Every second of Safe feels so meticulously placed by Haynes’ deft hand that it lulls you into his hypnotic world. The best part of this film is how it’s juggling so many charged themes and metaphors but doesn’t feel the need to over-explain them or cheapen them, to masterful effect.

Obviously the AIDS epidemic is the metaphor that implicitly hangs over this film — Haynes’ earlier work with Poison also sort of experiments with exploring the theme of AIDS and…

Just keep telling the story.

I.

Looking broadly, to me this film feels like a lot of things. Firstly, it feels like Wes Anderson’s most self-reflective film, where he’s questioning his art, his style, his stories - all while deepening how they’re told. Secondly, in relation to that it’s a rumination on the meaning of life, what we’re doing here on earth, how we know in the end it’ll all matter (spoiler alert: we don’t, we never will). And finally,…

There’s a moment when Bella is shown the poor in the slums, where she’s confronted with the reality of our world and the deep amount of pain that exists in it. When she realizes that no matter what we do as humans there will always be an immeasurable amount of suffering all around us. When she begins to question how we can go on living when there is this much hurt — I was like, “yes!!! Here’s the movie!” This…

When the credits rolled for this film, I wasn’t sure how to feel. I had hyped it up too much perhaps, and listened to too many interviews with the filmmaker, “did I ruin it for myself?” I thought. I had listened to the soundtrack, watched the trailer, heard about a Very Specific Cameo, and through those elements I crafted a very different movie in my head than what is on display here. Leaving the theater in a haze, I felt…