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Safe
1995 119 min United Kingdom, United States of America R 16+
★7.3
Drama
Director: Todd Haynes
Trailers
Description
Carol White, a Los Angeles housewife in the late 1980s, comes down with a debilitating illness with no clear diagnosis.
Budget:
$1M
US Gross:
$512,245
Worldwide:
$512,558
Starring
Julianne Moore
Actor
Xander Berkeley
Actor
Dean Norris
Actor
Awards
4 wins & 12 nominations total
Key opinion
Todd Haynes’s Safe is widely regarded as a masterful, unsettling critique of consumerist culture and the existential void of 1980s suburban life. While some viewers find its clinical tone and lack of traditional catharsis frustrating, most praise its ability to generate profound dread through its stylistic precision.
| Production | The film masterfully utilizes a sterile, glossy 1980s aesthetic to mirror the protagonist's hollow, consumer-driven existence. | |
| Score | Ed Targin’s minimal, evocative score successfully builds a pervasive sense of dread and existential isolation. | |
| Originality | The film functions as a chilling, non-traditional thriller that replaces gore and overt action with a quiet, lingering psychological horror. | |
| Theme | Critics are divided on the film's philosophical weight: some view it as a profound exploration of human consciousness and Buddhist emptiness, while others feel it lacks sufficient intellectual depth. |