In 2009, comedian and actor Stephen Rannazzisi claimed on Marc Maron’s podcast that he was in the World Trade Center on 9/11. However, he later revealed in 2015 that he made up the entire story. An article in the New York Times covered it. And Pete Davidson – whose firefighter dad died in 9/11 – appeared on Opie Radio the day the article broke, discussing it with the hosts and later fellow guest Elijah Wood. It’s a super interesting, and even funny, video, well worth the full 17 minutes.
Rannazzisi made the apology tour, as you would have to do. But still. Big-time scumbag move, right? When I first heard about this, it felt like a story you would only see in a movie. Well, Not Okay is that movie. I haven’t seen anything to suggest Not Okay drew any inspired from Rannazzisi (someone who will be interviewing writer-director Quinn Shephard, please ask!), but the comparison has to be made.
In Not Okay, Zoey Deutch stars as Danni Sanders, a lonely photo editor who yearns for a bigger life. She wants to become a writer, but can’t get her boss to take any of her pitches seriously. So she comes up with a plan. She fakes a trip to Paris under the guise of going on a writers’ retreat. She Photoshops herself into some pictures, cataloging the entire “trip” on social media. And it starts to work. Her following goes up, including her perceived dream guy, Colin (Dylan O’Brien). Not Okay doesn’t really clarify who Colin is or what he does, other than smoke weed. He appears to be some sort of popular travel journalist. (It’s not important. You only need to know that he’s a clown.) But then tragedy strikes.
Not too long into her trip, Danni wakes up to news of a string of terrorist attacks…in Paris. Danni is faced with the choice between a bad decision and a worse decision: come clean about her lie and accept the embarrassment and humiliation, or continue the lie and play up her victimhood to advance her career. She takes option two.
And at first she gets everything she wants. She’s welcomed back to work with open arms and an open invitation to write about her experience. In an effort gain and intel and learn about stories from real survivors, Danni attends a survivor support group, where she meets Rowan Aldren (Mia Isaac), a social media influencer/gun safety activist, and survivor of a school shooting.
Danni finds ways to continue spending time with Rowan, using Rowan’s experience and influence for her own gain. And it works. Danni’s article, “I Am Not Okay” spurs a social media mental health movement. Though it started under dubious circumstances, there’s no question that Danni’s article – fabricated though it may be – is actually becoming a force for good and positive change.
And Danni herself benefits. She bonds with the other members of the group, and her relationship with Rowan turns from strictly manipulative to a strong connection and true friendship. While she starts to fix some of her personal problems – actually fix, not just superficially – Danni begins to struggle more and more with her secret, as we see whether or not she’s going to ever come clean.
Except, we already know. The movie starts after Danni has been exposed. We don’t know the exact circumstances, but we know the end result. And sure, you can say the lie was obviously going to be uncovered, but why remove any mystery? Even before we see that, we see a title card with a “warning” that the story contains an unlikable female protagonist. If she’s so unlikable that it’s deserving of a warning, maybe she keeps the lie to herself and even gets away with it.
Maybe it’s because I typically hate it so much so it sticks with me more, but it feels like more and more movies are using this narrative structure lately. And it so rarely works. X is maybe the only recent example where I thought it actually worked. But usually, best case scenario is that it neither adds nor takes away from the story. More often than not, though, it weakens it. But all in all, it’s a relatively small complaint here. I just wish fewer filmmakers would use this particular narrative framing.
Once you get into the actual story, though, Not Okay is entertaining and engaging almost the entire way through. It certainly helps that Zoey Deutch is one of my favorite actresses, so I’m more inclined to like anything she’s starring in. But even that only take a movie so far. The story and the overall approach to it is intriguing, and that helps with a lot of the heavy lifting.
Danni’s not a bad person. Misguided? Sure. But not a bad person. She makes one forgivable mistake (making up the trip), leading to one objectively terrible, horrible, awful, despicable, mistake. Watching her try to navigate these choppy waters can be an interesting look into the human psyche. How far will you go for self-preservation? Is exploiting a tragedy – and one you weren’t even involved in, to boot – worth the recognition and fame and success? I would have liked to see a little more depth, but it still offers some good insight into the themes it explores.
At times, Danni can be a deeper, complex character and Zoey Deutch was pitch-perfect casting. She matches the energy the whole movie is going for. When the focus stays on Deutch, which it does for most of the movie, Not Okay can really hum along. But for me, Dylan O’Brien is the standout. His character is such an idiot, and O’Brien absolutely nails it. This is one of the funniest characters from any movie this year. I was rolling laughing pretty much every time he opened his big dumb mouth.
The weak character, though, is Rowan. Mia Isaac is terrific in the role, but the character didn’t quite fit the vibe of the rest of the movie. The rest of the movie and characters fit perfectly into this goofy, weird blend of drama and dark comedy. But Rowan veers a little too far into the serious territory to really work.
A couple other structural aspects prevent Not Okay from reaching its full potential. It’s sectioned off into different chapters, complete with title cards. Why? Similar to the movie starting a little into the future before flashing back, this doesn’t add anything to the story. In fact, it stops any momentum it had built up. And there are nine (9!) chapters. That’s way too many instances of a story coming to a complete halt and having to restart itself.
But the weakest part, and what brings it down the most, is the ending. Not where the story ends up, but how it gets there. Not Okay nails its ending. I love where they took the story. But they stumbled on the path to get there. As we know, Danni’s lie is eventually discovered. But it happened too late in the movie for my liking. More time should have been spent on the fallout. Instead, this part, a critical part, ends up feeling rushed and therefore less effective.
Sticking the very end certainly helps – the final scene is a killer – but this could have been something special with some tweaks to the third act. It doesn’t ruin the movie, by any means. Deutch’s strong lead and O’Brien’s side-splitting supporting turn carry a lot of the goodwill. And although it could have gone deeper into the themes and questions the story poses, it still manages to make some good points about how fame-obsessed some people have become in today’s social media world.
Score: 80/100
