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Zoey Deutch in “Not Okay (Photo: Nicole Rivelli / Searchlight Pictures) and BJ Novak in “Vengeance” (Photo: Patti Perret / Focus Features)

In an era where so many people want to turn themselves into online brands, what’s the difference between personal fulfillment and successful brand management? That’s the question at the heart of two provocative dark comedies released this week: BJ Novak’s directorial debut “Vengeance” and Quinn Shephard’s sophomore feature film “Not Okay.”

Together they serve as a portrait of two sides of millennial self-absorption: “Vengeance” follows a late 1930s/early 1940s “Xennial” (Novak) who tries to milk a vague personal connection to create a true crime podcast. while “Not Okay” follows a 1920s “Zillennial” (Zoey Deutch) who becomes an Instagram influencer by pretending to survive a terrorist bombing.

Both films use a curious, sometimes contradictory array of tones to explore the buzz of our current social media era. And while imperfect but captivating in their own right, they’re even more intriguing as a dual function. Read on for more thoughts on each.

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Not good (streaming on Hulu)

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Dylan O’Brien and Zoey Deutch in the movie NOT OKAY. Photo by Nicole Rivelli. Thanks to Searchlight Pictures. © 2022 20th Century Studios All rights reserved

The opening act of “Not Okay” plays like a dark satirical riff on “Emily In Paris”. To make her privileged yet mundane life look more impressive online, photo editor/proclaimed writer Danni Sanders (an enchanting Zoey Deutch) decides to fake a trip to Paris for a weekend on Instagram. But when the city is hit by a series of bombings near where Danni posted her last faked photo, she sees an even faster path to online and personal influence: pretend to be a traumatized survivor who is bravely willing to share her story.

WATCH TUBI FOR FREE: Zoey Deutch in the provocative teen drama “Flower” — download the app

It’s a bitingly bitter lineup that 27-year-old writer/director Quinn Shephard fills with the details of someone deeply immersed in the world of YouTube reaction videos and emotional Insta stories, capped off with the perfect emoji. (Dylan O’Brien definitely nails the filthy energy of a bleached blonde weed influencer.) “Not Okay” begins with a cheeky warning that the movie features “flashing lights, trauma themes, and an unlikely female lead,” and the first act slides in on that one. happy satirical energy.

But around 30 minutes, “Not Okay” makes a bold change of tone. Wanting to refresh her story with more lived-in specificity, Danni decides to attend a support group for survivors of violence. There, one of the attendees reveals that he was at the bombing of the Ariana Grande concert in 2017. Another named Rowan (Mia Isaac) is the teenager who survived a shooting at a Parkland-esque school that killed 23 of her classmates.

Suddenly, the film’s stakes skyrocket as “Not Okay” weaves these evocations of real violence into its heightened social media satire. A big part of what makes “Not Okay” so compulsively watchable is whether Shephard can pull such an awkward tonal tightrope, especially since Danni and Rowan develop a warm relationship as friends and activists; the real trauma of the latter stands in stark contrast to the smooth self-centeredness of the former.

WATCH TUBI FOR FREE: Quinn Shephard’s Feature Film Debut “Blame” download the app

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Mia Isaac and Zoey Deutch in the movie NOT OKAY. Thanks to Searchlight Pictures. © 2022 20th century

Shephard succeeds more than she fails, with a provocative tone without ever letting “Not Okay” fall into bad taste. If anything, she might be a little too mellow in the back half of the film, as “Not Okay” shifts into more straight-forward dramatic territory. The classy film eventually struggles to find its centerpiece among the sheer number of digital age themes crammed into its internet scammer story. Still, the noticeable brutality of what Shephard is trying to do coupled with the great work of a uniformly great cast makes this offbeat satire worthy of a “like and subscribe.”

Grade B

Rated R. 102 minutes. Direction: Quinn Shephard. Of: Zoey Dutch, Dylan O’BrienMia Isaac, Embeth Davidtz, Nadia AlexanderTia Dionne Hodge, Negin Farsad, Karan Sonic, Dash Perry. “Not Okay” is being streamed on Hulu.

