Change Your Image
sienamuehlfeld
Reviews
Not Okay (2022)
Thoughtful Story and Themes
What happens when you grow up with well-off parents in a big house and are insulated from all of life's struggles, are constantly told you are exceptional by your parents your whole childhood, and are given all the opportunities you ever asked for because of your parents' connections? Everything has always been easy for you, at no fault of your own, and even your mistakes and bad behavior have never come back to bite you with much significance.
Then you graduate and are suddenly thrust from your bubble into the world- all of a sudden you're supposed to be a mature and exceptional adult capable of providing the same lifestyle for yourself that your parents always provided for you, and all of a sudden your parents aren't there 24/7 anymore to provide you with a built in community and a feeling of being loved unconditionally. Of course not everyone can be exceptional, and sometimes that means success won't come even when you've had every opportunity laid out for you. And maybe you lack the emotional skills to build or even find authentic community for yourself where you can feel loved- especially in a culture where "success" can come from knowing the "right" people and those "right" people can be shallow and even mean. If, in the context of the real world, you fail when you had every chance at success, there's nobody and nothing to blame but yourself unless you find some sort of delusional narrative to explain it.
When your self-image and lifestyle start so high, inability to maintain these things when you go off on your own would feel earth-shattering, even when your life is still pretty dang good in the moment overall- it's just not what YOU pictured and it seems so much worse compared with what you're used to. Facing failure to live up to your promised "potential", you may experience ego death, and possibly isolation from support and community and a subsequent collapse of your mental health. You were always taught it was possible to do it on your own and when you can't, you may feel something is wrong with you and that you are worthless. But humans were never meant to be so isolated- it takes a village to build each other up and our mental health requires community. But you don't know that your parents did you a disservice by isolating you from the world and teaching damaging lessons. All you know is you've failed to reach your goals and the people you want to be in community with don't want anything to do with you. To curb the pain of this, there can be a desperate and heartless effort to find relevance, redemption, and a return to the comfort you've known. Often this type of reaction causes so much harm to other people.
This movie does a good job of exploring this type of modern coming-of-age experience and where it could lead in an extreme case by portraying a privileged young white woman on the cusp between Millenial and GenZ who is trying to find her place in the world. I am impressed with how the movie explored this very valid human experience while at the same time condemning the protagonist's choices in response to her pain and desires, highlighting exactly why her actions were not ok, and centering how these actions harmed others and herself profoundly.
All Dani's life, she has known things to come so easily- so she became entitled. She was always centered in her youth and was taught that largely whatever she wanted she could have- so she became selfish. We all have pain and our pain is valid, but acting entitled or selfish is so not ok and it can be very harmful to people affected by that behavior. Dani needed to be held accountable for how she acted and the damage she caused needed to be taken very seriously even though when she was telling the lie it seemed like a victimless crime from her perspective. She quickly realized that for her, death and trauma may have been a faraway concept and acting the part was a quirky adventure to lift herself up and develop her own character (showing her selfish qualities), but for people who have really been through trauma Dani's behavior was so insensitive that it could be interpreted as a mockery of their pain and totally heartless, even helping discredit her friend trying to make real change to save real lives. In the movie, Dani also needed to face what was truly important in life (hint: it wasn't online attention), and she needed to learn the type of people that are truly worth investing in (hint: it wasn't the dreamy influencer guy). But she also needed to learn that sometimes too much damage has been done and she can't always get back what she lost. Even so, she learns it is still worth it to learn the lesson and keep trying every day to be better.
To me this is a tragic story and one that does a good job reflecting on our modern society. I don't think Dani is inherently a bad person and I think she is trying her best to respond to her feelings of isolation and inadequacy with the toolbox she knows. I wish it didn't take what happened for her to learn these things and that's part of the tragedy for me- again I feel the way she was brought up did her such a disservice and left her unprepared to get along with her peers in adulthood, and her expectations of easy success and not finding that combined with lack of community left her feeling lost and it crushed her mental health. She is a victim of a toxic culture and society that drains people of their depth of humanity and their connection to authentic community, all with the motivations of profit and power. The movie vilifies white supremacy culture while humanizing the individual people who are brought up in it and legitimizing their struggles which is hard to do, and emphasizes how even the people benefiting from this culture are harmed profoundly by it.
As a young privileged white woman, I really loved this movie and it made me think. It breaks my heart that so many people my age and background feel the way Dani did at the beginning. It inspires me to work towards better. Even though we were dealt a hand that left us with a lot of unproductive habits, once we know we can work through our pain in a healthy way, unlearn many of the damaging lessons we learned about how to build a life and interact with others, and can help channel our energy and talents into a better world for all people. <3.
Ballerina (2016)
Cringey but good animation, etc
You can tell that this was written by a man. Has potential and also has great animation and cool dance sequences, but unrealistic storyline/timeline and very cheesy and clunky writing. The soundtrack is odd also because it's way too poppy and loud for the context. Hated what this teaches about male/female relationships also- the childhood male friend treats the protagonist poorly because she doesn't want to date him and then SHE ends up having to apologize in order for him to stop ghosting her. And he keeps calling her his girlfriend even though she is clearly not. It's really possessive and toxic when there's no reason for it- they should be able to keep a healthy friendship to set a better example for kids with close friends of the opposite gender. Anyways, I was entertained by the movie but I just wish it was less cringey.
Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988)
Pure Entertainment
This movie is excellent. It was made in the 80s so not the best effects, but the writing and acting are great (fits the ridiculousness of the premise but in a good way), and the story is creative and entertaining. Do not eat popcorn or cotton candy while watching this movie. Also my friend thought the "klowns" were cute and friendly looking, but I say no way.
The Hug (2018)
An excellent way to fill your day
If you're bored and looking to kill some time, you will not be disappointed in this choice. 5 mins long but feels like 6. Aidan sucks. Byeeee.
Hush (2016)
This Woman Don't Need No Man
Craig is useless, just like most ex boyfriends. This plotline wasn't a fair fight though- did y'all know this lady is deaf? Also I didn't know fingers bent that way.
The Remains (2016)
Spooky Lookin Lady
Not about it, but the lady was creepy lookin so it has that going for it. Hated her voice though. Didn't care when anyone died. There was no dog... :(
You can watch it if you want, and you might be stressed out the whole time and freaked out a couple times, but nothing about the plot will ever make any sense.