Film Critic Takes Aim at Woke Hollywood

A film critic has created an "anti-woke" film review website as part of a bid to tackle Hollywood "rewarding activism over quality". 

 

James Carrick had become infuriated by liberal values being shoehorned into new releases and classic tales on the big screen when he launched the page. He calls his website “Worth it or Woke” and has taken aim at "diversity quotas" which emphasize inclusion over things like historical reality. 

 

E.g. Netflix’s “Queen Cleopatra”, a four-part docuseries had cast a Black actress, Adele James, to play Cleopatra. Many allege that this is historically inaccurate, while some have called it appropriation. This criticism namely comes from questions surrounding Cleopatra’s ethnicity and heritage. 

 

Egypt’s ministry of tourism and antiquities claim that, because “Queen Cleopatra” is a docuseries, it “requires those in charge of its production to investigate accuracy and rely on historical and scientific facts”. Furthermore, Dr. Mustafa Waziri, Egyptian secretary general of the supreme council of archaeology, said that the portrayal of Cleopatra as Black is a “falsification of Egyptian history and a blatant historical fallacy”. 

 

Recent releases including the live-action remake of “The Little Mermaid” have been pilloried by Carrick. He said: “From the creative vacuum that is modern Disney... The Little Mermaid sacrifices all of the charm and fun of the original in the name of personal politics and photo-realistic fish”. 

 

“Peter Pan & Wendy” – the retelling of the James Barrie novel – also comes in for a hammering, with the critic saying: 'Remember the magic and excitement of Disney's 1953 classic, Peter Pan? Well, forget it because feminism is about to take a big runny dump on it”. 

 

Carrick says he is bringing the voice of “religious conservatism” back to film reviewing. 

 

Me, I don’t really care about the religious conservatism bit – but I find all this wokeism way too much, that I want to puke! 

 

Anyway, Carrick (right) asserted: “Everyone is biased but we wear ours out in the open for all to see, so much so that we've built it right into our critique model. Right alongside with what we think about the story... we let you know if the woke quotient (woketient) is distractingly high, tolerable or not there at all”. 

 

Films which perform well under Carrick's criteria include the Second World War story “Saving Private Ryan”, starring Tom Hanks, and “The Passion Of The Christ” directed by Mel Gibson. 

 

He argues Hollywood productions are including liberal values which alienate viewers. In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, he said: “Mirroring the 'wokeism' that increasingly permeates the work of film-makers, many critics artificially reward activism over quality”. 

 

Carrick maintained reviewers have lost touch with ordinary viewers. Outlining his page's purpose, he said: “The growing disparity between what audiences think... and that of the 'professionals' has finally increased to the point that it can no longer be ignored”. 

 

The critic, based in the US, identifies three categories for movies: Woke, woke-ish and non-woke.