NOT OKAY (2022)

NOT OKAY (2022)

Tagline: Nope 

(Drama, Young Adult, Swiss Miss Marshmallows) [R]

I want you to know, the fact that you’re standing right here in front of me instead of being curled up in a ball mainlining gummy worms, which is what I would have been doing…that’s incredible. 

In this one, a girl named Danni Sanders wants to be a writer, but her boss isn’t having it, because the topics she wants to write about are not her cup of tea. Desperate for attention Danni fakes that she is going to Paris to a writer’s convention to gain popularity on the social media platform Instagram. After an explosion in the area, she was supposedly going to, she decides to capitalize by acting like she almost died in the incident. This ends up sending her popularity sky-rocketing which she uses to her advantage. However, it’s only a matter of time before all lies catch up to us and Danni is no exception as she learns the internet can make or break you.  

First off, I think it’s ironic that the company that Danni works for is called “Depravity” because that pretty much sums up large sections of this damn movie. I know that we are supposed to hate Danni in this, but to be honest I can’t stand just about everyone else in this thing. Danni actually isn’t the biggest problem in this movie. It’s how the world (particularly the people in her immediate circle) treats Danni over something that they feel is true but doesn’t actually bring any value to her as a person. Then how they treat her after they find out it isn’t true. 

The movie's Godophobic tone is painfully void of reason or rhyme, but it’s a secular film, so you are going to have to deal with this stupidity more and more as time moves along. This one also goes out of its way to be anti-gun with some pretty hysterical arguments against them (ie, presenting the idea that more than one person pulls the trigger in every shooting). It’s kind of like saying more than one person got you hooked on crack or more than one person got drunk, got behind the wheel, and hit you with their car.

What works well in this movie is Mia Isaac’s performance as Rowan. It feels like Mia should be cast in everything ever made if producers have half a brain. She is a fantastic actress and actually does the bulk of the heavy lifting in this movie which seems to be overlooked. I don’t agree with her character and that’s fine, she is just an amazing actress. We also get some touching moments in this movie that don’t feel like they are trying to hit some sort of narrowly constructed socially conscience target, which is kind of nice. I also think there might be some common ground politically here in the sense that criminal gun violence is an affliction on not only the United States but on the world in general. I don’t want this review to be a giant political rant, so I will just stick to the point of agreement on that issue.

Acting-wise, Zoey Deutch gets a lot of credit for her effort as Danni, but I thought it was pretty ground-level and really didn’t ask her to be outside of what you would expect. She’s had better roles. I’ve seen more range in b-movies. This isn’t a knock on her as an actress, but the role itself is blah. Karan Soni as Kevin as usual is a bright spot. I like this dude in almost every role I’ve seen him in. I kind of wonder if this was a bit of a nod to his character in UNICORN STORE who was also named Kevin. Speaking of range, Dylan O'Brien plays an idiot in this one named Colin, but it is a massive departure from his role in the MAZE RUNNER series and LOVE AND MONSTERS. I wish I could say I liked his performance, but I really couldn’t stand his character. 

Where this movie falls on its face is in every other aspect. For every step forward it takes a step back to being mediocre pretentious and much like a lot of recent films in this wheelhouse just isn’t a comedy in any regard. It’s more like a nose bleed that bugs you at first but ultimately you get what’s going on and you just kind of wait for the bleeding to stop. 

The good news is that nose bleed I was telling you about, does stop. This story does wrap itself up to an extent, but a lot like in real life, the bow they put on this is pretty beat, it’s pretty burnt and torn apart. This movie is definitely a downer, but for anyone that has been tempted to try and get into the spotlight or tries to win over a fake world full of fake people, it’s a warning. I am not sure what’s more hypocritical here. A secular movie trying to send the message that being “fake” isn’t okay when it spends so much time and so much deception to protect fakeness that it agrees with, or a secular movie that provides zero forgiveness for sins even after repentance, while bashing God. Just follow that logic through and you will see where I am headed with that, without me posting a full sermon here.  

This is a pretty thought-provoking flick, but it asks some interesting questions and for that, I have to give it some credit for a well-executed delivery. For me, this is a 3 out of 7, but after reading some of the reviews, I expected far worse. A lot like JOHN DIES AT THE END, at least the title gave us a warning right there in the title.

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF SEARCHLIGHT PICTURES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

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