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Nov 14, 2023

Shattered Glass: The Forgotten Gem You Should Stream If You Liked Not Okay

Like Not Okay, Shattered Glass revolves around someone who would do anything for

Like Not Okay, Shattered Glass revolves around someone who would do anything for attention - including lie to the entire world.

If you've been on Hulu or TikTok in the past month, you're probably at least vaguely familiar with the new Zoey Deutch-headed film Not Okay. The feature from Quinn Shephard sees Deutch as an "unlikable female protagonist," i.e., an ambitious journalist willing to do anything for attention. Mostly from that of her vape-god coworker (played by a bleached and tatted Dylan O'Brien), but also the world in general. The film lives up to its promise - Danni Sanders is definitely not very likable, as she lies to the whole world that she witnessed a terrorist attack in Paris. We get to see just how deep Danni is willing to go with that lie (if her lie were a pool, it would certainly be safe to dive), and who she hurts in its midst.

Despite the polarizing reviews it's elicited from audiences and critics alike, Not Okay has been heralded as one of those "movies for our times" - or, at least, about our times. On the surface, it seems to have fallen into the "society is a mess" trend that has emerged within cinema over recent years, capturing just how horrifyingly insipid and soulless us Zoomers are. However, despite how much Not Okay might be so particularly Gen-Z - Danni does, after all, write for a magazine called Depravity - it's not the first film to unravel the case of the attention-craven journalist. Shattered Glass, a tragically-overshadowed gem from yesterday, did the same, in an equally gripping and revealing fashion.

Unlike Not Okay, Billy Ray's film is based on real-life events that occurred during the late '90s. Stephen Glass was one of the hottest young writers for The New Republic (a political journal a bit different from Depravity), until it was eventually discovered via internal investigation that many of Glass's stories were either partly false or entirely fabricated. In the film, we follow a play-by-play of the investigation, but, more importantly, Glass's rise to fame and acclaim. No one ever believed a guy like him could do such a thing - or get away with it for so long. Both Not Okay and Shattered Glass test the limits of not just these peoples' lies, but also how much of it we are willing to believe.

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Both Zoey Deutch and a Clones-era Hayden Christensen are deeply compelling in their portraits of relentless narcissists. In Not Okay, it's clear from the get-go that Danni has a unique set of morals, as she pitches ideas like "FOMO For 9/11" to her editor. There are very few things that Danni wouldn't write in order to boost her social following. Does that make her an inherently bad person? If she is callous, she is also almost sympathetic at times. This is the person who unironically - or maybe ironically? - does the two-fingers-together emoji in real life. Danni will not just lie, though, but leverage others for her own gain, as she does a 17-year-old gun control activist and school shooting survivor.

Stephen Glass is a different sort of narcissist. Throughout the film, Christensen plays him as nervy, anxious, and a debilitating people pleaser. The real Stephen Glass, according to interviews and his former coworkers, definitely seemed to possess these qualities. He is constantly on the defensive - when he's called into his editor's office, he immediately asks "What did I do?" Always is Stephen looking panicked, wondering, "Did I do something wrong?" On the other hand, Danni jumps through hoops to prove that she didn't. In either case, the desire for attention has squandered Danni and Stephen's most human qualities. Despite differences in tone throughout each film, either of their journeys are equally devastating in this way.

Not Okay and Shattered Glass show us just what it's like to be a journalist in America, on two very different ends of the spectrum. Stephen Glass works for The New Republic, which he brags to bright-eyed students as the "in-flight magazine of Air Force One." The offices are sterile, the editors overbearing, and the mood certainly serious - but, as such a prestigious magazine, it is also a place of profound inspiration. Stephen is a tidal wave against mundane reporting. Where his coworkers are working on that "story about Haiti," he writes about a hacker convention where a vulgar 15-year-old blackmailed a software firm. For The New Republic and the public at large, Glass's zany stories were a godsend - even if they were too good to be true.

Meanwhile, Depravity has an office space that doesn't have any doors. Danni's coworkers go "queer bowling" after work, and everything is extremely brightly-colored. By writing about the terrorist attack that she allegedly witnessed, Danni wants to make people feel things are serious and real. Both Danni's and Stephens's articles get them instantly famous, for opposite reasons. Both movies are a fascinating reveal on how the media drives our attention, and to what different ends.

Related: Hayden Christensen Says Obi-Wan Kenobi Make-Up Process Helped His Darth Vader Performance

Not Okay opens with Danni holed up in her room crying, because she is "the most hated person in the world." We overhear a voice on her computer - "Danni Sanders might be the most hated person we've covered on this show. And we've covered Hitler." But then the film backtracks, and reveals its story to us in perfectly-paced chapters, the last of which is titled "I Don't Get a Redemption Arc." Danni is, to a certain extent, forced to face the reality of her actions, but not necessarily all their consequences, just yet. Danni's crying face, her regret that seems at least partially genuine, makes us sympathize with her. For a second.

Shattered Glass ends on a much darker note. Naturally, Stephen's cover is blown, and the film ends with a confrontation between Stephen and his editor. A list of "suspicious" articles are listed, and Stephen must remain silent if he voices no objections over their fabrication. The camera zooms in on Christensen's blank face. Unlike Not Okay, which is interspersed constantly with voiceover and narrative framing, Shattered Glass doesn't incline us to see things from Stephen's point of view, and to vindicate him. The indictment of his fraud is a searing, but ultimately quite sad one. Danni's might be only one of those things, depending on what you take from the film. Either way, this is a great and enlightening pair to watch in conjunction with one another. There is something different, yet uniquely similar, to learn from either of them.

Just a Hugh Grant admirer trying to find her way in life, Fionna is a Creative Writing student based in Ohio. However, her heart resides in Philadelphia. She is a huge fan of both Clueless and Paul Schrader (and his Facebook account)!