermarket clerk, who believes hes solved the riddle of time travel and intends to depart again soon. Together, they embark on a hilarious, smart, and unexpectedly heartfelt journey that reveals how far believing can take you.”
The film’s official YouTube channel has debuted a brilliant new clip, giving us a look at co-stars Jake M. Johnson (New Girl) and newcomer Karan Soni, and it’s one of my favourite scenes of the film, and I can remember it making my spine tingle – and then having that rare moment at the end where it successfully slips back into comedy.
Its official Facebook page has also debuted a great new image of Plaza and Duplass as Darius and Kenneth, and as if that wasn’t enough, the Huffington Post has debuted the first song from the film’s soundtrack, which will be released on iTunes next month. As I mention in my review, one of the best moments in the film is when Kenneth pulls out a zither and plays Darius a song he’s been working on, and it’s that song that we’re now getting a chance to hear, in its studio-recorded (and end credits) version.
It’s one of my favourite songs of the year, and therefore definitely Must Listen material.
Entitled, Big Machine, the song was written by Ryan Miller (lead singer of US rock band Guster), who also wrote the score for the film, and has Mark Duplass singing the awesome vocals. Taken from the Huffington Post’s little interview with Miller:
“”I sent it to Mark as a QuickTime file with my wife filming me. Like, ‘This is how you play it,'” he said. “He really can play. The performance in the film is him. That’s him playing and singing. I think they did two takes. It was kinda cool because Aubrey hadn’t heard the song either. So that’s her reaction — it’s genuine. Like, ‘Wow, I didn’t know you could play it. That’s kind of a cool.””
iTunes should be releasing the soundtrack on 5th June, and this is definitely one you’ll want to buy.
Safety Not Guaranteed will be opening in select theatres in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Portland on 8th June, before expanding over the next few weeks in cities across America, so make sure you head clicking on to the official site over here to see if it’s playing in a theatre near you. No word yet on a UK release date, but hopefully that will all change soon.
For now, the brilliant new clip, song, and image (which you can click to enlarge) for your viewing and listening pleasures.
[yframe url=’http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDLjcZ-YqPg’]
And if you’d like to listen to Big Machine – and trust me, you do – then you can (and should) do so over at Huffington Post here.
