‘Not Okay’ is a Bombastic Satire That Turns Zillennial Buzzwords into Deceptively Poignant Substance
Not Okay stars Zoey Deutch, Dylan O’Brien, and Mia Isaac is a zanny zillennial venture into rise and fall of internet clout.
For as long as social media has been an active part of our daily lives, people have always been trying to put their best digital footprint forward—whether it’s an authentic representation of who they are or a carefully curated fictitious persona used to fill the void in their life. Searchlight Picture’s new comedic drama Not Okay dives head first into the artifice of social media personas with a refreshing blend of satirical humor and poignant introspection.
When the film begins, Danni Sanders (Zoey Deutch) is coasting through life on her graphic design skills and not much else. Her dreams of becoming a writer at the Buzzfeed-like digital media company that she works for are quickly dashed because her work just isn’t good. The best draft she can deliver to the editor is an insipid think piece about how she wishes she had 9/11 trauma like the rest of her generation and she missed that boat because she was on a cruise when it happened. She’s surrounded by co-workers like Harper (Nadia Alexander) and Larson (Dash Perry) who are just too cool to care about her aimless life and the one co-worker who shows any interest in getting to know her, Kelvin (Karan Soni), isn’t cool enough for her.
After hearing Harper talk about looking for a writer’s retreat to attend, Danni decides to tell Depravity’s resident internet famous weed Influencer Colin (Dylan O'Brien) that she is headed to a writer’s retreat in Paris—which suddenly puts her on his radar. With the newfound attention of her crush, Danni concocts a plan to fake her whirlwind Parisian getaway from the comfort of her Bushwick apartment. What Danni didn’t plan for, however, was for Paris to be rocked by a series of devastating terrorist attacks during her fictitious trip abroad, launching her into the social media spotlight as a survivor. She has every opportunity to pump the breaks on her deception, but the serotonin that comes from internet clout is just too good to pass up.
Pretending to survive a major terrorist attack for attention is one thing, but Danni’s lies lead her to strike up an unlikely friendship with teenage school shooting survivor and gun safety activist Rowan (Mia Isaac) and the cringe turns right into ick, just as it should. She uses Rowan as a means to launch herself into a whole new degree of internet fame, co-opting her incredibly real trauma and lifting her words to make herself seem like a genuine victim, instead of a poser.
Not Okay’s cast takes the script to the next level. From O’Brien’s sleazy and entirely on-brand Pete Davidisonification, to Deutch’s convincing descent into social media obsession and giving incredible depth to Danni’s cardboard personality, to Isaac’s stunning portrayal of a traumatized child with a gift for eloquent slam poetry delivery—there is so much to be impressed with. Between starring as Jake Gyllenhaal… I mean Him in Taylor Swift’s All Too Well: The Short Film and starring opposite Deutch in The Outfit, O’Brien has been having a fantastic year, and Not Okay gives him the opportunity to play against his type as a weirdly attractive and horrible human being.
Writer-director Quinn Shephard’s script may be somewhat predictable at times, but she never fully shows her hand, leaving just enough room to surprise audiences with unexpected twists. Amidst all the snark and buzzy millennial humor, Shephard never loses sight of the real-world gravity of Danni’s actions. Her actions seal and solidify a fate that no amount of half-hearted apologies or deleted profiles can undo. A grown woman's light-hearted con is quickly twisted into a sinister vie for notoriety at the expense of a traumatized teenager, and Not Okay is actively aware that Danni is not one to be sympathized with, no matter how convincing her tears are. It’s shocking just how smartly it tackles this subject without making it too heavy to consume.
Not Okay isn’t without issues, but they lay well within the confines of nit-picky issues, and both pertain to the script that very clearly says “tell me you’ve never worked in news, without telling me you’ve never worked in news.” Two egregious issues are the fact that Harper’s Ruth Bader Ginsburg piece is left to simply wallow well past the appropriate news cycle and the idea that Danni would have free reign to publish an article on Depravity in the middle of the night without any oversight. Both were obviously meant to serve the plot, but for folks in the industry, it definitely rips you out of the moment, despite the suspension of belief required as a whole.
Not Okay is a cringe-filled satire in the best of ways, hitting the nail directly on the head about everything that is wrong with the social media-obsessed generation always angling to become the main character of the day on their chosen platform. The irony, of course, is that the script is not so dissimilar from TikTok’s Layton Lupone who staged an epic April Fool’s Day prank last year to trick her followers to think she was living the high life in Italy. Lupone’s playful con is proof that Danni’s deception could easily be replicated in real life, though hopefully without co-opting the tragedy of a terrorist attack for a chance to do goat yoga on daytime news shows.
Final Verdict
A-
Not Okay may be predictable in its execution, but it never ceases to be entertaining, even when the Fremdschämen reaches new levels of discomfort. This movie will quickly nip any aspirations for internet clout right in the bud, when the tables turn from odes of admiration to threats of assassination. A cautionary tale about how everything you see on the internet, isn’t always true. Boomers will hate, Gen Xers will roll their eyes at it, jaded Millennials will love it, and Zoomers… well, they might find it chugey, but it’s still a win in my Millennial handbook.
Not Okay premieres on Hulu on July 29.