Movies
I don’t think that you’ll find Todd Haynes’ Safe in the horror section of any store, but it’s one of the scariest films I’ve ever seen.

But let me backtrack a bit. I first heard about writer/director Todd Haynes back in the early 90’s, during the NEA scandal. This was when Donald Wildmon headed a group that protested NEA grants that went to supposed pornographers like Andres Serrano (for his Piss Christ painting) and Robert Mapplethorpe (for his explosive photography). The NEA gave partial funding to Haynes for his film called Poison. I read about it in various places and some would have had me believe that Poison was a hardcore gay film...which it isn't. It does, however, have a strong homosexual theme, among other subjects. The story predates Tarantino's Pulp Fiction by telling three stories in nonlinear form. Hero, Horror and Homo are the titles of the three tales and I found the whole thing to be pretty disturbing. Not because of the gay elements, but because of some of the grotesque images in it. In fact, it damned near made me sick. That's not an easy thing to do, unless a movie happens to feature Jack Black or Adam Sandler.

Shortly after I saw Poison on VHS, I heard that Todd Haynes was coming to a local theater to host a showing of both Poison and his then-current feature, Safe. I went and again I was made nearly sick by the movie Safe. It is an unnerving; even terrifying picture that hit way too close to home for me.

Safe features a bravura performance by Julienne Moore, who get major points in my book for accepting such an edgy, risky role. She was just earning critical marks and taking this low budget oddity was anything but a safe career decision.

In Safe, Julienne Moore plays a pretty, upper middle class homemaker whose life is eroding. Living in the shadow of her successful huband, she seems to have no real identity of her own. She does not fit in with her rich-bitch social peers, nor does she appear to have any hobbies or interests of her own. She begins feeling increasingly unwell, falling out of step with the life she is supposed to lead. Her surroundings suffocate her. Physicians can find nothing amiss and she eventually seeks help from a support group of sufferers of Environmental Illness.

For those unaware of that afflcition, Environmental Illnees is an alleged disease that targets certain individuals' immune systems. Household chemicals, exhaust, paints, perfumes and dyes become poison. In truth, it's like being allergic to the 20th Century.

Cut to my own life at this point. I lived with my brother, who ceaselessly thought that he was suffering from an unexplained miasma. At the point I watched Safe, he would rarely leave his bedroom in the small house I was renting. Often were the times I wondered and feared if he was dead back there. Doctors proclaimed him healthy. I thought he was a hypochondriac and a manic depressive.

Watching Safe, I had the same suspicions about Julienne Moore's character. It was obvious that her unfulfilled life was having an adverse affect upon her mind and her body. Much like my brother. But Haynes is careful to allow the viewer to speculate. Is it some form of debilitating depression? Or are those in the film that are desperate for some sort of safe haven suffering from a real malady?

Moore goes to an expensive retreat that is run by a charismatic author that has the AIDS virus. It's obvious and understandable that he is hypersensitive about his immune system and the purity of his surroundings. But what of his followers? Is he an unwitting Jim Jones-type, leading his flock to harmonic doom?

Todd Haynes is one of the most intelligent filmmakers working today. Fiercely independent, his cinematic visions are often uncomfortable ones and he leaves all but the most adventurous viewers confused, unsettled, alienated or even angry. Safe is critically acclaimed, yet I've heard a lot of people say how much they despise it. I think it's a brilliant movie and an important one. It raises issues that are critical in today's paranoid society. Many of us have genuine fears and a lot of people have groundless ones. And all of us in this terrifying world only wish to feel safe. At any cost.


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