We meet Danny (Kelley Kali) and her inquisitive, bubbly daughter Wes (Wesley Moss) cooped up in the stifling heat of a cheap tent that has been erected just far enough from the highway to keep its location discrete. Danny is cultivating a benign ruse in telling her darling daughter that they’re on holiday – it’s an adventure! The grim reality is that, when her husband suddenly died during the Covid-19 pandemic, he left them with no financial provision – not out of spite, more that he genuinely didn’t believe his time would be up so soon.
The simple set-up of Kali and Angelique Molina’s well-intentioned if slight and derivative debut feature sees Danny dropping off Wes at a friend’s house as she (literally) puts her skates on with the aim of raking in enough money across a single day to make the required deposit to secure a local housing unit. All this takes in customised hair-braiding, food delivery, and visits to pawn shops and friends who might be able to spare the odd buck. All the while, she tries to keep her spirits high as the annoyances, microaggressions and moral temptations pile up among her friends and clientele.
The title, I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking), is a reference to Danny’s flustered mindset where she’s being forced to be pleasant to people while under great emotional duress. The way Kali shades the character makes it easy to root for her, and her sense of drive and determination is without reproach. Although, there are a couple of scenes where she does let her guard down and strays from the path (a quick joint ends up placing a major downer on the day), and these moments feel too studied and contrived to really hit home, like character flaws for the sake of them.
The individual interactions work well, yet they all add up to a film that isn’t doing very much that even the most casual of moviegoer won’t have seen before. The race against the clock; the wanting to do right by her daughter; the lack of empathy for those who are also in a similar boat; the ghost of the departed husband – all of this is delivered with a sickly strain of sentimentalism that always comes across as the easiest way out of a dramatic situation.
Aesthetically, it does what it needs to do, with the cold digital photography instantly creating a visual shorthand for that period of post-pandemic malaise, capturing the weird, almost apocalyptic desolation of a somewhat non-descript LA suburb. The film sorely lacks for surprise or tension, even while it does offer a likably earnest survey of the economic hole that many found themselves in while the world got sick.
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ANTICIPATION.
American indie from two women directors about life in the post-pandemic slump. Could go either way. 3
ENJOYMENT.
There’s some pep to the performances, but the drama is predictable and meandering. 3
IN RETROSPECT.
A watered-down version of a movie someone like Sean Baker makes so well. 2
Directed by
Kelley Kali, Angelique Molina
Starring
Kelley Kali, Wesley Moss, Dominique Molina
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