Revenge (in theaters)

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(L to R) Boyd Holbrook as Ty Shaw and BJ Novak as Ben Manalowitz in VENGEANCE, written and directed by BJ Novak and released by Focus Features. Credit: Patti Perret / Focus Features

At first glance, “Vengeance” seems like a typical fish-out-of-water comedy: Ben Manalowitz (writer/director BJ Novak) is a smug, commitment-phobic Brooklyn journalist who pays an extended visit to the small town of West Texas, where it sticks out like a Harvard sweatshirt at a monster truck rally. But that comical cultural divide is just one of many things Novak has in mind in his feature film debut, which doubles as a contemporary social think piece and a real thriller.

In other words, it’s a movie about a true crime podcast! After being somewhat unlikely to be roped in to attend the funeral of a casual affair named Abilene (Lio Tipton), Ben sees an opportunity to create an “existential crime story” about the modern state of America (and a dead white girl, of course). . You see, even though Abilene died of a drug overdose, her brother Ty (Boyd Holbrook) is convinced she was murdered by a drug cartel. And under the guise of investigating Abilene’s death, Ben decides to make a podcast about a small-town conservative urge to turn to conspiracy theories to explain life’s problems away. But the deeper Ben digs, the more secrets he reveals – and the more he begins to question his own assumptions in the big city.

WATCH TUBI FOR FREE: BJ Novak Helps Wounded War Veterans Find Their Voice in “Comedy Warriors”download the app

As he proved with his 2021 FX show ‘The Premise’, Novak has clearly spent his post-‘Office’ years thinking deeply about the state of the world. And while the mix of tones in his feature film debut is occasionally reminiscent of the work of the Coen brothers, Novak’s overt intellectualism gives “Vengeance” its own unusual rhythms. You never know exactly where it’s going, and that’s the best part about it. And Novak gets great supporting twists from actors playing three very different Texan flavors: Ashton Kutcher, J. Smith-Cameron, and most importantly, Holbrook.

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(L to R) Ashton Kutcher as Quentin Sellers and BJ Novak as Ben Manalowitz in VENGEANCE, written and directed by BJ Novak and released by Focus Features. Credit: Patti Perret / Focus Features

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It’s a shame, then, that the film is about half as clever and thought-provoking as it thinks it is. “Vengeance” has too much on his mind to fully comprehend as Novak jumps from ideas about commitment-free modern dating to the human cost of the opioid crisis to the tribal divides of online “hot take” culture. And in an effort not to patronize the Texans one way, Novak ends up patronizing them another, celebrating the “authenticity” of their small town in a way that just feels deep. “Vengeance” turns out to be a bit of a morality game in the end with a moral that feels undeserved. Still, the journey there is unique enough (and funny enough) to recommend.

Grade B-

Rated R. 107 minutes. Direction: BJ Nova. Of: BJ Nova, Boyd Holbrook, Dove CameronIssa Rae, Ashton KutcherIsabella Amara, J. Smith-Cameron, Lio Tipton, John Mayer. “Vengeance” is currently in theaters.

Make it a double function with “Bad influence,” free streaming on Tubi

Bad influence (2022): Single mom Joan (Jennie Garth, “Beverly Hills, 90210”) is overjoyed when her daughter finally makes friends at her new high school. However, it soon becomes clear that this group of students follows their own moral code that is strange, self-centered and potentially dangerous. “Bad influence” is a Tubi Original. Rated TV-14. 89 minutes. Direction: William Corcoran. Of: Jennie Garth, Kayleigh Shikanai, Devin Cecchetto, Vinson Tran, Christian Martyn, Austin Ball, Pamela Johnson, Kudakwashe Rutendo.

“Bad Influence” will be streamed for free on Tubidownload the app

How to watch “Not Okay” and “Vengeance”

“Not Okay” is being streamed on Hulu. “Vengeance” is showing in theaters across the country; it is currently not available to stream.

About the writer: Caroline Siede is a film and TV critic in Chicago, where she never suffers from the cold anyway. A member of the Chicago Film Critics Association, she lovingly analyzed the romantic comedy genre film by film for four years in her When Romance Met Comedy column for The AV Club. She also co-hosts the movie podcast, Roll calland shares her thoughts on pop culture on Twitter (@carolinesiede).

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