Any good non-woke or anti-woke recent films?

submitted by xoenix from self.Movies

Here are a few I've seen from recent years that dared to criticize or contradict some aspect of The Narrative:

  • Sick (2022) A tight thriller featuring a pair of lesbians, but takes some pretty good jabs at the Covid Nazis of the early, pre-vax pandemic period. A bit surprising that this was actually released. Succeeds quite well on its own merits as a thriller. Written by Kevin Williamson (Scream). 8/10
  • Bodies Bodies Bodies (2022) Another thriller, featuring a mostly intolerable, privileged, woke gen Z crowd who come to realize they don't really know anything about each other because they mostly communicate through social media posts. Distrust, victimhood hierarchy and language policing cause a bad night to spiral out of control. Short, doesn't overstay its welcome and pulls off some ambitious cinematography with most lighting coming from phones, though visually this might not be to everyone's taste. 7/10
  • Nefarious (2023) I was hoping this would be better. It's mostly a one-room demonic possession thriller with competent acting. It manages some suspense but wears its anti-woke message on its sleeve and falls victim to its own didacticism, especially once Glenn Beck shows up. Interesting, but disappointing. 6/10

Obviously there's also Sound of Freedom, but I haven't seen that yet.

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[–]Tums_is_Smut_bkwrds 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

The Clovehitch Killer is just a well written, directed, and acted film that I feel deserves a wider audience, but otherwise is non-woke which itself is refreshing.

Sorry to hear that Nefarious is a let down. I was looking forward to it.

Sound Of Freedom a such an emotional film with such a strong "message" that it lies outside of any sort of woke labeling. Assuming the events depicted are accurate -- and at this point I have yet to see anything that contests those events or the people involved -- then this is an important movie for all sorts of reasons that transcend any political or anti-political posturing.

[–]xoenix[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Just my opinion on Nefarious, so YMMV. The Rite from 2011 is much better if you want to see something along those lines.

[–]Tums_is_Smut_bkwrds 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

I just watched Nefarious and I was impressed. Tight script, not a wasted line of dialogue, good casting (the leads at least), and it moved right along. The ending was weak but really the movie is about the interaction of the 2 main character and that's what's I'll remember. Not a half-baked ending that does a unremarkable, cliched job of tying up the story. I'm still trying to figure out WTF Glen Beck's character's purpose was. I think I get what they were going for but sometimes the lack of a resolution detracts rather than adds to the story. This is one of those.

I don't agree with the assertion that it has an anti-woke or any message. The little bit those topics came up was to provide material for discussion to continue to move the characters and the story forward. The worst I'd say is that the topics are trendy right now and choosing them was easy or lazy. But it could have been literally anything and it would not have changed the movie at all IMO.

Hats off to the writer and director. It's rare to come across such focused, purposeful movie making any more. Not a great film but much better than I expected even before I saw your initial comments. But I am going to check out The Rite next, thanks for the suggestion.

[–]xoenix[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

Okay, glad to hear you liked it. I watched it a while ago, it's possible I was a bit harsh. Once the >! demon started referencing things like BLM directly, it got to be too literal for me. Not that I support BLM's hypocrisy, but it seemed too on-the-nose and presumptuous. The anti-abortion talking points also seemed recycled from any one of a dozen conservative Youtuber scripts. !< But who knows, maybe I'll revist it in future and change my opinion.

Don't go in with too high expectations for The Rite. As I recall its final act is a bit weak as well.

One other top-notch, no-budget thriller that not a lot of people have seen and I absolutely love is The Pact (2012) with Caity Lotz.

[–]Uden_One-Eye 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I am constantly on the lookout for woke stuff. I won't watch most shows or movies when I detect even the faintest whiff of a woke or political agenda or talking point. Nefarious was pretty good, in my opinion. I understand not everyone is going to like the same stuff, but I think you're looking too deep into some of the plot points or topics in this flick. He thinks he's a demon, so his "anti-abortion" rant was more than likely meant to be from the perspective of a fallen angel. It's probably just a religious viewpoint meant to be derived from biblical scripture. It would have been far more politically motivated or woke-centric, in my opinion, had he said God was ok with it, that it didn't matter, or not mentioned it at all (though the latter could have been chalked up to a few different things, like they didn't want to be controversial or just hadn't considered it, for example). He's talking specifically about how flawed mankind is and how easy it is to lead them astray.

I'm not even sure what "BLM" stuff you're referring to, but as far as I can tell, they kept the movie pretty on-point regarding the thriller/softcore horror genres (by "softcore horror" I only mean there isn't a lot of—read: none—slasher vibes and minimal gore present) devoid of woke propaganda and sticking to a relatively strict biblical interpretation of the religion (Christianity) being used in the movie. I mean, I'm not saying you "need to" or even "should" like it, but it just appears to me that there's a good chance that you're looking too deeply into some of the things that were mentioned, which is understandable in today's society, honestly, and I'm 100% positive I've done the same thing on multiple occasions.

Just my thoughts.

As far as good, non woke thriller/horror movies go:

  • Late Night With The Devil (I thought this was excellent.)

  • What You Wish For (Don't let the first 10-20 minutes turn you off, it's not bad at all.)

  • Haunt (I think there was minimal wokeness. A few parts kinda irked me but I was too far in to give up. It's not horrible.)