Writer-director Quinn Shephard explains everything that informed her new dark comedy about an Instagram ruse gone very wrong.
Not Okayis one of the most on-line movies to date . Writer - director Quinn Shephard ’s unexampled film may not be a thriller rig on a screen or depict anonline challenge , but it does have a BuzzFeed - sports meeting - Vice - like workplace , cameos from vloggers , TikTokfashion , influencer parties , doom - scrolling , and tragedies sprinkled across newsworthiness feeds . The dark comedy ( now stream on Hulu ) understands the ways in which the internet download itself offline and into our realities , and the anxieties that can come in with that .
Shephard ’s movie revolves around Zoey Deutch ’s character Danni , a 20 - something Brooklynite who feels so hopelessly alone and unsatiated with herself that she turns to her Instagram following for attention . Putting her picture - editor acquirement to use , she fabricates a trip to a writing seminar in Paris , which seems like the perfect scam until Paris is struck by a terrorist plan of attack while Danni is supposedly there . Rather than lumber off , Danni doubles down on her newfound " influencer " status , making for a sarcasm that ’s as screaming as it is terrifying in its bill of indictment of white and prerogative .
In many ways , Not Okayfeels like something you ’d amount across the second you open up an app . Danni ’s scammer account might be the latest rage to go viral , Mia Isaac ’s teenage activistic reference Rowan could be someone you follow , and a news show item about the latest tragedy would appear alongside their post . To create such striking realness in the film , as well as a colorfulness and a sharp sense of liquid body substance and tension , Shephard bet to her own social medium and beyond . While she says the mind for the motion picture was like a " strange lightning - bolt second " that " hit [ her ] as a conception out of nowhere , " she want to do as much research for it as possible . Shephard explored chiseller and people who falsify survival history , consuming whatever clause , podcast , or documentary film she could , reading book like Jon Ronson’sSo You ’ve Been publically Shamed , and much more . To realise how the very lumber - on world ofNot Okaycame together , we spoke to the filmmaker about everything that animate it , from her favorite films to genuine - life influencers .
Design by Maitane Romagosa for Thrillist / Photo by Brigitte Lacombe
Scammers and our toxic internet consumption
Danni ’s Instagram cozenage — originally coming from a place of depression and tending - quest — doesn’t seem all that high - stakes to begin with . But because her uncaring choices are copulate with real - macrocosm implications , like terrorism geopolitics and personal injury , thing quick spiral out of control and become harmful . The basis for that came directly from the author - director ’s own social medium feed .
I part working onNot Okayin 2018 . The " summer of scam " was definitely on the top of my mind — a lot of those think piece in The Cut , likeCaroline Callowayand theAnna Delveystory — but so were these YouTube documentary film with Jeffree Star and James Charles , like pre - Shane Dawson cancellationYouTube .
That was all pop off on when I was first descend up with the conception for this — as was the bedlam in America . There were also a lot of really horrible , not - amusing things going on , like emanation in school shooting and Trump . It was decidedly seeing that freaky mashup [ in our acculturation ] that I was like , " No one would ever guess to put these two things in a film together , but that ’s actually the reality that we live in every single twenty-four hour period when we check our phones . " You go on Twitter and it ’s a headline about James Charles next to a newspaper headline about a mass shot — and that ’s what we ’ve all accept as our reality . So I was like , " If I really challenged myself to make a film about that , how would that feel ? "
Influencers and microtrend TikTok fashion
The pic ’s colourful fashion — featuring Y2K - pep up looks , loud , geometrical print , and playful make-up — draw heavily from influencer style and the manner that TikTok has generalise microtrends . Danni ’s wardrobe is fundamentally whatever is " in " that calendar month , at least according to what she ascertain on her speech sound . In fact , the style is so on - stop that , leading up to the film ’s acquittance , TikTokkershave bestow care to how " see " the picture ’s wearing apparel look . Based on her influencer - heavy inquiry , it ’s a joke that Shephard and her costume house decorator Sarah Laux are very much in on .
It was really delineate for Danni as a grapheme that she does n’t know what she want or what she wish on an constitutional stage . She ’s looking to be told what she like by her headphone and the refinement around her . I wanted her panache to always feel like she was digesting everything around her and throw it all together , rather than coming from a genuine place . We pulled from so many unlike blank space for inhalation because we were like , " So much media saturation does distil down to a million little microtrends . "
The costume designer [ Sarah Laux ] and I had a joke that Danni was an Emma Chamberlain buff — so I ’ve seen pretty much every Emma Chamberlain video . I really was like , " I have to immerse myself ! " I spent a lot of time on TikTok . I followed all the Instagram coolheaded girls on this one account so that I could keep air my costume designer photos and microtrends . I also deeply dived onDevon Lee Carlson , Bella Hadid , Tana Mongeau , andJames Charles . It was interesting to opine about how all of the big influence distilled down to Danni . Like , she ’ll take a colored center shadow from one individual , but then a T - shirt from another , and then this apparel from this interior designer who always dresses the Kardashians .
Zoey Deutch in ‘Not Okay’|Searchlight Pictures/Hulu
We also drop a lot of time verbalize about what earned run average she would be influenced by , and we both immediately felt it was Y2K. It was n’t just because it ’s on - trend — we both felt like Danni has an involuntariness to grow up , and it would be really fun for her to gravitate towards candy - colored ring and mountain range on her speech sound , and it was this idea of , " She like stuff that ’s almost childlike and colorful , because she feel so hoar and bleak all the time on the interior that she ’s looking at thing from when she was well-chosen when she was 12 . " There ’s this nostalgia for halfway school that she has that definitely inspires some of her color palette .
