Not Okay (2022)
“Danni, you can’t say you’ve got FOMO for 9/11.” – Danni’s Boss.
Not Okay (2022)
Directed by: Quinn Shephard
Written by: Quinn Shephard
Starring: Zoey Deutch, Dylan O’Brien, Mia Isaac, Nadia Alexander
Quinn Shephard’s Not Okay opens on a montage of social influencer Danni Sanders (Zoey Deutch) crying at her desk as she gets ‘cancelled’ online. Abusive tweets flood the screen, and one vlogger quips “Danni Sanders might actually be the worst person we’ve ever covered on this show, and we covered Hitler.” While Danni is not, in fact, a tyrannical dictator, this sensationalist vernacular is how characters perceive the world in Not Okay. People and things are described as either ‘the best’ or ‘the worst’, as Shepard seeks to satirise a rapidly evolving influencer culture and a society that both idolises and chastises their online heroes.
Jumping to two months earlier, Danni is re-introduced as an upper-class American millennial who equates success with the size of her (painfully insignificant) social following. A scene in which she complains about having “FOMO for 9/11” truly cements her status as the film’s ditzy punching bag, and it’s clear that nothing is off limits if she can think of a good hashtag. This comes full circle when Danni falsifies a trip to Paris (Photoshopped croissants and all), a terrorist attack occurs at the Arc De Triumph, and she doubles down on the lie to gain international attention.
Reminiscent of real-life social media swindlers, Danni’s story is bitingly funny (thanks to a sparkling performance by Deutch) but also eerily depressing, with the reminder that influencers regularly exploit tragedy for their own gain. In this way, Not Okay looks to build on other social media critiques like Eighth Grade (2018), Nerve (2016) and Spree (2020) that exhibit how social media has stripped us of our decency. Danni’s dismissal of irrelevant co-workers and real trauma survivors early in the film (at one stage asking for a school-shooting survivor’s Instagram handle instead of their name) underlines this message and makes for an entertaining satire.
However, the film loses its lustre when Danni realises that her mistakes can negatively affect others, resulting in a tonally confusing redemption arc for our villain. While this reinforces the overarching message that ‘blue tick culture’ is the real villain, it also felt like a crowd-pleasing alternative to what could have been a truly gruesome portrait of an apathetic, money-hungry influencer. Ultimately, the film delivers on its promise of an entertaining portrayal of influencer culture, but unfortunately falls into the trap of making it’s self-described “unlikable female protagonist” a bit too likeable.
Rating: 7.5/10