VERONICA MARS Movie Review: A Long Time Ago We Used To Be Friends, But Feels Like Just Yesterday To Me

VERONICA MARS Review:

- Unbelievable. It's insane to think about how quickly the media landscape has changed in just a few short years. Veronica Mars premiered at a time when DVR's were still in their infancy, when options for catching up on missed TV were limited, and when the idea of binge-watching fan-favorite shows on Netflix was a concept not yet in existence. Veronica Mars was a great show ahead of its time. It premiered on the flailing UPN network, which during its lifespan never really produced a buzzworthy hit. It continued on CW, but by that point, the show was barely hanging on - and the CW wasn't all that motivated to give it the promotional push it needed. For me, Veronica Mars was a pet issue. In the early days of my blog-writing, I constantly and emphatically spread the gospel to any and all who would listen. Veronica Mars was the best show that no one was watching. It was a dark, smart, brilliantly-written neo-noir - anchored by Kristen Bell and elevated by a best-in-the-biz supporting cast. It had style, it had smarts. But like so many great shows of the 00's - from Pushing Daisies to Arrested Development - a cult following of diehard fans was not enough to save the show from the dreaded fate of cancellation. The sort of mass-marathoning that would later make cult faves like Breaking Bad into legitimate hits was still years away from being a thing.

But back in 2007, when I wrote my farewell to the unceremoniously-axed Veronica Mars, I mused that (unlike the bottom-of-the-barrel reality show that replaced it on CW's schedule), the show would live on. It would be remembered and rediscovered. It would be talked about and discussed and written about. But back then, I couldn't have predicted the way in which whole new audiences would find the show, how people too young to have watched in in the 00's would now embrace it, or how Kickstarter would allow for a partially fan-funded film to get greenlit.

The fact that a Veronica Mars movie exists - that it was released theatrically years after the show went off the air - is amazing. Sure, we can debate the exact mechanics of the Kickstarter fund. When Kickstarter money is going not to individuals, but to a huge studio like Warner Bros that, there's a very legitimate debate to be had about the extent to which the fundraising is honest or even necessary. But I won't get into a prolonged discussion of that here. Instead, I'll say that, regardless, this is a game-changer. Fan support is now quantifiable, and that means the possibility of content that is made less for a wide audience and more for the core fans. In the old network TV model, number of eyeballs were everything. But now, it's more about the passion and loyalty of those eyeballs.

And Veronica Mars fans are nothing if not passionate. And in turn, the VERONICA MARS movie is a love letter of sorts to the fans. I have to admit, I was surprised at some of the rather tepid reviews of the film I read in publications like Entertainment Weekly. Were these guys not fans? Did they not get it? Perhaps those not in-the-loop felt snubbed. They had hoped to read the cliffnotes of the series, see the movie, and feel like they were fully a part of the zeitgeist. But the reality is that, yes, to fully appreciate this movie, I think you're probably going to want to spend some time going through all three seasons of the series. A requirement? No. A strong recommendation? Yes. This movie is one chapter of an ongoing saga, and you're going to want to appreciate all the callbacks - big and small - to what went before.

With that in mind, it's sort of amazing to me to think about what writer/creator/director Rob Thomas pulled off here. On one hand, Veronica Mars was a show with a lot of characters and a lot of continuity - and Thomas had to pick up the pieces, reestablish the status quo, and fill us in on what everyone had been up to in the years since we last visited the fictional town of Neptune, CA. On the other hand, the movie had to work as a piece of self-contained entertainment - it couldn't just be about checking off the boxes that would please longtime fans. It had to tell a great Veronica Mars story, and also feel like "more" than just an episode of the show. It had to feel big, and epic, and special.

