Visibly low budget & minus wham-bam special effects, Not Safe For Work relies instead on acting and story. This is a very effective film.
Have you noticed how there is a new generation of worry, fear, threat concerning the power of corporations and big business in our collective lives? Most effectively, in Margin Call (10+), but elsewhere across a broad spectrum of movies US & otherwise. Not Safe For Work is a significant contribution to this contemporary genre: Don't Trust Business.
The two key male leads in this story are specially strong, most significantly the villain -- aka "The Killer" -- played by J. J. Feild, who exhibits a powerfully creepy calmness in voice and body language. His evil -- the banality of evil -- signifies the rot at work in the world of business itself. Max Minghella, playing the key office worker, has a true Jack Lemmon charm as the wily office schmo who's not such a looser after all.
This story happens to be about US business. But corporations & capitalism being what they are nowadays in our global, post-Cold War world; this business tale could be about China, Brazil, Germany, or Whathaveyou. Like a fine police procedural by Ed McBain, this plot is easily transferable to most other modern cultures.
Finally the fact that the heroes escape and yet do not (if you haven't seen it, I don't want to spoil the plot for you) shows how serious is its moral and political intent. Not Safe For Work is an intriguing incrimination. How can one escape from where business life is now? The answer is left deliciously hanging in Not Safe For Work. Yes, folks, we are unsafe. Try to find a way out. Just try.
