Not Okay (2022) Movie Review
You might recognize the name Quinn Shephard from her first feature film, Blame (2017), which got a fair amount of buzz and was even nominated for an Independent Spirit Award. Writer and director Shephard delves into a new topic for her follow-up film, Not Okay. Danni (Zoey Deutch) is a twenty-something photo editor at an online publication called Depravity. She longs to be a writer, despite the fact that no one at the company takes her seriously. She doesn’t seem to have any friends and even her mom dodges Danni’s efforts to hang out.
Like most millennial or Gen Z’ers, Danni’s life is impacted heavily by social media. She longs to be among influencers like Colin (Dylan O’Brien), a guy at her work whose head is always in a cloud of smoke. To appear cooler than she is, she lies and tells Colin that she was invited to a writers retreat in Paris. She takes the week off work and photoshops herself into pictures that she posts on Instagram, creating the illusion of the perfect trip to Paris. That is, until a terrorist attack in Paris foils her plans. Instead of coming clean and confessing that she was never in Paris, Danni takes it the complete other direction and begins utilizing it to her advantage. Yep, it’s pretty despicable.
She attends a support group for trauma survivors and befriends an actual activist Rowan (Mia Isaac), who survived a school shooting. Then Danni writes a piece about her “experience” in Paris and her article goes viral with the tagline, #IAmNotOkay. Swept into the world of fame that she longed for, Danni’s lie has given her a new lease on life but alas it’s not everything she hoped it would be. It’s clear that Shephard wants to take a satirical look at the digital age and how it has shaped our lives. She also provides an opportunity to look at both the commodification of trauma as well as the real activism that can stem from it.
The entire movie is cringey and will make you uncomfortable as you watch. I squirmed in my seat waiting for the shoe to drop and Danni to be exposed for the liar that she is. You are warned before the movie that the movie contains an unlikable female protagonist and they weren’t lying. Danni is hard to like. You see the forces that might have combined to create her. Her emphasis on social media certainly doesn’t help, yearning to be known for something regardless of what it is. She doesn’t have any real connections, which is ultimately what she’s searching for. Even her own mother doesn’t pay much attention to her until she “survives” a terrorist attack. All of these things create the perfect storm for a lie that continues to grow until it gets out of hand.
Real people are hurt by her actions, namely Rowan, a teenager who is also searching for some form of connection while looking to make actual changes, namely for gun reform. Zoey Deutch knocks it out of the park as Danni. She tries too hard and doesn’t fit in well, and is over the top in all of the worst ways. But the real star is Mia Isaac who will bring you to tears as Rowan. She has several explosively emotional scenes including one where she confronts Danni at her workplace. We see the two of them behind a glass wall but the sound is muffled so we can’t hear exactly what they’re saying. But we don’t need to. Isaac and Deutch’s body language gives us all we need to know. It’s a perfect scene to encapsulate the severe hurt that Danni has inflicted upon Rowan.
Shephard doesn’t shy away from the big themes like highlighting Danni’s privilege and how she uses Rowan’s experience, status, and friendship to her own advantage. This culminates in an earth-shattering spoken word piece performed by Rowan in which she questions why people like Danni get Netflix movies made about them. I had wondered the same thing while I watched this movie. Not Okay captures the state of our world and the very real lengths people will go to become “Insta-famous.” It’s a hard movie to watch and will absolutely make you uncomfortable because of how deplorable the main character is. I was much more invested and interested in Rowan’s story, if only she didn’t have to take a back seat to the privileged and shallow rich girl. But I guess that’s kind of the point.
You’ll like this movie if:
1. You like satire
2. You like dissecting the pros and cons of the social media world
3. You enjoy millennial culture