No need to worry though - Thomas accomplishes both goals with flying colors. Like I said, the movie is a love letter to both the fans and the show's characters - giving us lots to get excited over, and many reminders of why we loved the show and its characters to begin with. And yet, all the character cameos, reintroductions, etc. feel pretty organic to the plot. The show always operated on the conceit that Neptune was mired in an interconnected web of shadiness, in which the town's rich elite and desperate poor intersect and clash at every turn. The same is true in the film - the plotline here is, in some ways, bigger in scope than anything from the show. But unsurprisingly, things become more insular as the plot unravels. And why not? There are enough suspect characters - and enough intrigue - in Neptune, that there's no need to go elsewhere to drive the action.

Indeed, the arc of the movie is that this is, in many ways, a homecoming for Veronica. When we first rejoin V. Mars, she's living in New York and has become, well, pretty buttoned-up. She's interviewing for a big corporate law job and seems to have settled into a a nice but decidedly low-risk life. While she would undoubtedly make a crackerjack lawyer, there's clearly a sense that Veronica is not where she's supposed to be, nor doing what she's supposed to be doing. So when she's summoned by old on-again, off-again flame -and overall bad influence - Logan Echolls, to return to Neptune to help clear him of murder charges (he asks her to help him vet lawyers, but we know the deal), it's a bad situation that still feels oh-so-right.

The mystery of who really killed troubled rich kid Logan's pop-star girlfriend is what drives the plot, and personally, I think it makes for a damn fine mystery. There's never really a question that Logan is innocent of the charges, but that's okay - it opens the door for any number of Veronica's other old acquaintances to be the guilty party. And what acquaintances they are. It's an absolute blast to see the likes of hilariously crude party-boy Dick Casablancas again (Ryan Hansen kills it). And scummy P.I. Vinnie Van Lowe (the great Ken Marino in top form). And spoiled former teen-queen Gia Goodman (Krysten Ritter, whose career has blown up since the show went off the air, and who deservedly gets a bigger part to play in the film). And, oh, Martin Starr (Freaks & Geeks callback - another of the 00's tragically-cancelled-too-soon TV shows) turns up as a creepy former classmate of Veronica's. It's equally awesome to see those on the side of the angels make their big returns. Chief among them are Veronica's ever-loyal best bud Wallace (Percy Diggs III) and punk-geek hacker Mac (Tina Majorino). Seeing them again is like seeing old friends - I only wish they had more screentime. Same goes for reformed biker-gang leader Weevil, brought so memorably to life on the show by Francis Capra. Capra gets some big moments here, and a plotline that helps open the door for further mysteries to be addressed in (hopefully?) still-to-come movies. To Thomas' credit though, this isn't a case of feeling like these characters got the shaft - more so that they're just such great characters that we're left wanting more. As much as I could watch a whole movie about the sleuthing adventures of Wallace and Mac, or the school-of-hard-knocks moral quandaries of Weevil, there's a lot of story to be told here, and these characters can only be allotted so much time.

For all of the movie's fun bit players though (old favorites, like Max Greenfield's Leo, or new additions, like Jerry O'Connell as a sleazeball sheriff, and Gaby Hoffman as a stalker-ish superfan), the holy trinity here is Veronica, Logan, and Keith Mars. Keith Mars - played so brilliantly by Enrico Colantoni - is in many ways the movie's beating heart. While Veronica had the chance to get out of Neptune and start fresh, Keith is in too deep. He's too invested in his town, and too embittered to leave and let Neptune get washed over with corruption and crime. Veronica was his great white hope - the one who could start afresh. So it kills Keith that Veronica, through Logan, has been pulled back into the thick of things. At the same time - this is film noir after all, and that means that in this world, there is no escape. No escape from Neptune, no escape from fate.

