Delayed Reaction: Not OK

Premise: A wannabe influencer fakes surviving a bombing in Paris.

 

There’s a famous quote from Sir Edmond Hillary. He was asked why he wanted to summit Mt. Everest. Flippantly, he said the reason was simply “Because it’s there.” I remember this quote because he and Tenzing Norgay did go on to become the first documented people to summit Mt. Everest. I’m sure there were plenty of people before him with similarly clever quotes who tried and failed to summit Mt. Everest. History is favorable to those who pull something off though. I’m sure those who tried and failed (and maybe died) trying to climb the mountain were ridiculed. Why do something so foolhardy and dangerous? If you try something so crazy, you better succeed.

 

You may be wondering what Not OK has to do with climbing Mt. Everest. Well, in a way, doing what Not OK is trying to do is an Everest of a different sort. It’s an almost impossible movie, but if they could get it right, it would be incredible. I’ll save you some suspense. Unfortunately, Not OK fails, yet I respect the hell out of the ambition.

 

To its credit, the film is aware of the danger. It opens with a cheeky warning about flashing lights and an unlikable female lead. It goes on to tell the story of Danni Sanders (Zoey Deutch), a rather unremarkable millennial who dreams of being a social media influencer. One weekend, she decides to stage an elaborate Paris vacation from her apartment. The problem is, it turns out there were bombings in Paris minutes from where she was supposedly posting from. After initial shock leaves her speechless, she falls into then embraces a lie about being in Paris during the bombings and being close to the events. She uses this attention to start an “I’m Not OK” movement online and befriends a teenage activist (Mia Isaac) who actually was the survivor of a school shooting. As you can assume, Danni’s lie eventually falls apart, she becomes the most hated person on the internet, and she doesn’t know how to make it better.

 

I’ll admit, I’m already not a fan of stories built on a big lie like this, so it was an uphill battle to get me to like this going in. Many people are quicker to accept the conceit of the movie. But honestly, it’s not the conceit of the movie that bothers me. Sure, none of this is very plausible. My bigger issue is that I don’t think the movie has much to say.

 

The film runs from all the hardest parts of the story and is too worried about staying ahead of its criticism. Like, that opening warning the audience about an unlikable female lead. To me, that reads as the filmmaker preparing a defense that if I don’t like the movie it’s because I’m uncomfortable with an unlikable female lead. Or take the ending. Danni is desperate to make amends with Mia Isaac’s character, but after hearing Isaac’s speech, realizes that the story isn’t about her and leaves. That’s a nice sentiment, but…the movie is about Danni. So, here’s the arc of the movie. Danni is “Entitled Millennial with Nothing to Say”. She tells a pretty easy to disprove lie and becomes a celebrity in a world that apparently doesn’t have reddit sleuths. Her lie gets discovered. She’s hated and accepts being hated. What exactly is this adding to the discourse? Bad people should pay for the bad things they do.

 

I just wish this movie hit everything harder. For a black comedy, I never found myself laughing then thinking “I shouldn’t be laughing at that”. I was never conflicted about who I was rooting for and against. That’s the fun of something like Thank You For Smoking. Nick Naylor is so charismatic that I could forget that he’s technically the bad guy. Not OK never pulls off the same thing with Danni. She’d be a much more interesting character if she didn’t start so desperate. Granted, that desperation is what made her initial Paris lie plausible. I never said there were easy solutions to my critiques. Remember my opening paragraph. The satire is similarly toothless. Cool, young people are desperate for internet fame. Yeah, actual influencers are often phonies. Bold, saying school shooting deniers are bad. An interesting satire would go after some sacred cows. This could’ve gone way harder at something like Hashtag Activism. I’m just so frustrated that I felt no conflict watching this.

 

It’s a shame, because there are strong parts of this movie. Zoey Deutch is absolutely the right person for the Danni role. She’s inherently likable but is willing to get a little dirty. Buffaloed is a good example. Mia Isaac is excellent as the moral compass of the film. It’s almost like she was better than expected and the movie didn’t know what to do with it. It throws the film off balance. I love the boldness of the premise. The film starts down a lot of interesting paths that go unrealized. I wonder if the early drafts of this started a lot harsher too many higher-ups sanded down the edges by the time it went into production. If nothing else, Not OK is an interesting failure. I wish more movies would try to be interesting failures. 

 

Verdict: Weakly Don’t Recommend