Stream It Or Skip It: ‘I’m Totally Fine’ on Hulu, an Offbeat Indie Sci-Fi Comedy About Aliens Observing Sad Humans

Director Brandon Dermer reportedly made indie comedy I’m Totally Fine (now on Hulu) as a reaction to the isolation and uncertainty wrought by the Covid-19 pandemic. Thus, this offbeat story about death and grief, couched in a goofy science-fiction concept about curious aliens observing human behavior for research purposes. Sounds promising; now let’s see if it follows through on it.

I’M TOTALLY FINE: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: I call bullshit: The party planner says it’s too late to cancel so the show must go on. The contract MUST be fulfilled. With the food and everything. Balloons. Crepe paper streamers. All that. Even though Vanessa (Jillian Bell) doesn’t want it. Uh huh. Like I said, bullshit. But we have no choice but to go with it. Problem is, the person who booked the party? Jennifer (Natalie Morales)? She’s dead. Which explains why, on the way to the big fancy rental house, Vanessa pulled the car over to weep.

They were supposed to be celebrating. The organic soda they developed got picked up by a distributor – must’ve been a pretty lucrative deal – and then Jennifer had a stroke, caused by a heart defect, and then she was gone. They’d been friends 4EVER. Since childhood. They exchanged rings as children and decided to call their soda Two Rings in celebration of their lifelong partnership. But all of it – all of it – ended so suddenly. And now Vanessa’s, you know, Taking A Weekend. To reflect, to cry, to mourn, to take care of herself. But there’s a bunch of food and booze so she eats and drinks too much and primal screams into the twilight and passes out on the poolside patio furniture and when she wakes up the next morning Jennifer is there, handing her a cup of coffee.

Aha, you’re probably thinking, that’s why, a couple paragraphs back, it said “Jennifer (Natalie Morales).” In a more typical movie, one that’s set in a reality more akin to our own, the Jennifer character would most likely require Natalie Morales in Parentheses for flashbacks or dream sequences, but this reality is not akin to our own. No, in this story, “Jennifer” is an extraterrestrial who’s taken the late woman’s form in order to fulfill its obligations as a “species observation officer.” “Jennifer” talks kind of funny, stiff and without contractions. It’ll last 48 hours and won’t happen without Vanessa’s consent and then “Jennifer” will go back to outer space. Vanessa agrees. And weirdness ensues! Slightly wacky, slightly poignant weirdness, but indubitably weirdness.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: I’m Totally Fine has the low-key quirk of a little indie movie that could – that could be a bona-fide sci-fi film, albeit with almost zero FX shots – along the lines of low-budget time-travel movie Safety Not Guaranteed. And I also watched a droll British aliens-observe-idiot-humans movie called We Are Not Alone that worked on its own modest terms.

Performance Worth Watching: Morales shows solid comedic acumen and magnetic screen presence even when the script seems to be failing her.

Memorable Dialogue: “Jennifer”: “I’ve never experienced emotions. It is believed to be the reason we are ahead of your species.”

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Conceptually, I’m Totally Fine is thoughtful, functional. Grief can make a person a little crazy – or a lot crazy – and the manifestation of the main character’s dead best friend as a space alien absolutely works as a metaphor. And there are clues as to the nature of Vanessa’s experience; notice how the alien’s observation deadline neatly coincides with the weekend timeline, notice what happens on the rare occasion when Vanessa and “Jennifer” interact with a third character. The narrative is very much Vanessa’s erratic and irrational psychological journey. She walks the line between feeling comforted by “Jennifer”’s presence and wondering if she’s gone cuckoo.

So the bones of the film are good, but its comedic execution is flat, bordering on hacky. The what-are-these-things-humans-call-emotions and aliens-questioning-humans’-absurd-behavior jokes are ancient and weary and wheezy things, all but dead on arrival. Dermer finds common ground between the out-there sci-fi stuff and the grounded drama of a story about loss and mourning, and that common ground feels muted and bland, low-key to a fault. It’s an absurd idea with great potential for pathos or comedy, but it’s underdeveloped, leaving Bell and Morales without the robust material they need to bring the movie to life.

Our Call: SKIP IT. I’m Totally Fine is totally fine, but it needs to be more than that to be truly memorable.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Read more of his work at johnserbaatlarge.com.