That's another thing that's so brave and refreshing about this film. It goes full noir. What I mean is, the show always mixed the trappings of noir and detective fiction with those of high school drama. But now that Veronica is an adult, the movie has to sort of evolve past its original high school setting. Now, the movie calls back heavily towards its Neptune High roots, with the clever device of a ten-year reunion superimposed over the big-picture mystery. And like any ten-year reunion, this makes for a great chance to both briefly revisit the past, but also to move beyond it. We know who Veronica Mars was, but now, we know who she is as an adult. And the movie doesn't shy away from morphing the plucky young Veronica into a full-blown hard-boiled P.I. That's sort of awesome, because how many hard-boiled *female* P.I.'s have there been in the history of ... well, ever? When I say hard-boiled, I'm referring, I suppose, to some of the qualities that we associate with the classic noir protagonist. Hard-lived guys who are good at heart, but who do at times live in a moral grey area, and who do at times make bad decisions. As the movie evolves Veronica into this traditionally male role, I began to realize: Logan is Veronica's femme fatale.

This is sort of fascinating, because here's the thing: at the movie's start, Veronica and good old Stosh "Piz" Piznarsky are a couple. Piz, you may remember, was the good-natured, geeky college radio-host who dated Veronica in Season 3 of the show. Guys seemed to like him, because he was a fill-in for the sort of fanboys who crushed on Veronica from their couches. But girls seemed less impressed, because Veronica and Piz never had the danger-fueled sparks that she and Logan did during their star-crossed but ill-fated flings (and here, there is again chemistry with Dohring, though he does seem to have perhaps the hardest time of the cast getting back into VM form). But even the staunchest Logan/Veronica 'shippers, I think, will end up sort of rooting a bit for Piz in this movie. He and Veronica have a good thing going - witty banter, shared and awesomely-nerdy pop-culture references (Piz even declared Neptune High to be sitting on a Hellmouth). But since the movie goes full-noir, Veronica is of course increasingly drawn away from good-guy Piz and towards male-fatale Logan. And people, I think, will sort of cringe at this. And yet, do we cringe when Batman makes out with Catwoman, or when James Bond locks lips with a woman we know is bad news? I sort of dug how the movie flips things around, and gives us a new breed of gumshoe for 2014. Veronica Mars was always ahead of her time - now, even more so.

By the way, nothing about this world feels dated - in case you were worried. Neptune has always had old-school aesthetics, but the Veronica Mars movie transitions to a world of smartphones, Twitter, and tablets with the utmost ease. The smart use of today's tech makes Veronica's sleuthing that much cooler, if at all possible.

Let's talk about the leading lady herself. Kristen Bell was born to play this character, and she slips back into the role of Ms. Mars like she never left. Bell is an interesting actor. Her public persona is goofy and sort of loopy, and she's done variations on that in various comedies over the years. We've seen her play serious and adult, and we've heard her give voice to Disney princesses. But her transformation into Veronica Mars is full-body. She just inhabits the character fully, and makes Veronica iconic and larger-than-life - all while maintaining that spunky, girl-next-door quality that made her different than your average CW star back in the day. But man, how great it is to hear Veronica's at-once inviting, at once hard-boiled voice-overs again. Nobody does it better than Bell. It's all part of the Veronica Mars package that is so perfectly recaptured in the movie. The noirish moodiness, the atmospheric, tension-setting music, the whip-crack dialogue ...

Hold on, let me speak for a second about that dialogue. I could honestly watch a plotless Veronica Mars movie, just to hear the characters' back-and-forth banter. Rob Thomas does Joss Whedon one better, blending pulpy, rapid-fire quips with well-placed pop-culture riffs. It's music, baby. This is, truly, the good stuff, and we don't get enough of it in movies or TV. The writing is what made Veronica Mars so damn good back in its TV days, and it's what again separates it from the pack at the movies. For those who dismiss this as young adult fluff ... just listen to the characters talk and realize: this is less Hunger Games, more Maltese Falcon - with a dose of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer thrown in for good measure. This is where I'll also point out that the movie is funny. Really funny. And that's all driven by Veronica and the rest of the cast's multiple, dead-on zingers. The wittiness here goes a long way.

