Safe with Jon Millstein

Writer and actor Jon Millstein joins to discuss the 1995 psychological drama SAFE starring Julianne Moore, Peter Friedman, and Xander Berkeley. Written and directed by Todd Haynes, SAFE is the disturbing story of a suburban housewife in the 1987 San Fernando Valley who develops a sudden and inexplicable illness related to her environment. The film plays coy as to the causes of the lead character's illness, (is she suffering from an allergic reaction to her increasingly toxic urban lifestyle, a psychosomatic affluenza, or both?), and this mystery has only inspired more reexaminations of this chilly film over time. In a decade-capping Village Voice critics poll, SAFE was selected as the best film of the 1990s, and has not surprisingly gained new attention since March of 2020. Listen as MNAM fully diagnoses this film, along with some less toxic diversions into Mrs. Doubtfire, The O.C., Rick Steves, skateboarding, alternate birthday songs, quiet quitting, Dave Barry, and much, much more!