Is This the Most Woke Movie Review … Ever?

Roger Ebert’s legendary status as America’s film critic is well earned.

He still let his progressive views seep into his signature thumb in his later years. That didn’t diminish his place in movie reviewing lore, nor his legacy.

A contributing critic for his self-named site has taken that progressive baton and run with it. Think “Chariots of Fire”-style running.

The review wastes no time getting to the ideological point.

“One Night Only” … is everything that’s troubling about the current conservative capitalist hellscape that is the United States of America writ large.

Ma’am, this is a rom-com review…

There’s so much more.

It makes nods to the very real horrors of today, like tech bro-backed surveillance capitalism, rampant Big Pharma advertisements, and fascist police and politicians controlling our bodies, without ever taking the time to interrogate any of the sources that have led to our current political climate.

If only “When Harry Met Sally…” had brought up the Iran-Contra scandal, it might have been a classic. Oh, well.

The director of “One Night Only” cut down on the sex and nudity, but even that proves problematic.

That’s progress, I guess, since an earlier iteration of this film made in the ’80s or ’90s would have just been a flurry of t** shots…. Romance, too, is depicted in deeply conservative, heteronormative terms—casual sex is looked down on, open relationships only lead to guilt, etc. 

More “problems?” The movie isn’t kind to “sex workers” and there’s not enough queer sexuality. It’s about a boy and girl who fall for each other.

Darn. Where is that “Heated Rivalry” tribute?

And, when the film does mention gay romance, the critic calls it “straightwashing the history of anti-LGBTQ legislation.”

It’s reminiscent of an old Cancel Culture saw. You can never be woke enough.

This rom-com also fails to give age-of-consent laws the closeup they demand. Again, imagine the rom-com that actually checks some, if not all, of this critic’s woke boxes.

Please read the whole review. There’s more. Much more that will stun.

Here are some of the comments on the site:

• This review is truly the worst I’ve ever seen on this site
• Let me guess, the reviewer just got out of college with their grievance studies degree? Yeah…
• Roger Ebert might have despised this movie, and he’d likely cringe at this despicably unimaginative review. Do better next time.

Now, a critic can let a personal political or cultural view slip in now and then. And, if you’re working for an ideological site, that’s to be expected.

Hollywood in Toto wears its conservatism on its sleeve, and the occasional right-leaning barb slips through.

Sorry not sorry.

Still, HiT still wouldn’t go the full “One Night Only” review.

Should anyone?