By the time the end-credits played (and we finally got to hear the full version of the show's fantastically-rocking theme song), I was in TV/movie-geek nirvana. I went into this movie with some trepidation. Would the characters seem awkward and old? Was I remembering the show through rose-colored glasses? Would the movie just be a nostalgia trip with no real substance? Or would Rob Thomas and co. shake thing up needlessly just to go against the grain? Really, there was no reason to worry. The VERONICA MARS movie is a rocking return to form and a rollicking success. Bell again nails it as Veronica, and the rest of the cast brings their A-game. But mostly, this movie just reaffirms that Neptune is indeed a living, breathing place. We needn't worry about it having abruptly disappeared from our TV screens all those years ago. The movie cements this as a world that persists, even when we're not watching. And it reestablishes Veronica as a character who will always be out there - always embroiled in a new mystery, always fighting the neverending fight to clean up Neptune and bring justice to those who need it brought. Back when the series was cancelled, Thomas re-pitched it to the CW as a revamped reboot - a move that would have drastically changed the show and sent Veronica to the FBI. But the whole arc of this movie is, in a way, about rectifying what would have been a damaging left turn for the show and for these characters. The movie has Veronica ditch her newly-acquired urban corporate lawyer persona for a back-to-basics approach - and so too does the movie, on a meta level, ditch the idea of a high-concept revamp - a way to please the masses - for a back-to-basics return to the core Veronica Mars concept at its best.  Veronica is too good of a character to change wholesale. Instead, the movie cleverly shows us why Veronica is who she is, and how the world of Neptune shaped and continues to shape her, and draw her back in to its seedy world of sun and shadow.

So come on now sugar: bring it on, bring it on - give us more. Long live Veronica Mars.

My Grade: A-

FROZEN Is Very-Nearly Magical

FROZEN Review:

- There's so much to like about Disney's latest animated musical. It has all the trappings of vintage Disney animation, but the characters and story feel fresh and modern. The music is mostly fantastic, and from a visual perspective, the look and feel of the film is positively stunning. This is very nearly a new Disney classic. What's frustrating about Frozen is that it's got all the ingredients to be a home run, but it just misses the mark due to an overall feeling of incompleteness. The movie is packed with fantastic moments, but as a whole, it feels loosely-sketched. Still, Frozen's high points make it a must-see for animation fans young and old. And at it's best, the film summons that old-school Disney magic in a way that reminds you of what put Disney animation on the map in the first place.

I give Frozen credit for giving us a different sort of story than we're used to in a Disney fairy tale. This is a tale of two sisters - two very strong, well-developed female characters who have full-fledged personalities independent of any star-crossed romances. In a year when there's been a lot of talk about movies failing the so-called Bechdel Test, Frozen passes with flying colors. In princesses Elsa and Anna, Frozen presents two iconic-yet-relatable characters who both radiate personality. Elsa (voiced by Idina Menzel) is the eldest of the two sisters - she was born with magical powers, able to create ice and snow from her hands. But those powers made her a danger, since she could not fully control them. After accidentally injuring her younger sister, Elsa is isolated by her parents - the king and queen of an ice-covered kingdom - and kept away from her sister, and from the rest of the world. Years later, when Elsa comes of age, it's her time to be anointed as Queen - she finally emerges from her isolation and nervously presents herself to her very curious subjects. Over the years, she's become a mystery and object of fascination. However, during the coronation festivities, Elsa's powers go haywire, and the people deem her a monster and a freak. Elsa retreats to an ice-palace far away in the mountains, and blankets the kingdom in a deep, unnatural freeze. It's up to Elsa's plucky sister Anna (voiced by Kristen Bell) to find the Snow Queen and convince her to come home. Anna, too, spent years isolated from the rest of the kingdom. But while Elsa locked herself away with a grim and steadfast determination, Anna yearned to go outside and explore and interact with others (shades of Tangled). Now, Anna is out in the big wide world, on her first adventure, on a quest to find her sister.

