REVIEW: Zoey Deutch Takes Influencer to a Whole New Level in Not Okay

Have you ever wanted something so bad you told a little white lie to try and get it? Did you eventually get what you wanted, but somehow found yourself so deep into your little lie that you realize that you aren’t jsut lying to your friends, but even to yourself? Well that’s exactly what happens to Danni Sanders (Zoey Deutch) in Quinn Shepard’s new film, Not Okay.

In the film, we find Danni trying to make it as an influencer, but failing miserably. In an attempt to impress Colin (Dylan O’Brien), her co-worker/highly successful influencer, Danni takes to her social media to pretend she is living it up in Paris. As her posts grow, things seem to on the up and up for Danni, and her carefully crafted charade, until a terrorist attack takes place in the city. The same city she has been lying about visiting on her social media. Now, to keep up the lie, Danni convinces her followers that she is a survivor of the attacks. But when her once little lie continues to grow more and more out of control, Danni must decide if she will continue her farce or come forward with the truth.

The story is very reminiscent of the fake September 11 survivor, Alicia Esteve Head, also known as Tania Head. Like Danni, Head convinced millions of people that she survived the attacks on the World Trade Center and even created the World Trade Center Survivors’ Network support group. It wasn’t until 6 years later, in 2007, that it was revealed that her whole story was a hoax. The only difference between Head’s story and Danni’s story is Danni convinced people using social media.

Shepard does well meshing this story with the idea of the influencer and culture that surrounds it. We watch as Danni begins to question everything she gave up, and the people she is hurting, to gain her so called stardom. It will make you question, as you watch it, whether or not your favorite influencer is showing you who they really are or are they pretending to be something they’re not like Danni. It is not easy to think that someone you follow every single day could be lying to you, but it will leave your questioning if that is indeed what the influence culture is all about.

Deutch is superb as the naïve Danni. There will be times where you will absolutely hate her character and times where you think you could be friends with her. Dylan O’Brien joins Deutch as fellow influencer Colin and isn’t in it as much as I would have liked but you are guaranteed a fun performance when he is on screen. He literally transforms his entire self for this role and it pays off. Mia Isaac brings to life activist and influencer, Rowan and is great alongside Deutch. Their friendship is the key to this film and the two make it come to life.

If you like Deutch and O’Brien, I would suggest checking this film out. Thankfully, it is being released on Hulu so you can watch it whenever you want because this isn’t a movie, I would suggest running to the movie to see. If you find yourself with a night with nothing on the docket, sit back and check this movie out.

Grade: B