HI PEOPLE!
This is a review about this movie I watched recently “Not Okay”.
Not Okay is a 2022 comedy-drama, written and directed by Quinn Shephard. It revolves around a female adult, Danni Sanders ( played by Zoey Deutch).
At the beginning of the movie, it shows us how alone, aimless and point blank friendless Danni was. Did I forget to add “Danni’s social life was messed up”? Well, yeah I think people didn’t like her so much because of something in particular that happened on social media or in real life
Unfortunately, It wasn’t made known what happened that brought all the hate to her at the beginning of the movie.
She was made fun of, humiliated, ignored and at the brink of losing her job.
With these descriptions, you’d think of Danni to be going through a phase of depression and sadness. Yes, yes she was. Sometimes she gave off this “I don’t care what you think about me” vibe which is pretty cool but it just makes the whole point of it so sad.
Anyways, Danni liked this famous social media influencer who works in the company she’s in but has never noticed her, Colin. Some sad stuff. Until one day, when she bumps into him outside of work. She stammers and lies about going to Paris for a writer’s retreat. Crazy
This lie turned into a “lie”. From faking photos of her being in Paris and posting them on social media to lying she experienced a chaotic bomb blast. Totally speaking from my opinion, if I was asked to rate Colin out of ten, I’d give him a three cause what the actual hell?. The fact that this Collin character was played by Dylan O’Brien who played Stiles Stilinski in the series “Teen wolf”, just ruined the whole image I had of him in my head, I’m sorry.
Okay so enough of Colin. This got her ‘social media’ famous to say the least. People went from hating Danni to admiring and loving the “Brave and damaged bomb survivor”. To say she took advantage of this is an understatement. She fed off people’s pain to make her name big. This wasn’t nice. Let’s not even talk about the emotional attachment she created and destroyed between her and Rowan Aldren (played by Mia Isaac)
Bomb survivors go through a lot starting from the risk of developing PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) to TBI (Traumatic Brain injury). Common conditions a bomb survivor may experience include depression, hyper-vigilance, numbness, guilt, etc. Some people also show resilience (i.e., the ability to cope or recover well in or from difficult situations). Flashing lights and loud sounds can trigger the recovery of a bomb survivor.
This movie also circulates around the effects of social media. We all agree life doesn’t just end on social media. Yes, it serves as an escape from the real world but let’s knows this, whatever’s texted or tweeted out there for the public to see is, it’s out there. There’s no going back. Danni lied to her fans. That’s a straight on “NO”. Most of these fans followed her because they related to her and some cause of her said “braveness” and ability to recover so quickly after going through a life- changing bomb explosion. She got engagement on her social media contents, got promoted in the place she got in and got gigs on shows that involved her saying motivational speeches.
Not Okay is actually a very nice movie. It goes from acknowledging the effects of social media to reaching out to its viewers emotionally, in a way. One of my favourite quotes gotten from the movie was said by a character, Rowan. “If you’re not okay, that’s okay”. Mental health issue is a real thing and the lots of us needs to start acknowledging it as real too.
