By: Amanda Guarragi
We definitely need more films with a female friendship at the forefront that handles the exploration of identity. Luckily for us, Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne’s directorial feature debut, AM I OK? gives us two best friends, Lucy (Dakota Johnson) and Jane (Sonoya Mizuno) go through big life changes together. It has become clearer that so many people haven’t truly discovered themselves and who they are yet. We have been conditioned to think that your identity, or even your life, by the age of 30-years-old needs to be fully formed and established. But that’s just not the case for so many of us now because now, it seems like people value their time on this Earth a bit more, and they want to authentically live life as freely as possible instead of repressing any part of themselves.
If you’re lucky enough to have a best friend who is more like a sibling to you, then definitely hold onto them tight because they will always know what’s best for you. Lucy and Jane are the best of friends. They finish each other’s sentences, predict every detail of each other’s food order, and pretty much know everything about each other. Johnson and Mizuno had such a natural chemistry that just brought so much comfort while watching the film. Their banter back and forth was so much fun, but the emotional moments shared between the two of them is where they both really shined. When Lucy finds out that Jane has been promoted at work and agrees to move to London for her new position, Lucy confesses her deepest, long-held secret: She likes women, she has for a while, and is completely terrified to come to this realization later-in-life.
It’s true when they say that after college, everyone just takes on their own path and life in your late twenties feels like a competition because everyone has taken on a different priority. Some people are already married with a home and a newborn, others are travelling, and some are just focusing on their careers. After watching AM I OK? – which will eventually become a comfort film for so many – there is no right way to live life. What may work for others, won’t necessarily work for you, and that’s okay. Notaro and Allynne made a film that shows how everyone moves at their own pace and that life is filled with so many opportunities to grow. It shows that you can reinvent yourself, that you can question every single thing about yourself, and it’s okay. There’s so much comfort in knowing that others are going through the same thing, especially later in life.
AM I OK? will resonate with so many because life continuously changes and it feels like an endless wave crashing down. When one thing goes right, something else can go wrong, and we learn to roll with the punches, even if some are more difficult to process than others. Even if life can get crazy and you get caught up in it, there will always be those people closest to you, who truly know you, to ground you and help you through those moments. We all have our person and it was just really beautiful to see such a strong and loving female friendship on screen. Even though this pairing worked wonderfully together, Dakota Johnson gives such an endearing performance and it’s just lovely to have Lucy as a character.
Candid Cinema 