Rent Safe (1995)

VERY Slow & Derivative Film which feels like 1970s but is 1990s - a Poundland Stepford Wives really - Safe review by PV

OK so this sounded interesting as I am watching movies about isolated communities at the moment - such as CLUB ZERO.

This film is 1995 but feels like a 1970s film throughout - the music, the VERY slow pace, even the fashions and attitudes. I was amazed it was dated 1995.

It's like a Poundland or B-Movie Stepford Wives (and do watch the sublime 1970s version of Ira Levin's novella not the later remake!), but without the charged meaning or surreal conclusions.

Watch Norwegian classic film SICK OF MYSELF to see other health fad cures and where they lead (this is MUCH better than the over-rated The Substance).

An interesting but forgettablly LONG watch which ultimately is as pointless as any of these health fads and cod spirituality at compounds like the one depicted here.

2 stars

Todd Haynes directorial debut - Safe review by AER

With notes of David Lynch to begin with, director Todd Haynes presented his debut Safe in the mid-90s. Set in the late 1980s, Safe's story revolves around Carol White (an early lead performance from Julianne Moore) as an LA housewife who develops a series of acute allergies that derail her ordered life. It's a brilliant performance, quite unlike what we've become used to with J Moore. Early on it takes a sinister tone, reminiscent of Mullholland Drive as the stalking headlights of Carol's car navigates Californian suburbia (SAFE is earlier than M Drive btw) but these stylistics fade away to take in the cult-like environment of the Anti-Allergy desert camp. It's all a bit unnerving but these camps do exist, highlighting quite how strange medical practices can be in the USA and around the world (inc the UK). Slow in places, it's bound to reward on repeated viewings. So 3/5 with a view to improve with future visits.