This pandemic-set drama exudes frustration and exasperation, but always remains in touch with an essential openness and optimism. It’s anchored in a smart performance from co-director Kalley Kali who, as bereaved gig-economy hustler Danny, seems in a permanent state of sadness and mild distraction – though possibly the latter is something to do with the fact she performs most of the time on rollerblades.
Danny is living in a tent in the scrub somewhere on the edge of Los Angeles (presumably Pacoima, where this was filmed) with her eight-year-old daughter, Wes (Wesley Moss). She tells her kid that it’s just for fun, trying to shield her from the harsh truth: they’ve become homeless following the death of her partner and Wes’s father. After dropping Wes off at daycare, Danny straps on her leopard-print blades and, moonlighting between hair-braiding and food delivery, attempts to squeeze out the $200 she needs before day’s end to make a deposit on a flat.
After a couple of disappointing hair appointments, Danny runs into cocksure old friend Brooklynn (BK Marie) at the launderette; she’s about to move her family in with her new fella, despite having only been with him for two weeks. In this scene, in a pawnshop where Danny agonises about selling her partner’s ring to a flirty player, and in a disturbing encounter with a friend, Kali and co-director Dominique Molina push a wry but pointed focus on women resorting to sexual currency in tough times – or refusing to do so.
As Danny is hauled about town at a delivery app’s behest, I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking)’s plotting occasionally feels a bit baldly linear – but it increasingly flexes a lyrical muscle, beginning with a surrealist plunge into stoned anxiety, building up to a stunning LA reverie that releases all Danny’s maternal relief in one go. Kali and Molina’s sun-kissed naturalism and light touch make them a promising new voice in American cinema.
• I’m Fine (Thanks for Asking) is released on 3 March in UK cinemas.
