As "Not Okay" (2022 release; 103 min) opens, the Zoey Deutch character, a twenty-something named Danni, is getting savaged online. We then go the "Two Months Earlier", as Danni is struggling at work, has no friends, and in a folly to try and impress a guy, posts about a (fake) trip to Paris. When a terrorist attack takes place in Paris, Danni decides to claim she was there and survived the attack...
Couple of comments: this is the second film written and directed by actress Quinn Shephard ("Blame"). Here she assesses the high price that comes with misleading everyone about who you are, all because you crave love and attention. The movie comes in 9 chapters (Chapter I: No-one Understands Me, etc.). The best part of the movie is the last third, when Danni is exposed for the fraud that she is. When Danni attends a support group after having been exposed, someone asks Danni "Have you tried making amends?". Danni is startled as this had never even occurred to her. Imagine that! Joey Deutch is cast perfectly as the internet-savvy attention-craving, emotionally hollow character that is Danni. Mia Isaac, whom we just saw recently in "Don't Make Me Go", also shines as Rowan, whose character actually survived violence. All in all, this movie is quite good, and it blows me away that writer-director Quinn Shephard is all of 27 yo. Wow. Well done.
"Not Okay" premiered this weekend on Hulu, and it has garnered a lot of positive buzz (I read a thumbs up review in Friday's New York Times). If you are in the mood for a movie that reflects on the cost of internet success, or simply are a fan of Joey Deutch or Mia Isaac, I'd readily suggest you check this out and draw your own conclusion.
Couple of comments: this is the second film written and directed by actress Quinn Shephard ("Blame"). Here she assesses the high price that comes with misleading everyone about who you are, all because you crave love and attention. The movie comes in 9 chapters (Chapter I: No-one Understands Me, etc.). The best part of the movie is the last third, when Danni is exposed for the fraud that she is. When Danni attends a support group after having been exposed, someone asks Danni "Have you tried making amends?". Danni is startled as this had never even occurred to her. Imagine that! Joey Deutch is cast perfectly as the internet-savvy attention-craving, emotionally hollow character that is Danni. Mia Isaac, whom we just saw recently in "Don't Make Me Go", also shines as Rowan, whose character actually survived violence. All in all, this movie is quite good, and it blows me away that writer-director Quinn Shephard is all of 27 yo. Wow. Well done.
"Not Okay" premiered this weekend on Hulu, and it has garnered a lot of positive buzz (I read a thumbs up review in Friday's New York Times). If you are in the mood for a movie that reflects on the cost of internet success, or simply are a fan of Joey Deutch or Mia Isaac, I'd readily suggest you check this out and draw your own conclusion.