The Secret of My Success
1987 · Directed by Herbert Ross
Woke Score
CriticCritic Score
Ultra Based
Critics rated this 51 points above its woke score. Among Ultra Based films, this critic score ranks #1057 of 1469.
Representation Casting
Score: 5/100
The cast is predominantly white with minimal diversity in speaking roles. Female characters are present but largely serve romantic or supporting functions without substantive character development.
LGBTQ+ Themes
Score: 0/100
No LGBTQ+ themes, characters, or representation are present in the film. The narrative is entirely heteronormative without acknowledgment of any other perspectives.
Feminist Agenda
Score: 2/100
Female characters exist primarily as romantic interests or obstacles for the male protagonist. Their agency and aspirations are secondary to the male lead's narrative arc.
Racial Consciousness
Score: 3/100
The film contains no exploration of racial dynamics, systemic racism, or racial identity. The corporate world depicted is overwhelmingly white without commentary on this reality.
Climate Crusade
Score: 0/100
Climate and environmental concerns are entirely absent from the narrative. The film shows no environmental awareness or sustainability considerations.
Eat the Rich
Score: 2/100
The film celebrates corporate success and individual wealth accumulation as desirable goals. There is no critique of capitalism or corporate hierarchies, only celebration of climbing them.
Body Positivity
Score: 0/100
Body positivity themes are absent. The film operates within conventional 1980s aesthetic standards without commentary on or celebration of body diversity.
Neurodivergence
Score: 0/100
No representation or acknowledgment of neurodivergence appears in the film. Neurodevelopmental or neurological differences are not addressed.
Revisionist History
Score: 0/100
The film contains no historical narrative or revisionist elements. It is set in contemporary 1980s New York without engaging in historical reinterpretation.
Lecture Energy
Score: 5/100
While primarily a comedic entertainment, the film occasionally includes moments of character advice and wisdom-sharing, though these are minimal and not heavy-handed by modern standards.
Synopsis
Brantley Foster, a well-educated kid from Kansas, has always dreamed of making it big in New York, but once in New York, he learns that jobs - and girls - are hard to get. When Brantley visits his uncle, Howard Prescott, who runs a multi-million-dollar company, he is given a job in the company's mail room.
Consciousness Assessment
This 1987 comedy presents itself as a cheerful celebration of individual ambition and the American dream of corporate ascendancy, asking us to root for a young man who climbs the corporate ladder through deception, duplicity, and the strategic deployment of his youthful charm. The film contains not a shred of irony about its protagonist's moral flexibility, nor does it pause to examine the systems he navigates with such enthusiasm. It is a period piece in the most literal sense: a artifact of an era when a film about upward mobility felt no obligation to interrogate the machinery of that mobility or to consider who might be left behind in its operation.
The supporting cast features women primarily as romantic obstacles or prizes to be won. The corporate world depicted is almost entirely white, and the film's sensibility is fundamentally one of celebration rather than critique. There is no acknowledgment of systemic inequality, no consideration of workplace diversity as anything other than perhaps a backdrop, and certainly no suggestion that the protagonist might need to examine his own privilege or complicity in hierarchical structures. The humor derives from situations and mishaps rather than from any commentary on social conditions.
This is a film that exists in blissful ignorance of the cultural frameworks that would later define progressive cinema. It asks nothing of its audience except to find amusement in a likeable protagonist's schemes, and it offers nothing that might be mistaken for social consciousness. In the language of modern cultural criticism, it is simply not interested in engaging with any of the markers that define contemporary progressive sensibilities.
Analysis generated by our Consciousness Algorithm
Critic Reviews
“Without much details of business, morals or anything much, it's a bland, corporate-headed confection.”
“The latest in a line of American films endorsing the merits of being worldly, ruthless and rich, it wears its heartlessness proudly on its sleeve.”
“The Secret of My Success has too obvious an eye for the main box-office chance to be really successful either as farcical comedy or ironic social comment.”
“The picture has no remotely critical attitude towards its characters or their milieu.”
Consciousness Markers
The cast is predominantly white with minimal diversity in speaking roles. Female characters are present but largely serve romantic or supporting functions without substantive character development.
No LGBTQ+ themes, characters, or representation are present in the film. The narrative is entirely heteronormative without acknowledgment of any other perspectives.
Female characters exist primarily as romantic interests or obstacles for the male protagonist. Their agency and aspirations are secondary to the male lead's narrative arc.
The film contains no exploration of racial dynamics, systemic racism, or racial identity. The corporate world depicted is overwhelmingly white without commentary on this reality.
Climate and environmental concerns are entirely absent from the narrative. The film shows no environmental awareness or sustainability considerations.
The film celebrates corporate success and individual wealth accumulation as desirable goals. There is no critique of capitalism or corporate hierarchies, only celebration of climbing them.
Body positivity themes are absent. The film operates within conventional 1980s aesthetic standards without commentary on or celebration of body diversity.
No representation or acknowledgment of neurodivergence appears in the film. Neurodevelopmental or neurological differences are not addressed.
The film contains no historical narrative or revisionist elements. It is set in contemporary 1980s New York without engaging in historical reinterpretation.
While primarily a comedic entertainment, the film occasionally includes moments of character advice and wisdom-sharing, though these are minimal and not heavy-handed by modern standards.