'I'm actually trying to be as objective as possible': Carrick criticized the portrayal of Princess Peach in the new Super Mario Bros. movie. Photo: AP
Politics, banking, schools, corporations, the military: a terrible agenda has woken up everywhere these days. And, unfortunately, even movie reviews are not immune. When writing about the latest film novels, critics are increasingly pushing in their work the insidious leftist agenda — the very one that Hollywood studios themselves secretly sell. At least that's what a small but thriving new website claims, and has been trying to bring a very different voice into the mix since February.
Worth It Or Woke is the brainchild of James Carrick, bridal DJ, corporate event planner, movie buff and midwestern US critic for the last four months. The site offers a self-proclaimed conservative take on recent cinematic releases that includes a list of each film's awakening elements under a description of its artistic merit or fault.
The goal is to correct the liberal ravings of those preening metropolitan progressive bubbles that gave The Last Jedi five stars, were thrilled by Disney's multicultural reimagining of Peter Pan and Pixar's menstruation movie, and thought female ghostbusters were a great idea. But even so, I don't take it personally.
Until recently, «Worth it or Woke» was the work of one person, but now it also features two additional members: Carrick's brother, Michael, and his longtime friend. Reading a site with frequent use of caustic terms such as «feeling,» «red pill,» and «awakened hold,» you might imagine its creator as an attention-hungry young shock jock of the sort to rant. for incels on youtube. In fact, in his mid-40s, an impeccably polite Christian who wears a shirt and tie to chat on Zoom, he seems to see this new venture as a calling rather than a platform.
Carrick was prompted to start with a report from a podcast hosted by American comedian Adam Carolla, in which guests tried to guess the Rotten Tomatoes music for a given set of films based solely on a brief description of their content. (Rotten Tomatoes is an aggregator site that ranks films out of 100 based on the opinions of about 3,000 professional and amateur critics gathered from around the Internet.) After a few episodes, Carrick said, he began to «hear the formula»: critics like tended to respond more warmly to films «with the sort of revival content that people in the news have described as 'bold choices'.» Further investigations confirmed his fears: «I will see a discrepancy between the assessments of the public and critics, as well as what critics usually praise, and I will see a pattern.»
Inspired in this way, Carrick spent three months creating Worth it or Woke in the evenings after work, launching it earlier this year. At first it went almost unnoticed, with only a few hundred page views per month. But then, in May, Rolling Stone published an article ridiculing the site, and the number of visitors quickly grew to over 300,000. He originally planned to apply for Worth it or Woke to be listed on Rotten Tomatoes to try and restore balance, but given his current traffic, he says, «it doesn't seem necessary anymore.»
I can't express my gratitude for Disney's generosity. They keep spending hundreds of millions of dollars just to produce rubbish for me.
They give and give, but I only take. I have to send a fruit basket. https://t.co/dDf3RcAk93
— Is it worth it or did you wake it up? (reviews) (@worthitorwoke) June 27, 2023
For a site that didn't exist six months ago, these are impressive numbers. But, of course, it's hard to say how many of Carrick's readers are looking for film critics, and how many are looking solely for the showdown of culture wars. In any case, however, there is an undeniable growing interest in viewing popular culture through this lens. Carrick suggests that Bud Light's current boycott of beer in the wake of the brewer's April campaign, which featured transgender internet personality Dylan Mulvaney, has awakened an American right to their commercial influence: since then, beer sales have fallen nearly 25 percent. The underwhelming performance of Disney's latest showing, as well as the global success of the scrupulously apolitical Top Gun: Maverick, suggests that those same demographics are now also a powerful force at the box office.
“People like me now understand that they can meaningfully vote with their dollars,” he says. «I don't understand how companies like Disney can keep releasing this stuff and get their money back.»
So where are the studios wrong about their audience? Lots of things, Carrick says, though two have been especially tiring for him lately. One is the prevalence of strong female characters in studio films, or as Carrick describes them, «women written as men, tough, physically imposing, sexually aggressive, and embodying other traditionally masculine qualities.»
