Movies about getting too famous too fast and sacrificing integrity to get there are nothing new – but Quinn Shephard’s second film”Not goodwhich premiered July 29 on Hulu, gives the genre a new context. In the age of TikTok and social media, virality has never been so close at hand, and it’s possible for anyone to be famous as long as they have a story.
Danni Sanders (Zoey Deutch), a friendless photo editor employed at a Buzzfeed-esque digital magazine called Depravity, decides to put her Photoshop skills to good use by posting photos from a fake trip to Paris. She manages to catch the eye of her work crush Colin (Dylan O’Brien), a perpetually stoned influencer who serves as grumpy comic relief. But a fake photo of her at the Arc de Triomphe that she posts minutes before a devastating terrorist attack sends her lying into a catastrophic spiral. After sending worried text messages from family and Instagram insurance, Danni makes the decision to pretend she was present during the attack rather than admit her mistake. From there, her fame skyrockets, leading to a promotion at work and an unsatisfying affair with Colin. Eventually, she takes her lie too far and inevitably gets caught, and her fame sinks into scandal.
Danni’s character is meant to be as unlikable as possible. Virtually every decision she makes is completely indefensible, and she experiences no character growth, let alone a redemption arc. Her worst offense is attending a support group for terrorist survivors to make her story more believable and befriending Rowan Aldren (Mia Isaac), a young gun violence activist who has survived a school shooting that killed her older sister. Danni grows closer to the girl to escape her fame, and even when she begins to sincerely like her, she feels no real remorse for her lies until a suspicious co-worker threatens to report her. Even at the end of the film, she confesses that she doesn’t feel like she’s learned anything.
Therein lies the ultimate question of Shephard’s film: Danni is repulsive in every way imaginable, and every scene demands that the audience scoffs and throws popcorn at the screen; so when the death threats and hateful slurs start arriving in Danni’s inbox, should the same audience feel sympathy?
The internet often values its celebrities more than they deserve. Aided and abetted by the warp speed and global reach of social media, fame is so instantaneous and all-consuming these days that everyday people are elevated to idol status before fans even really get to know them. Given that virality happens so suddenly, it shouldn’t be surprising that it’s just as sudden when that fame goes downhill. If the backlash from celebrity mistakes were nuanced and constructive, speed wouldn’t be an issue. But of course, criticism on the Internet never is.
Danni represents the brand of instant stardom that modern social media has spawned: both error-prone and utterly ill-equipped to handle the rapid shift from constant praise to overwhelming hate. Danni’s case is extreme, as she’s actually guilty of everything people accuse her of, but the film still manages to trace the catastrophic rise and fall to fame in the age of the internet.
Although at first it may seem like Danni receives everything that happens to him and more, the consequences of his actions are eventually rendered ineffective in teaching him any kind of lesson. Although her parents aren’t happy with her, she can return to the comfortable home she grew up in for free, and it seems that as long as she’s wearing a baseball cap, she’s largely – albeit inexplicably – unrecognizable in public. Danni’s wealth, whiteness, and attractiveness all shield her from the repercussions she would receive if it weren’t for her privilege, making it even harder to garner sympathy for her. She is unhappy, but she has always been unhappy; now she just has a better purpose.
It’s unclear whether “Disagree” is Shephard weaving an uplifting monkey’s paw tale with a modern twist or just testing how much she can make audiences hate Zoey Deutch. Either way, the movie is undeniably hellish to watch. Newcomer Isaac delivers a standout performance as the film’s only likable character, but even beloved actors like Deutch and O’Brien play loathsome and sometimes painful-to-watch characters. “Not Okay” is 103 minutes of pure second-hand embarrassment, and while Shephard leaves it up to the viewer to feel sorry for Danni or not, not even the exceptionally kind Rowan is able to forgive him.
The style, dialogue, and plot of “Not Okay” make the film perfectly representative of the current phase of the internet (or perhaps the 2021 internet). The “get famous” story arc itself is nothing new, but Shephard has done a stellar job of contextualizing the classic tale into a specific cultural moment. With Danni’s Technicolor avant-garde basic wardrobe and ubiquitous pop culture references, “Not Okay” already feels a little dated, and there’s no telling whether this time capsule of a movie will be deemed amusing or mortifying ten years from now. Perhaps choices like Danni’s thick blonde locks indicate that the trend cycle is moving almost as fast as the fame cycle. Or maybe Shephard just wanted to embarrass the internet by handing him a mirror.