Anna, really, is the star here. Kristen Bell makes her utterly likable - funny, brave, determined, dorky, and just a bit naive about the way the world works. Bell's singing is wonderful, but her overall performance is even more winning. This is probably the best the fan-favorite actress has been since her Veronica Mars heyday, and a reminder of just how talented Bell really is. What's more, the heart and soul of the film is likely Anna's relationship with rough-and-tumble Kristoff (Jonathan Groff). It's a relationship that works so well in part because, like I said, neither character seems defined by it. We spend a lot of time with Anna before she even meets Kristoff, and even then, there's nothing star-crossed about them. Just as Anna is an atypical Disney princess, Kristoff is an atypical Disney male lead. He's shaggy, schlubby, and occasionally prickly. That's what makes the song "Fixer Upper" a true highlight of the movie - it dresses down these characters to make them seem less like fairy-tale heroes and more like just a couple of crazy kids who might just have a certain spark between them, flaws and all. And yet, that ordinariness makes their eventual acts of heroism that much more resonant. Rarely have Disney characters had this much real-feeling personality.

Elsa, however, is much more of an enigma. And it's with Elsa that the movie seems unsure of what story, exactly, it wants to tell. Elsa's story starts as a familiar one for those who have watched any number of superhero movies in recent years: a child finds out that they're different, a "freak", because they have some sort of strange power, and hides away, keeping their ability a secret - until they eventually learn to control, master, and embrace it. It's a story we've seen before, but also one that is an undeniably effective storytelling device - a perfect metaphor for real issues of identity, individuality, and coming-of-age. And when Elsa does have her big moment where she embraces her true nature - singing the defiantly powerful "Let It Go" as she goes all glam-rock amidst her newly-erected ice-fortress - it's a transcendent moment - absolutely an instant classic and a defining moment for Disney in the modern era. But after the high of "Let It Go," the movie disappointingly seems to drop the ball on Elsa. She is finally comfortable with who she is, and yet ... she remains isolated in her remote palace, and seems to increasingly grow colder and less human. In a weird way, "Let It Go" is both the film's hero song and its villain song. The movie can't seem to decide which Elsa is. We barely get into Elsa's headspace after that moment. But we do see her attack her own sister via a hulking Abominable Snowman construct, and then mortally wound her sister with her powers.

Elsa is a fascinating character because of how completely she breaks the mold for a Disney animated film. But she's also a problematic character because the movie gives her this tragic - but ultimately inspirational - origin story, only to make her less and less sympathetic as the movie progresses. Instead, our attention increasingly turns to girl-next-door Anna and her sweetly-scripted relationship with Kristoff. All the while, I kept waiting for some kind of twist to occur with Elsa. Would the movie go full-villain with her, and make her into the film's true antagonist? Or would it be revealed that she was being manipulated by some as-yet-unrevealed uber-villain, whispering in her ear and making her turn against her sister? Ultimately, Elsa gets exactly one half of a great story. Frustrating, because the build-up through "Let It Go" is so incredibly well-done.

Frozen, therefore, ends up conspicuously lacking a great villain. Sure, there's some sleazy scheming from deceptively charming nobleman Hans. And there's some politically-motivated skulduggery from weaselly Duke of Weselton (voiced amusingly by Alan Tudyk). But the movie has no equivalent of an Ursula, or Jafar. Hans is sort of like a wannabe Gaston, I guess. But as a character, he's a bit flimsy and unmemorable. And his true motivations are revealed so late in the film that it all feels a bit rushed. In general, the movie seems to have a number of things mysteriously missing. We get hints of an intriguing origin for Kristoff - raised by Trolls, away from other people - but we never get the full story. Olaf - the wacky Snowman who becomes Anna's companion - is interesting, and thankfully non-annoying, but it feels like a major story beat between him and Elsa is missing from the movie. It definitely feels like we're getting a chopped-up version of what was once a longer and more complete (and presumably more satisfying) story.

Back to Olaf for a second. As voiced by Josh Gad, he's a funny and fun comedy-relief character. I will say though - Olaf's big song, "In Summer," is a bit weak, in my opinion. Definitely not a classic on the level of other Disney-musical "fun" songs like Hakuna Matata or Under the Sea.

