The Amateur (2025)
Directed by James Hawes
No — The Amateur is not woke, scoring 14 out of 100 on our wokeness meter.
James Hawes directs this 2025 adaptation of Robert Littell's 1981 novel, previously filmed in Canada in 1981, and the material has not aged into anything resembling a provocation.
Consciousness Markers
A notably diverse ensemble for a spy thriller, led by Egyptian-American Rami Malek with Black and Latino supporting players, though the casting is presented naturally rather than as a statement.
Women occupy positions of authority (a female CIA Director, a female field operative, a female Russian source), but the film makes no feminist argument and the plot is driven by a man's revenge for his wife.
Charlie is characterized as a brilliant, introverted, socially awkward cryptographer with an aversion to violence, a mild neurodivergent-coded archetype, though the film never names or explores it as such.
The plot indicts CIA leadership for staging drone strikes as suicide bombings and running unsanctioned operations, but this is anti-government conspiracy rather than an economic critique of wealth or capitalism.
There is a faint moral about government cover-ups and 'bad apples' being purged, but the film is a pulpy revenge thriller that never stops to preach.
No LGBTQ+ characters, themes, or subtext appear anywhere in the film.
Race is never a subject of the film; the diverse cast exists without commentary on racial dynamics.
No environmental or climate themes are present.
No body-positivity themes or messaging appear.
The film is a fictional spy thriller with no historical revisionism.
Why it received this score
James Hawes directs this 2025 adaptation of Robert Littell's 1981 novel, previously filmed in Canada in 1981, and the material has not aged into anything resembling a provocation. Rami Malek plays Charlie Heller, a CIA cryptographer whose wife dies in a London terrorist attack, prompting him to blackmail his employers into training him at the Farm so he can hunt the four people responsible. The genre mechanics are sturdy. The moral inquiry is minimal. This is a revenge picture in a suit, and a revenge picture needs nothing more than that.
The cast is notably varied for a spy thriller: an Egyptian-American lead, Black and Latino supporting players, women in positions of authority, including a CIA Director and a Russian source running her late husband's network. None of it is staged as a statement. Race is never a subject the film addresses, and the female characters exercise power without the screenplay arguing anything about gender. Charlie's introversion, his aversion to violence, his fluency with code, reads as a mild neurodivergent archetype, though the film declines to name or examine it. A man grieving his wife remains the engine of the plot.
Politically, the villainy is institutional and conspiratorial. CIA leadership disguises drone strikes as suicide bombings and runs unsanctioned operations, and the resolution purges the bad apples while the agency itself survives intact. This is distrust of government, not a critique of capital. The film never stops to lecture, and it never builds a case for anything beyond the satisfaction of watching a gentle man learn to make bombs. Competent, watchable, disposable. Some vintages are simply table wine.
Analysis generated by our Consciousness Algorithm
Part of
Synopsis
After his life is turned upside down when his wife is killed in a London terrorist attack, a brilliant but introverted CIA decoder takes matters into his own hands when his supervisors refuse to take action.
Questions about The Amateur
Is The Amateur woke?
No — The Amateur is not woke, scoring 14 out of 100 on our wokeness meter. That earns it a verdict of Ultra Based.
Does The Amateur have any woke elements?
1 of the 10 markers register at 30 or above, led by Representation Casting (35). On Representation Casting: A notably diverse ensemble for a spy thriller, led by Egyptian-American Rami Malek with Black and Latino supporting players, though the casting is presented naturally rather than as a statement.
How does The Amateur compare to other 2025 movies?
It ranks #145 of the 217 films from 2025 we've scored; their average is 26. The wokest is STRAW (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.