Rich, Pretty, Lonely: A Film Review

I 100% recommend this movie. I don't love rating movies all that much, maybe one day. But I will compare it to like Zoe's Extraordinary Playlist...without the music? meets Ingrid Goes West without the whole thriller, creepy, obsession aspect. If that's confusing...just keep reading and hopefully you get it by the end.

I realllly did not want to watch this movie. I read the description on Hulu, and I am not usually a fan of watching a train crash, cringing and hating the main character the whole time or watching them suffer... whether it's their fault or not (like my very unpopular opinion disliking Bridesmaids) I also think influencers get a pretty bad wrap. Like there are a lot of shitty things in this world and yea, sure influencers can suck just like the rest of us but in the grand scheme of things I think the hate they get isn't always entirely fair. I digress--maybe an essay for another day--but a random Wednesday night in, with nothing to watch, I am glad I picked this.

The story follows the character Danni Sanders who honestly sucks and gets caught in a lie on accident...leading to a series of unfortunate events that gives her a lot of media and human attention ultimately causing violence to Rowan, a Black high school student advocate. Danni works at what gives off a buzzfeed/huffington post cool vibey publication and seems to want to be a writer...but not a good one? I don't know, just watch it. She lies to seem cool to a guy she likes at work and ewe @ the male gaze. I don't know if it's direct enough to be a theme per say, but I think it could be a nod towards that.

The main character, Danni, is brilliantly casted as Zoey Deutch. She kills this role, giving us a try hard-unoriginal-zillenial. She was perfectly, and all too relatable in my own academic and professional life, horrible. Her character is lonely and clearly suffers from some undiagnosed mental illness--anxiety or depression, but that isn't used as an excuse for her behavior. She's privileged, mean, and honestly feels empty...like she is some concoction of a white privileged, boring, internet influencer wannabe. She's offensive but not in a way that's glamorized like the portrayal of Jordan Beaufort Wolf of Wall Street. In the age where 'wokeness' is often said with a smug laugh and misappropriated say "everyone is too sensitive", Deutch turns that on its head.

The intentional comedy functions to only punch up. It works as a commentary of the mediocrity that cis-straight white women have in the workplace. She is so easy to dislike, but not in a sexist way. You know what I mean? Like I feel like they were intentional about making her suck without it being a gender thing.

Rowan Aldren (above to the left), another main character, is played by the incredible Mia Isaac. I really hope we start seeing more of her going forward. I can’t get too into her character arc without spoilers. Annnd if I could change the storyline, Not Okay would center Rowan. We see a window into Rowan’s healing journey mostly through her relationship with Danni. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Rowan only exists to push Danni’s character development, but it definitely can teeter that way, which happens far too often for Black actors.

This movie surprised me and looking at other reviews, I may be alone in this:

• Richard Lawson from Vanity Fair for example, titled the review, "Not Okay Explores the Dark Side of Viral Fame"
• Steven Vargas from LA Times titles their review, "Commentary: ‘Not Okay’ tries to indict performative activists. Here’s why it falls short"
• The Guardian, " Not Okay review – a just okay satire for the influencer age"
• Lena Wilson (not tooo surprised I don't fully agree with her) from The New York Times, "‘Not Okay’ Review: Posting Through It : In this social media satire, a young woman desperate to find her purpose executes a heinous hoax."

...but hear me out. It was less satire and more of a warning I would say, maybe? Warning might be a bit aggressive, but a statement was made. I'll move on before I make this a 20-page thoroughly researched evidence-based essay of why I disagree with everyone in the bullet points... but just know I am salty.

Despite other opinions, what director Quinn Shepherd did was actually pretty impressive. Especially seeing as most of the social media genre films are thrillers or horrors. But also it wasn't just a superficial attack on social media and the curated lives we feel pushed to portray, it finds a way to probe into this more. Many have reduced it how social media embraces and even warps survivor stories or the same boring story about how social media is bad and vapid.

A main theme of the plot actually aims to discuss the exploitation of Black people's stories, specifically Black girls and women that happens all too much in all of media. A perfect segue into another movie recommendation I have for you that beautifully depicts this, called Illusions, a short film by Julie Dash.

This 1986 film was inducted into the Library of Congress’ National Film Registry by merit of their cultural, historical, and aesthetic qualities and could not be more relevant today. This 30-minute story introduces us to a Black woman, Esther (shown above, on the left) who steps in to be the singing voice for a white Hollywood star in a movie that's being made with no recognition. Additionally there is one scene where the main character, Mignon (shown above, to the right) pitches a story about Native codebreakers and her boss shuts it down. Film critic Patricia Mellencamp has this to say,

"Like the seamless continuity style that conceals its work (e.g., editing, processing, discontinuity), Hollywood cinema has concealed or erased and prohibited the work of people of color, on and off screen."

The overall premise of the movie is a critique of film and aims to present the erasure of Black women's dignity. So maybe you can see the connection I am making in my brain.

One critique of the movie was that Danni's character was too uncomfortable and cringey-which I was afraid of too-but honestly it was a breath of fresh air for me. Like ahh, we are finally validating and acknowledging how harmful some of you are out there to the queer marginalized folks.

Though this film did a lot of great things, I still want to critique that in my humble opinion, I thought it was a bit too empathetic to Danni. Overall though, I will always advocate for more stories centering Black and brown femmes and marginalized folks. So, that will probably 9/10 be my critique until the tv/film industry gets their shit together.

Wrapping it all together, the ending was a chef's kiss. Perfectly portraying that no matter how sorry you are and how much you've grown, the people you hurt while you were figuring that out, don't have to forgive you or let you back into their lives. I won't give too much away, but I found this film surprisingly cathartic and I am thoroughly disappointed with some of the reviewers.