The Last Summer (2019)
Directed by William Bindley
No — The Last Summer is not woke, scoring 13 out of 100 on our wokeness meter.
The Last Summer arrives as a Netflix artifact from the spring of 2019, an interconnected teen romance set in Chicago during the final months before college.
Consciousness Markers
The ensemble is notably diverse for a teen romcom — KJ Apa (Samoan descent), Jacob Latimore, Tyler Posey, Mario Revolori — but the diversity is unremarked-upon natural casting rather than a stated representational project.
Several female leads (Phoebe, Erin, Audrey) carry their own arcs and exercise romantic and career agency, but the film frames these as conventional coming-of-age romance rather than a feminist thesis.
There is mild contrast between working-class Audrey and the vapid wealthy Hollywood mother, but the film resolves this through personal growth rather than any systemic critique of wealth.
The film is a breezy ensemble romcom with only faint 'follow your dreams' platitudes and no sustained preaching.
No LGBTQ+ characters, relationships, or themes appear anywhere in the interconnected storylines.
A Black lead and a Latino ballplayer exist naturally in the story with no commentary on race, inequality, or identity.
No environmental themes or climate messaging of any kind.
No body-positivity themes or messaging present.
No neurodivergent characters or themes are depicted.
No historical revisionism; the film is a contemporary, apolitical teen romance.
Why it received this score
The Last Summer arrives as a Netflix artifact from the spring of 2019, an interconnected teen romance set in Chicago during the final months before college. Six storylines braid together with the confidence of a film that knows exactly which streaming algorithm it serves. Griffin wants Berklee but has Columbia and a father with connections. Phoebe wants NYU and needs a documentary prize to pay for it. Erin works a thankless assistant job and dates a Cubs rookie. Audrey, working class and average on paper, takes a nanny position with a child actress and her self-absorbed mother. Foster chases a wishlist. Chad and Reece impersonate traders in a bar. The machinery is competent and the stakes are low.
The ensemble is more diverse than the genre usually bothers with, and the film deserves a nod for letting that be true without a press release attached to it. A Samoan lead, a Black romantic lead, a Latino ballplayer. All present, none announced. The women carry their own arcs, chase their own careers, and make their own romantic choices, though the film treats this as ordinary coming-of-age business instead of a thesis. There is a faint whiff of class resentment in Audrey's storyline, where a working student cleans up after a wealthy woman who once had a bit part in Sixteen Candles. The critique stays personal. Audrey grows; the system does not.
Everything else is absent. No queer thread runs through any of the six stories. Race is never mentioned, which is its own kind of silence. The climate does not exist here. Nobody discusses their body, their neurology, or the historical record. The closest thing to a sermon is the repeated encouragement to follow your dreams, delivered with the urgency of a guidance counselor on a Friday afternoon. This is a mild vintage, pleasant enough to drink and forgotten by the following Tuesday. It aspires to nothing beyond being watched in one sitting, and it achieves that ambition completely.
THEMATIC TAGS: []
Analysis generated by our Consciousness Algorithm
Synopsis
Standing on the precipice of adulthood, a group of friends navigate new relationships, while reexamining others, during their final summer before college.
Questions about The Last Summer
Is The Last Summer woke?
No — The Last Summer is not woke, scoring 13 out of 100 on our wokeness meter. That earns it a verdict of Ultra Based.
Does The Last Summer have any woke elements?
1 of the 10 markers register at 30 or above, led by Representation Casting (30). On Representation Casting: The ensemble is notably diverse for a teen romcom — KJ Apa (Samoan descent), Jacob Latimore, Tyler Posey, Mario Revolori — but the diversity is unremarked-upon natural casting rather than a stated representational project.
How does The Last Summer compare to other 2019 movies?
It ranks #158 of the 284 films from 2019 we've scored; their average is 22. The wokest is Black Christmas (79).
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.