Naked (2017)
Directed by Michael Tiddes
No — Naked is not woke, scoring 11 out of 100 on our wokeness meter.
There is a moment, roughly nine minutes into Naked, when a naked Marlon Wayans is tasered by Charleston police in front of a church full of wedding guests.
Consciousness Markers
A mainstream studio comedy headlined by Marlon Wayans with a predominantly Black principal cast (Regina Hall, Dennis Haysbert, Loretta Devine, Cory Hardrict), though the casting reads as a natural fit for a Wayans vehicle rather than a deliberate diversity statement.
Regina Hall's Megan is a successful physician, a mild nod to female professional achievement, but the film is a lowbrow farce with a jealous maid-of-honor villain and no feminist argument.
A minor subplot has the ex-boyfriend Cody plotting a hostile corporate takeover of Reginald's company, a stock corporate-villain trope rather than any coherent anti-capitalist message.
A broad, lowbrow time-loop comedy that preaches nothing; the only moralizing is Rob's bland realization that he wants a stable, grounded life.
No LGBTQ+ characters, relationships, or themes appear anywhere in the film.
Despite its Black-led cast, the film engages no racial themes, commentary, or social consciousness whatsoever; it is a race-blind remake of a Swedish comedy.
No environmental or climate content of any kind.
Nudity is deployed purely as slapstick humiliation, the opposite of a body-positive or self-acceptance message.
No neurodivergent characters or themes are present.
The film makes no historical claims and revises no historical record.
Why it received this score
There is a moment, roughly nine minutes into Naked, when a naked Marlon Wayans is tasered by Charleston police in front of a church full of wedding guests. This is the film's thesis statement. A remake of the 2000 Swedish comedy Naken, it transplants the premise to South Carolina and a Black principal cast without altering a single comedic instinct. Rob Anderson, a substitute teacher with commitment problems, wakes in a hotel elevator on his wedding morning, gets arrested for streaking, and discovers that the church bells reset the hour. Groundhog Day, stripped of philosophy and pants. The critical consensus settled at zero percent on Rotten Tomatoes, which is a number that suggests unanimity rarely achieved in any human endeavor.
On the question of representation, the casting is notable but not self-congratulatory. Wayans, Regina Hall, Dennis Haysbert, Loretta Devine, and Cory Hardrict form a genuinely accomplished ensemble, and the film treats their presence as unremarkable, which is to say it casts them and then asks nothing of them beyond punchlines. There is no racial commentary here, no social argument, no engagement with the world beyond the hotel lobby. Hall's Megan is a physician, a detail the script offers and then forgets. A subplot involves a hostile corporate takeover of the father-in-law's company, the sort of villainy that arrives pre-packaged from a screenwriting manual. The nudity, deployed continuously, functions as humiliation rather than liberation, which places the film at some distance from any message of self-acceptance.
The moral of the story, such as it is, concerns the value of steady employment and a stable marriage. Rob accepts the teaching job. He wants a grounded life. The film delivers this with the solemnity of a fortune cookie and the runtime of a hostage situation. It lectures no one, illuminates nothing, and offends only the sensibilities of critics paid to notice. A time loop, we are told, is a chance to grow. Here it is a chance to be naked in more locations. The elevator remains the same. So does the film.
Analysis generated by our Consciousness Algorithm
Synopsis
Following a wild night out with his best man, Rob Anderson wakes up to find himself naked in an elevator on the morning of his wedding day and is forced to relive the morning over and over again.
Questions about Naked
Is Naked woke?
No — Naked is not woke, scoring 11 out of 100 on our wokeness meter. That earns it a verdict of Ultra Based.
Does Naked have any woke elements?
1 of the 10 markers register at 30 or above, led by Representation Casting (50). On Representation Casting: A mainstream studio comedy headlined by Marlon Wayans with a predominantly Black principal cast (Regina Hall, Dennis Haysbert, Loretta Devine, Cory Hardrict), though the casting reads as a natural fit for a Wayans vehicle rather than a deliberate diversity statement.
How does Naked compare to other 2017 movies?
It ranks #152 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.