← Back to Directory
After
Movie

After

2019 • Unknown

Woke Score
4
out of 10

Plot

Tessa Young is a dedicated student, dutiful daughter and loyal girlfriend to her high school sweetheart. Entering her first semester of college, Tessa's guarded world opens up when she meets Hardin Scott, a mysterious and brooding rebel who makes her question all she thought she knew about herself -- and what she wants out of life.

Overall Series Review

The film centers on Tessa Young's transition from a guarded, dutiful college freshman to a young woman exploring her independence and sexual identity through a tumultuous romance with the mysterious and rebellious Hardin Scott. The narrative is a conventional college 'good girl meets bad boy' trope. The core conflict is not systemic or political, but rather a personal drama involving attraction, trust, and betrayal. Tessa's journey involves discarding her stable, 'polite' high school sweetheart and challenging the expectations of her controlling mother, framing these traditional elements as obstacles to her self-discovery. The movie softens the abusive aspects of the central relationship found in the source material, instead emphasizing Tessa's acquisition of personal agency and her eventual decision to pursue a career path after the relationship's climax.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics3/10

The main characters are defined by a conventional romance trope, not immutable characteristics or political identity. The plot does not lecture on privilege or systemic oppression. Supporting characters include some race-swapping and a minor gender-swap for Tristan from the original book, which reflects a color-blind casting approach in secondary roles rather than a central political agenda.

Oikophobia2/10

The narrative focuses on the immediate, personal conflict between a daughter and her controlling mother, and a new student exploring freedom at college. Hardin's issues stem from personal family trauma, specifically a history of abuse involving his father and mother. There is no broad hostility or deconstruction of Western civilization, national heritage, or societal institutions.

Feminism7/10

The main female protagonist, Tessa, is presented as achieving self-fulfillment and 'agency' by rejecting her traditional, stable life and polite male partner (Noah) for a 'bad boy' who treats her poorly but sparks her sexual awakening. The mother figure is an impediment to Tessa's growth. The narrative valorizes the female protagonist's break from conventional life and her ultimate pursuit of a career (internship) as the path to independence, aligning with the rejection of the restrictive 'dutiful daughter' role.

LGBTQ+2/10

The central narrative is an intensely focused heterosexual romance. There is no deconstruction of the nuclear family as an oppressive structure. The sole connection to the 'Queer Theory Lens' is the gender-swap of a minor supporting character, Tristan, from male in the book to female in the film, which does not impact the main plot or introduce a sexual ideology lecture.

Anti-Theism1/10

The film's conflict is entirely secular, revolving around relationship drama, college life, and personal trauma. Religion, faith, or objective moral law are not present as plot elements, sources of conflict, or objects of ridicule. The movie is concerned with subjective relationship morality rather than spiritual or transcendent morality.