Surreal Sci-Fi Comedy On Hulu Is A Feel-Good Exploration Of The Afterlife
If you’re a fan of Nathan Pyle’s Strange Planet, or sci-fi comedies like The Mating Habits of the Earthbound Human, then the next movie you should watch on Hulu is 2022’s I’m Totally Fine. Exploring grief and the concept of the afterlife through the eyes of a naive alien who’s trying to study humanity, I’m Totally Fine is a masterclass in wholesome miscommunication that’s made all the more effective by its two leads, Jillian Bell and Natalie Morales.
What starts out as a story about a woman mourning the loss of her best friend quickly turns into a story about acceptance, letting go, and moving on in a way that’s equal parts disarming and hilarious without ever wearing out its welcome.
A Botched Party With A Profound Payoff
I’m Totally Fine introduces its audience to Vanessa (Jillian Bell), the co-founder of a natural soda company who should be celebrating the distribution deal that she and her best friend and business partner, Jennifer (Natalie Morales), landed before the latter’s untimely passing. Having already booked a party at a sprawling mansion to celebrate their success, Vanessa decides to take a solo trip to clear her head and begin the grieving process. In her state of sorrow, Vanessa forgets to cancel the party she planned with Jennifer, so the entire property is decked out for a massive celebration even though she’s the only person who shows up, and she’s in no condition to party.
Waking up the next day, Vanessa encounters a figure that looks exactly like her recently deceased friend after a night washing down Xanax with Champagne, leading her to believe that she’s hallucinating the entire exchange after a night of partying a little too hard by herself. Jennifer, or the version of Jennifer that Vanessa encounters, explains that she’s an alien from a distant planet who has taken Jennifer’s form as a means to study human behavior.
Naturally unwilling to believe what she’s being told, Vanessa eventually warms up to this version of Jennifer, as she has all of her dead friend’s memories, and recalls specific moments they shared in the past that nobody else would have any way of knowing.
Letting Go By Proxy
As Vanessa begins to let her guard down in I’m Totally Fine, she uses this strange visit as a way to cope with the loss of her best friend while her alien doppelganger chugs bottles of olive oil as a means to keep her synthetic flesh from falling off in the summer heat. Confused by the complexity of human emotions, “Jennifer” makes a number of misguided claims about her real-life, no-longer-living counterpart to make Vanessa feel better about her situation.
For example, Vanessa feels a considerable amount of guilt for not seeing success sooner because she could have provided better health care to Jennifer if she were in the position to do so. Lying about being able to see into the future, alien Jennifer suggests that the two would have had a falling out and there was nothing Vanessa could have done to save her best friend. This lie materialized because Jennifer once lied to Vanessa about going to see their favorite band, Papa Roach, a year before they saw them “for the first time” together.
Overstepping her bounds in her attempt to put Vanessa’s conscience at ease in I’m Totally Fine, Jennifer realizes the error of her ways, and tries to make things right during her limited time on Earth.
A Real Alien Visit
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What sets I’m Totally Fine apart from other movies in its genre is the fact that you’ll never once question the alien visit as a viewer because other people see and interact with this version of Jennifer throughout the film – like when their car breaks down, and Jennifer starts chugging a good samaritan’s engine oil in order to keep her glowing complexion. In other words, we’re not dealing with the whole “maybe it’s all in Vanessa’s head because she’s in such a fragile emotional state” copout that you’d expect because there’s no reason to think otherwise. Though Vanessa’s entire situation is absolutely bonkers in I’m Totally Fine, she’s skeptical about an alien visit until she has a compelling reason not to be.
Using this unexpected visit as a way to accept that her life has changed forever as a result of the sudden loss of her life-long friend, Vanessa can finally move on with her life, even if nobody believes what happened to her when she was supposed to take a weekend for herself to figure out how to run a business that was always supposed to be a partnership with her best friend who’s no longer with her.
I’m Totally Fine effortlessly transforms a sad situation about the death of a friend into a light-hearted story about acceptance, and is a must-see if you find yourself coping with a similar loss in your own life and need some levity to help you move forward.
As of this writing, you can stream I’m Totally Fine with an active Hulu subscription.
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