Passages
movie·NR·Oct 6, 2023·
Passages centers a gay marriage and fluid sexuality with explicit scenes but delivers them as raw personal drama rather than identity politics or lectures. This keeps its woke score at a moderate 4/10.
Passages centers on a gay marriage between Tomas (Franz Rogowski) and Martin (Ben Whishaw) that fractures when Tomas pursues an affair with woman Agathe (Adèle Exarchopoulos), prompting Martin's own affair with a man.
This queer relationship and fluid sexuality form the core premise and emotional driver, with multiple explicit sex scenes between the men highlighted in reception and sparking the film's NC-17 rating controversy. Director Ira Sachs, a queer filmmaker, has described the work as an honest, unashamed depiction of messy modern desire and relationships rather than any activist project.
No race- or gender-swapping of established characters occurs, no dialogue addresses systemic oppression or identity politics, and casting of diverse actors fits the original story's Paris setting without clashing with source material. Reception shows critic praise for performances and humanism alongside audience focus on narcissism and drama, with backlash limited to the ratings board's handling of gay content rather than claims of woke messaging. The representation is prominent and central but remains personal storytelling without overt social justice framing or lectures.
Methodology: Each score synthesizes audience discourse, critic and aggregator reception, and press coverage — weighed against the work itself, not any single source.
See how this title scores across all 5 woke subcategories with detailed explanations.
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We've run a full content analysis on Passages and scored it 4/10 on the woke scale. Read our detailed breakdown above to see exactly what we found.
Our analysis checks for themes like identity politics, race-swapping, gender ideology, environmental activism, anti-religious messaging, and other progressive agenda elements. The score breakdown above shows which specific categories were flagged and how heavily they factor into Passages's overall score.
Wokeometer focuses on ideological content rather than traditional ratings (violence, language, etc.). Passages is rated NR. For a full picture, combine our woke analysis with the age ratingto decide if it's right for your family.
We evaluate media across multiple ideological categories on a 0–10 scale. Scores of 0–3 mean story-first, 4–6 have moderate elements, and 7–10 flag heavily agenda-driven content. Learn more about our methodology →
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