Safety

Safety (2020) comes from a true story, and the most interesting thing about it is who the antagonist turns out to be. Ray-Ray McElrathbey is a freshman football player at Clemson. His mother is struggling with addiction and his eleven year old brother Fahmarr has nowhere to go. Ray-Ray brings him onto campus and hides him in his dorm room. He goes to class, goes to practice, and raises a child. The conflict is not on the field. NCAA rules in American college sport forbid students from receiving material assistance, which means anyone helping Ray-Ray is breaking them. Nobody can feed the boy, mind him, or contribute money. The governing body opens an investigation into a student looking after his brother. That is precisely what the film sets out: the rule exists to prevent exploitation and here it prevents a young man from caring for his brother. It is a Disney production and you can feel it. The tone is soft, conflicts resolve cleanly, and the harshness of the real events is dialled down. The rapport between Jay Reeves and the boy playing his brother carries it. It runs 122 minutes. Good for: sports films, true stories, and family drama. Fine with teenagers. Less good for: it is long, the beats are predictable, and viewers who do not follow American football will drift in places.