Not Okay

Director: Quinn Shephard
Year Released: 2022
Rating: 0.5

Desperately wanting to be "famous," collect lots of followers on social media and win the affection of popular stoner (and f-boy) Colin (Dylan O'Brien), photo editor Danni (Zoey Deutch) fakes taking a trip to Paris for a "Writer's Retreat" (complete with doctored images of herself) ... but when an actual terror attack takes place there, she exacerbates the false narrative and says she's a survivor, even befriending school shooting victim and activist Rowan (Mia Isaac).  The topic itself is relevant for the times (flexing on the 'gram and all that) and Deutch does her best (ranging from cocky to emotionally devastated by the backlash for her Big Lie), but the whole thing is telegraphed well in advance so you know exactly what's going to happen ... and it does what so many movies for Zoomers tend to do in lecturing its audience (it unwisely ends with a slam poem).  Early on, Danni's co-worker Harper (Nadia Alexander) mutters "I hate straight people" and it's somehow "acceptable" (later, she's the "righteous" one who "uncovers" the scam), but imagine if in another movie a character said the exact opposite of that: Twitter would explode.  And if anything, I think it's too harsh on its lead: yes, she made a mistake, but she's a human being and that's what we do.  It's not like she gassed the Kurds.