← Back to Directory
Strange Days
Movie

Strange Days

2017 • Unknown

Woke Score
7
out of 10

Plot

One actress who was on the brink of quitting the stage happened to visit 'imprisoning work shop,' an actor training institute, during her on-site reporting. She found herself increasingly attracted to the abnormal place where actresses were imprisoned and did not refuse to have sex for acting.

Overall Series Review

Strange Days is a 1995 cyberpunk thriller that was presciently focused on themes that would become central to contemporary cultural conflicts, making it highly amenable to a 'woke' analysis. The narrative is explicitly built around systemic racial tension, police corruption, and a dystopian Los Angeles on the brink of revolution, largely driven by the murder of a black activist by white police officers. The film positions a white male protagonist as morally weak and dependent on his highly competent, black female bodyguard/moral compass. Its critique of Western systems of power is central to the plot. The film heavily features voyeurism and violence against women, which some interpretations view through a feminist critique of male fantasy. While it lacks contemporary LGBTQ+ or explicit anti-theistic themes, its intense focus on intersectional power dynamics, systemic oppression, and civilizational collapse results in a high overall score.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics9/10

The plot's central conflict is a police cover-up involving the execution of a black hip-hop activist, Jeriko One, by racist white police officers, framing the narrative as a lecture on systemic oppression. The moral core and most capable character, Mace (Angela Bassett), is a black woman who exists in an intersectional hierarchy above the morally compromised and escapist white male protagonist, Lenny Nero.

Oikophobia8/10

The film's setting is Los Angeles on the verge of apocalyptic civil war, directly referencing the LA Riots and the Rodney King incident. Core Western institutions, specifically the police and government, are framed as fundamentally corrupt, racist, and the cause of the city's self-destruction and societal collapse, suggesting a profound lack of gratitude for the civilization.

Feminism8/10

The female co-lead, Mace, is a hyper-competent, principled, and protective bodyguard who continually saves and provides the moral guidance for the bumbling, morally weak male protagonist. This dynamic presents a clear 'Girl Boss' archetype and an emasculation of the male lead. The plot also centers on the recording of a brutal sexual assault, which is critiqued as the ultimate form of male voyeurism and female victimization.

LGBTQ+2/10

The narrative's focus on sexuality is primarily through themes of voyeurism, sexual assault, and heterosexual relationship drama (Lenny and Faith). The film does not center on alternative sexualities, deconstruct the nuclear family, or engage with gender ideology, operating largely within a heteronormative structure, albeit a dystopian and corrupt one.

Anti-Theism4/10

The movie is a secular, cynical sci-fi thriller focused on technology, crime, and political corruption. Traditional religion is neither endorsed nor overtly vilified. The film operates in a spiritual vacuum where morality is a matter of individual conscience and political action against power, but it lacks the explicit anti-theistic messaging against Christianity to score high.