We knew when we were making the movie that [ the microtrends would date it ] . We were like , " Microtrends are in for a month . " When we did the Lisa enunciate Gah peace - sign pants , we were like , " These will not be a matter when the movie comes out ! " But is n’t that kind of the stop , because right now , it ’s so odd ? You go to thrift stores or yard cut-rate sale and see last summer ’s microtrends , which is a major topic that we ’re make thing cool for a month and then we ’re capture rid of them . The irony is that Danni ’s closet would just be stocked full of SHEIN knockoffs of every microtrend — interracial with expensive clobber because her parents were rich . We think it was funny that she ’s still assume the thing that were hyper - internet a couple months ago .
Complex, unlikable characters
WhenNot Okaybegins , it includes a content monition that apprize the interview they ’re about to be confronted with an " unlikable female protagonist . " It ’s a bitter joke with which to sound off off the film . It was important to Shephard , though , to explore the complexity of that recording label , painting Danni as both somewhat relatable and also unforgivable .
One book that Zoey and Mia [ Isaac ] both study that I love as a mention for this is Kylie Reid’sSuch a Fun Age . It ’s about slightly unlike topics , but also has a batch of parallels . It follows two cleaning lady in the dynamic of a white woman who hires a vernal woman of color to learn her tike , and it ’s tell from both of their perspectives . It ’s such a splendid and uncomfortable indictment of privilege . It was something I wanted us to all read and talk about before we did the film , because you do n’t bug out out feeling polarized in the white charwoman ’s perspective . As a white-hot char reading it , you go in being like , " I understand her . " The percentage point is that it ’s so uncomfortable in its relatability .
With this , I wanted Danni to feel relatable and not like aNightcrawleror anAmerican Psychokind of protagonist — specifically because I want people to find uncomfortable in how they relate to Danni and to make them be like , " All right , cool . How do I do some body of work on myself so that I am not Danni ? " because that ’s sort of the end . If you make someone a psychopath , it ’s really soft to go , " I ’m never going to be like this . This could never be me . "
‘I, Tonya’|NEON/30 West
That being said , a lot of the best deterrent example of irony filmmaking with unlikable protagonists have been human being , just because I call up there ’s a existent fear around financing and distributing films like this with women at the center . It ’s something I have never stopped hearing with the picture show , and it was great to have [ the roll and crew ] on card with a character like Danni to make a command .
There have been a lot of great films that really comprehend and attack civilisation through unlikable men , but [ only a few with women that issue forth up in conversation aroundNot Okay.]I , Tonyawas one of the good examples . That was a really big visual breathing in , but I love the way that movie handle her character . Election , too , came up a lot , but only to help people understand , " Yes , there was a successful movie with an unlikable woman in it . "
Korean thrillers
Shephard wanted to make a feeling of tensity withinNot Okay , even down to the cinematography . She look to many movies for references , but some that stood out to her the most were from Korean filmmaker likeBong Joon Ho , Park Chan - wook , and others .
I was really impacted by Korean thriller for this . It seems like a strange reference , but there is a fear to the movie . It ’s funny that some critics are read that it ’s almost a modern - Clarence Shepard Day Jr. horror movie , because I want there to be a lot of tension and a mint of visual humor . Old Boy , for example , has that where there ’s actually a lot of frame that makes you laugh , but it also has tension . Obviously , I loveParasite .
I also looked at a lot of Chung - hoon Chung cinematography . Even in some of his American work , likeMe and Earl and the Dying Girl , there ’s so much ingenuity in the cinematography . I went through a stage a span year ago where I was watching a net ton of Korean thrillers , and there ’s a very specific sort of cinematography that I answer to .
‘Oldboy’|Show East/CJ Entertainment
Dark comedies and her favorite films
Not Okayis a very rum movie , largely because you ’re laughing through the secondhand superfluity of Danni ’s cringe - worthy decision . It ’s also a very dark movie , never holding back in its geographic expedition of thoughtless influencer acculturation , clout - chasing , and lawful harm . It do good sense that some of the movies that stuck with Shephard when making the film were iconic dark comedy and sarcasm .
I have a go at it sheer satires and dark comedies . I grew up being bear on by films likeAmerican Beauty , Heathers , andElection . Those were some of my favorite film when I was younger . As for modern flick , I love poppycock likeSorry to Bother You , Blindspotting , andThe Square , which is a Norse film that is one of the sound societal satires . It also has one of the tensest and most incredible cinematic scene that I ’ve ever seen .
In television , I was really inspire byFleabagandI May Destroy You , which are two of my best-loved show . It ’s so incredible how Michaela Coel allows you to talk about consent and rape , and express joy at the same prison term . It is a Brobdingnagian feat , and so personal and so beautiful . PEN15 , too , which is maybe a strange citation for this , but cringe comedy and how it ’s personal to girlhood — that show is always a reference work for me .
‘Do the Right Thing’|Universal Pictures
ButDo the Right Thingwas a big reference for me , andNetwork , which is an sr. photographic film , but has a lot of societal commentary in it . I feel like I walk away from irony with more of a all the way - cut , " Shit , I really feel touch on by this because I lease myself get tricked into comfort by the movie . " Like , Do the Right Thingstarts out and you are glad watch out that movie , but by the ending , you ’re crying and like , " Holy shit . "
Those kinds of movies are just always what I really responded to . I think you ’re drawn to the moving-picture show that muse the way that you process things in the man , and I try my good to process darkness with humor . There ’s something about satire where the humor almost give up you to get more inside the reality of issues . I have always loved the literary genre because I feel like I try on to be very analytic and decisive of the populace around me — even my own action mechanism , what I ’m doing , how I feel , and how that ’s been affect by outside effect . Satire has just always been a big style to deconstruct the social clime , and I call up , through humor , it permit you to put up it more .
This consultation was edited and digest for clarity .