Definitely not awake: Tom Cruise in Top Gun: Maverick Credit: Courtesy of LMK
One particularly shocking recent example, he continues, was Princess Peach in the animated film Super Mario Bros. “She is perfect in everything — she never fumbles, she never makes mistakes; I think one day it falls,” he explains. “While Mario is the main character! is always the subject of a joke. There was no reason why Mario needed to be humiliated in front of her.”
Another one is “checking boxes for LGBTQ people and so on”: the example he gives is transgender actor Hari Nef playing Dr. Barbie in the upcoming Barbie movie.
“This is Mattel, the producers and directors are saying, 'Look how great we are and what we've done; we're so progressive, it's just fantastic,” he says. «And I think film critics are following suit.»
However, there is another possibility: Nef, a former Screen Actors Guild nominee, might just be a good person for the role. Carrick admits he hasn't seen Barbie yet, so he doesn't know, but stresses that when it comes time to rewatch her, the film's value as art will be judged separately from its awakening.
Disney's casting of Halle Bailey in The Little Mermaid was criticized on Worth It or Woke. Disney
“In fact, I try to be as objective as possible,” he says. “But,” he adds, “while the site might be called Worth it or Woke, it’s theoretically possible that the movie could be both. «Reality is often not as simple as binary splitting.»
When Carrick says «wake up», what does he really mean? The word entered black American slang around 2020 and originally referred to awareness: one could «wake up» from ingrained biases in law enforcement or local politics. However, due to its association with protest movements, it soon became a universal slur against progressive causes. In cinema, for Carrick, this means the film prioritizes «radical leftist ideology over storytelling quality» — and it means the inclusion of «transgender ideologies, subservient male characters, people of color in traditionally non-colored roles, and cartoonish portrayals of capitalism and religious people.» especially Christians.
Doesn't he worry that to the layman this might seem fanaticism? In terms of casting, Carrick's website has been criticizing the recent remake of Disney's live-action movie The Little Mermaid for casting black actress Halle Bailey in the lead role. But even if her acting isn't quite up to Meryl Streep's level — which, mind you, is typical of many white protagonists in blockbusters — what's wrong with giving young black girls a heroine who looks like them?
Hari Nef in a scene from the upcoming Barbie movie. Photo: LANDMARK MEDIA/Alamy Stock Photo
«It's definitely a line I know I'm walking,» he says, looking embarrassed, adding that he found himself deleting reader comments on the site that unequivocally crossed it . «It's like, 'We're not on the same side, man. In fact, you are a racist.”
Since the site launched, Carrick has never received an invitation to a major film screening, and he looks baffled when I ask if any studio publicist courted him. However, review copies of «conservative documentaries» were sent to him, and the Christian production company Angel Studios, which funds film and television projects through crowdfunding, also became one of the first allies.
Their recent thriller The Sound of Freedom, starring Jim Caviezel busting child prostitution cartels, received five stars on the site, as well as a rare 100 percent non-awakening rating. Carrick's review calls for his readers to support the film commercially—»it should and can be a blockbuster»—suggesting that at least part of the site's success and the rise of anti-awakening culture in general is due to a very American desire to be on the team- the winner before the whistle blows. (It works both ways: at Disney fan conventions, announcements of rosy box office statistics can get the loudest and longest applause.)
Carrick describes Sounds of Freedom as a film that «promotes universal themes that are also conservative»: in other words, it's not above politics either; they just match his own.
«Yes, but other than the fact that one or two prayers are offered in it, and the main character turns out to be a believer, this is not an ideological film,» he argues. “Except that selling children in the sex business is bad. And I think that's something that most people can agree on.» I guess maybe this is part and parcel of appreciating art: people create works that fit their own beliefs and worldviews, and we, as viewers, have to find our own way.
«Oh, I'm a big believer freedom, especially freedom of speech,” he agrees. “I tell Hollywood: come on, make your films. Just don't expect us to like them.»
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