Themes: Twentysomething Life, Breakups and Divorces
Release Year: 2001
Country: US
Run Time: 93 minutes
Plot
Karen (Karen Felber) has recently moved from Boulder to Security, CO, to be closer to her boyfriend Paul (Paul Schneider). He helps get her a job working at a music/video store. She also writes short stories. Something is missing from Karen's life, and though she doesn't say much, she seems to resent the time Paul spends with his drinking buddies Christof (Christof Gebert, who also did sound for the production) and Jeanette (Jeanette Hohman). Karen seems distracted and dissatisfied in general. One day at work, she chases down a shoplifter, Tiffany (Tiffany Eddy), and gets the stolen merchandise back. A few days later, she runs into Tiffany in the park and strikes up a conversation. Karen becomes a little obsessed with Tiffany. She starts stealing from work herself and tries to get Tiffany a job there. Karen tells Paul she needs some time to herself, and he has a lot of trouble accepting it. Gradually, Karen's life in Security begins to unravel. Shot on video, Security, Colorado was produced, written, and directed by Andrew Gillis. It was officially the 24th film to be completed under the Dogme 95 constraints. Gillis, Schneider, and Gebert went on to work with director David Gordon Green on his debut feature, George Washington. Schneider later starred in Green's second film, All the Real Girls. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
Review
Andrew Gillis' Security, Colorado never got much attention -- just a little festival play -- when it was produced in 2001, but in many ways, it seems a precursor to David Gordon Green's acclaimed second feature, All the Real Girls. Like that film, Security, Colorado is a lugubriously paced meditation on a disintegrating relationship and features the talented Paul Schneider as the male lead. Paul, the character Schneider plays in Security, Colorado, is very much like Paul, the character he plays in All the Real Girls, in his painfully inarticulate response to the dissolution of the central relationship. Karen Felber, who appears in nearly every frame of Security, Colorado, doesn't have the jump-off-the-screen electric presence of Zooey Deschanel, her counterpart in Green's film, but she does have a quirkily expressive face, and this helps sustain interest in the film as the story falters. The camera pushes up in Felber's face, often to the point where it seems the source of her rather opaque character's self-consciousness. Felber occasionally looks directly into the camera, heightening this effect. The film meanders along nicely for a good while, but plot elements eventually arise, as they are wont to do. Oddly, it's only when the lackadaisical nonverbal ruminations of the movie appear to be leading somewhere that they begin to feel indulgent, and, oddly again, a late moment of gratuitous nudity squanders audience goodwill. Security, Colorado is a reasonably pleasant experience, like a late afternoon buzz, and it captures a time and place. But its characters are frustratingly vague. It doesn't have the startling visual and verbal poetry of All the Real Girls, and it suffers in the inevitable comparison. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
