How to Be a Latin Lover (2017)
Directed by Ken Marino
Partly — How to Be a Latin Lover is somewhat woke, scoring 46 out of 100 on our wokeness meter.
How to Be a Latin Lover begins from a premise no vocational counselor would sign off on: marry wealthy women, outlast their affection, and retire into idle comfort.
Consciousness Markers
The film centers on a Latin protagonist and features a diverse ensemble, strongly appealing to its Hispanic audience base and exploring cultural identity.
The film is deeply rooted in the experience of a Latin man navigating class, wealth, and cultural expectations in modern America.
The narrative critiques the transactional nature of wealth and the gigolo lifestyle, forcing the protagonist to confront his dependence on money.
The plot highlights female agency, particularly in the transactional relationships and the women who ultimately dictate the terms of the male protagonist's life.
The film addresses the reality of aging and physical decline, though it does so within a comedic framework rather than a dedicated body positivity lens.
As a comedy, the film avoids didactic pronouncements, though the protagonist does attempt to teach his nephew some life 'tricks'.
There is no discernible presence of LGBTQ+ themes or characters within the narrative.
Environmental issues or climate change are entirely absent from the plot or setting.
No characters exhibit traits or conditions related to neurodivergence.
The film is a contemporary comedy and does not engage with historical events or reinterpret established history.
Why it received this score
How to Be a Latin Lover begins from a premise no vocational counselor would sign off on: marry wealthy women, outlast their affection, and retire into idle comfort. Eugenio Derbez plays Maximo, who has run this scheme for twenty-five years until his eighty-year-old wife trades him in for a McLaren salesman. The film was made for a Hispanic audience and it located one, with nearly nine in ten opening-weekend ticket buyers identifying as such. That is representation working as both market calculation and lived cultural texture, and the movie never apologizes for either. Maximo's shame is not his accent. It is his uselessness.
The screenplay understands money the way a sommelier understands tannins. Every relationship in the film is a transaction with a stated price, and the gigolo is treated as a labor category with its own hazards, benefits, and eventual obsolescence. Maximo's sister Sara works, raises a son, and pays rent while he schemes, and she holds the moral authority throughout. The women around him set the terms and revoke them at will. If there is a politics here, it is the politics of who signs the checks. The film's contempt lands on dependence, not on wealth itself, which keeps the critique narrower and more honest than a sermon would be.
What the film declines to do is equally instructive. There is no queer presence, no environmental conscience, no neurodivergent character, and no interest in reinterpreting history. Aging gets comic treatment, with Maximo's softening midsection and flagging charm played for laughs, so the body is a punchline here, not a cause. The life lessons he passes to his nephew Hugo arrive as brief cons, not lectures, which spares us the third act homily. The result is a comedy that knows exactly whose story it is telling and refuses to broaden the mandate. Its cultural awareness is real, specific, and content to stay in its lane.
Analysis generated by our Consciousness Algorithm
Part of
Synopsis
An aging Latin lover gets dumped by his sugar mama and must fend for himself in a harsh world.
Questions about How to Be a Latin Lover
Is How to Be a Latin Lover woke?
Partly — How to Be a Latin Lover is somewhat woke, scoring 46 out of 100 on our wokeness meter. That earns it a verdict of Woke-Adjacent.
What makes How to Be a Latin Lover woke?
3 of the 10 markers register at 30 or above, led by Representation Casting (75), Racial Consciousness (70) and Eat the Rich (60). On Representation Casting: The film centers on a Latin protagonist and features a diverse ensemble, strongly appealing to its Hispanic audience base and exploring cultural identity.
How does How to Be a Latin Lover compare to other 2017 movies?
It ranks #42 of the 309 films from 2017 we've scored; their average is 19. The wokest is I Am Not Your Negro (92).
How is the Woke Score calculated?
An AI-assisted process researches the film and its reception, scores it 0–100 on ten markers, then combines those into one 0–100 Woke Score. It measures a specific set of 2020s cultural themes, not film quality.