The music as a whole though is quite good. The high points are really, really good, with the standouts being the aforementioned "Fixer Upper" and "Let It Go." I'm also partial to the mood-setting opening number "Frozen Heart," which has a folk-chant ominous quality that reminded me a bit of The Little Mermaid's "Fathoms Below."

And visually, it can't be understated just how eye-popping the animation is in Frozen. The majestically ice and snow-covered landscapes give the film a dark-fantasy fairy-tale look that I really dug. And when the movie cranks up its visual fireworks - like during the "Let It Go" number - it really becomes total eye-candy. I also continue to be blown away by just how expressive Disney's CGI characters are these days. Similar to Tangled, Frozen's characters are slick, ultra-fluid computer-animated figures that nonetheless have facial animation deliberately designed to evoke the kind of expressive hand-drawn animation of the older Disney classics. It really does feel like an evolution of the old Disney style. Overall, Frozen's visuals are truly epic - some of the best yet in an animated CGI film.

Frozen feels like only 3/4 of a classic, but I think that fans will really embrace it despite its faults. For one thing, there's the stunning animation. For another, there's the strong female characters and progressive-seeming storyline - big picture, Frozen rather brilliantly combines classic fairy-tale trappings with very modern themes and characters. On top of that, while the music isn't as consistently great as in some of Disney's best, the movie's best songs are undeniably fantastic, catchy, and bound to be beloved by kids and adults alike. Frozen's complex themes have and will provide a lot of interesting discussion fodder, but I'm also not sure if the movie will hold up as an all-time Disney classic. There's just a lack of coherency to the plot, and a feeling that the movie isn't quite sure what to do with its theoretical lead character, Elsa. For that reason, the movie's lasting impression is that of a film with a handful of magical moments, but one whose parts are stronger than its whole.

My Grade: B+

SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED = A Hilarious Summer Surprise

SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED Review:

- Here in LA, there are so many indie movies playing in so many theaters, that it can be hard as a film fan to discern what's actually worth seeing. Sometimes, you've just got to take the plunge. And with Safety Not Guaranteed, the combination of good word of mouth, a premise that intrigued me (quirky time travel comedy) a cast that includes numerous actors I'm a fan of (Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson, Kristen Bell), and the fact that it was playing nearby my apartment ... all drove me to check it out. Well, I'm damn glad I did. SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED is one of the best movies of the year so far - an absolutely hilarious, charming, and original comedy that is most definitely a must-see.

Much has been discussed about the origins of the movie's plot. Apparently, there was a real, minor news-of-the-weird story a few years back about a guy who placed an ad in the paper looking for a companion to go back in time with him. The movie takes that idea and runs with it - and in doing so, it tries to imagine just who this guy is that would place such an ad. Is he legit? Crazy? A little of both? Why does he want to go back in time so badly, anyways? In the film, we follow Darius (Aubrey Plaza), as she investigates these very questions. Darius is a twenty-something in quarter-life-crisis mode, stuck in an unpaid internship at a Seattle-based magazine, living at home with her dad (a briefly-seen but very funny Jeff Garlin), and trying to figure out what to do with herself - how to get out of her current funk. One day at the magazine, thirty-something reporter Jeff (Jake Johnson, best known as Nick on New Girl) pitches doing a story about a guy who's placed an ad in the paper about time-travel (very similar to the real-life ad described above). Jeff takes Darius and another intern - nerdy braniac Arnau (a hilarious Karan Soni) - to track down the guy who placed the ad and see if there's a story to be found. Jeff, however, has his own agenda. He sees the story as an opportunity for a paid vacation. Also, it so happens that his old flame from high school lives in the same town as the time-travel guy, and Jeff has hopes of a hook-up. He also decides to take Arnau under his wing and show him how to loosen up and party. Meanwhile, it's Darius who ultimately meets and gains the trust of the would-be time-traveller, Kenneth (Mark Duplass, in an amazing performance). And while everyone else views the story as a sort of weird joke, Darius begins to wonder if there's more to this Kenneth dude than meets the eye.

