Am I OK? Female friendship and coming out

Am I OK? has had a mixed reception. It was written by Lauren Pomerantz and directed by Stephanie Allynne and Tig Notaro. It stars Dakota Johnson and Kiersey Clemons. With those credentials, I pretty much HAD to watch it.

Am I OK? was either going to be a passé coming out story or a brilliant look at repression and sexuality. It was also a story about female friendship. I found the latter to be the heart of the story, with the subplot of one of the friends finally admitting her sexuality being less important.

Lucy (Dakota Johnson) and Jane (Sonoya Mizuno) were best friends. They knew everything about each other. They shared everything – almost.

Jane had a long-time boyfriend named Danny (Jermaine Fowler). She encouraged Lucy to finally get together with the upstairs neighbor Ben (Whitmer Thomas) who had a thing for her. But Lucy didn’t date much and wasn’t attracted to Ben.

Things changed when the touchy-feely and flirty massage therapist Brittany (Kiersey Clemons) came to work at the spa where Lucy worked. Lucy was SO attracted to her she could hardly function.

About the same time, Jane’s boss (Sean Hayes) asked her to go to London to open a branch office for their firm there. When she told Lucy about the move, Lucy got totally wasted on tequila and finally confessed to Jane that she thought she liked women. She was shamed by it and at 32 years old thought it was too late to entertain the notion that she was a lesbian.

The arc between the two friends ran like a romcom. They were together. They couldn’t deal with the idea of Jane going to London and had a huge fight. Then they made up for the happy ending.

During the fracture between the two friends, Lucy had a night of sex with Brittany, started going on dates with women, and returned to her first love, painting. There was lots of growth for Lucy’s character.

Jane was dealing with a goofy workmate named Kat played by Molly Gordon who would be going to London with her. Lucy hated Kat. Kat dragged Jane to a “hammock” retreat where Tig Notaro did a hilarious turn as a wellness guru.

Overall I found the film a pleasant romp. It was touching and funny. Dakota Johnson did “repressed” believably. In summary, I enjoyed it. It’s not the definitive comedy about LGBTQ life, which I guess some people thought would come from Tig Notaro and Stephanie Allynne. But it’s worth watching, in my opinion. It’s streaming on Max.

If I had to pick something the film was most like, I’d point to Geek Girl. That series involved two best girlfriends, one of them different and misunderstood, and the romcom-like arc of their friendship.

Feel free to share your opinion in the comments.