I am a big fan of Tig Notaro so when I heard that she was directing her first full length movie it was a no brainer that I was going to check it out. It did not disappoint. The movie is called Am I Ok and was just released on HBO this week. It tells the story of Lucy (Dakota Johnson) a 30-something who is just coming to realize and accept that she is a lesbian. As she struggles to come to grips with this new truth her best friend announces she is moving, throwing her life into more chaos.
The first thing I have to say is that I am so grateful this exists just from a conceptual point of view. The number of movies that showcase a teenager coming to grips with their orientation is without number but a film depicting how a person can take a long time to understand themselves is also needed. Due to a variety of circumstances, it took me till I was almost forty to be able to confidently state a lot of things about who I was, even to myself. This movie made me feel a little scene and that is hard to put a price tag on.
The movie itself is exceptional. It feels honest and adult. The flick starts out Lucy being lost as she attempts to navigate a straight relationship. This combined with her best friend Jane (Sonoya Mizuno) moving out of the country causes her to get drunk and then confess that she thinks, maybe she might like girls. This launches Lucy into a wayward path of self-discovery filled with disappointments, conflicts with her friends, and ultimately acceptance. The other thing I was so grateful for was that they did not take the obvious routes with the relationship of the best friends. I don’t want to spoil things but there is a way a lot of these movies go, and they did not go there.
The cast is great. Dakota Johnson plays Lucy with a nuanced feel that showcases both her resignation but also her need to fight for a better life, even if she might be the thing she has to overcome. Sonoya Mizuno as Jane, lucy’s best friend, also does a remarkable job, making Jane funny, charming and at times aggravating. In other words, human.
This is currently out on MAX and should definitely go to the top of your viewing list.
Paper Phoenix ink 