Mark Duplass as Kenneth is ridiculously funny in this. He's like some weird mashup of Kenny Powers, Napoleon Dynamite, and 80's-era Kurt Russell (he wears a denim vest with cutoff sleeves and upturned collar at all times, and sports an awesomely retro mullet to boot). Kenneth is just a great character - with a naive-but-steadfast belief in his mission and purpose that rarely wavers. He's also supremely paranoid, slow to trust Darius and convinced that people are out to get him. And he's also a geek - a guy who seems to be overcompensating for years of being a weirdo and outcast by haphazardly training himself in martial arts, firearms, etc. with a delusional belief that those skills will be crucial when he travels to the past. But ... there is also a sense that, for all his delusions, there just might be some weird sort of genius buried within Kenneth. And also, there's a real sadness that occasionally bubbles up. Kenneth is a great character because he's over-the-top and really, really funny - but also because there is genuine humanity at his center.

And honestly, that's what's great about this film - it isn't afraid to get serious and emotional - but it's never cheesy about it ... the emotion feels earned. And the seriousness also never comes at the expense of the comedy. I can only evoke such classics as The Simpsons, in terms of comparable comedy that still managed to gut you at times when the tone would become more sincere.

To that end, I did feel like there was something deeper going on with this movie, despite the comedic sensibility. It felt like a movie about being in your 20's, about figuring out where you're going, and about figuring it out in spite of what others think. In fact, the three main characters (other than Kenneth) each sort of represent a different stage of being a twenty-something. Arnau is the naive nerd who's still really sort of a kid (he's inexperienced with the ladies and has lightning bolt decals on his laptop). Darius is the girl who's ready to make her mark in the world and take that next step into adulthood. And Jeff is the guy who's older and jaded, and nostalgic for the days before the world had beaten him down. It's interesting to me that the movie spends as much time as it does with Jeff and his quest to rekindle his old romance with his girlfriend from high school. At first, when he sees she's put on a few pounds and aged a bit, he balks. But soon enough he realizes that he needs to get past the fact that nobody looks like they did when they were eighteen. At the same time, Darius has to get over her cynicism about Kenneth - slowly but surely, she realizes that he just may be one of the more genuine people she's met, even if everyone else thinks he's crazy. Arnau tries to overcome his annoyance with Jeff's fratboy ways, and realize that maybe he does need to man up and face the world a bit more than he has.

In some ways, this is also a great companion film to the recently-released MOONRISE KINGDOM - both are about outcasts finding each other, and both have an "us against the world" theme at their core.

Getting back to the cast for a second though ... while Duplass gets a lot of the best lines and moments, the ensemble here is really pretty remarkable. Aubrey Plaza obviously tends to play a certain type of character, but she does it so well, and can bring so much nuance to these types of roles, that you can't really complain. She's great here. Jake Johnson is really good too - he brings the same sort of barely-bottled-up rage and emotional instability to the film that he does to New Girl, and he's a guy who just has amazing comic timing. Same goes for Karan Soni - hilarious and spot-on. There are also some nice little appearances from fan-favorites like Mary-Lynn Rajskub, Jeff Garlin, and Kristen Bell.

Most of all, the movie just has a really funny, really well-done and multilayered script from Derek Connelly. These are just great characters, given hilarious dialogue - but there's also that underlying sincerity and heart that makes this a multidimensional and highly rewarding film. My one complaint is that a key plot-point about Kenneth's relationship with Kristen Bell's character felt a little too ambiguous for me. The truth about their relationship motivates a lot of the movie's plot - and provides the backstory for *why* Kenneth wants to go back in time in the first place, and I felt like the script left us hanging a little bit with the reveal there.

Overall though, SAFETY NOT GUARANTEED is one of the nicest film surprises of the year so far. Laugh-out-loud hilarious yet oddly poignant, this is a must-see for those looking for something a bit more substantial and unique this summer. Seek it out and see for yourself. And hey - it's also got time-travel!

My Grade: A-