Time Is Up (2021)
Directed by Elisa Amoruso
No — Time Is Up is not woke, scoring 16 out of 100 on our wokeness meter.
Time Is Up arrives as a 2021 Italian-American romantic drama in which a physics student named Vivien, played by Bella Thorne, collides with a troubled swimmer named Roy and then with a car, and spends the remainder of the running time recovering her memory and her self-esteem.
Consciousness Markers
A genuine LGBTQ+ subplot exists: Steve, the protagonist's boyfriend, is secretly in a relationship with Dylan, the male swim coach, and Roy discovers them kissing. It functions largely as a plot twist rather than a thematic statement.
Vivien is a female physics student who gains self-confidence and takes her quantum physics test by the end, but the arc is framed through romance rather than any explicit feminist critique.
The cast is predominantly white Italian and American performers, with Bonnie Baddoo as the one notable non-white supporting presence; there is no evident deliberate diversity casting agenda.
A mild rich-versus-poor contrast exists between affluent Vivien and Steve and the poorer, tattooed Roy, but it is used for romantic tension rather than any systemic critique of wealth.
No engagement with race as a theme; the film's central tension is class and romance, not racial identity or justice.
The film is a melodramatic romance that does not pause to deliver social or political sermons to the audience.
No environmental or climate content whatsoever.
No body positivity themes or messaging present.
No neurodivergent characters or themes are depicted.
The film is a contemporary fictional romance with no historical subject matter to revise.
Why it received this score
Time Is Up arrives as a 2021 Italian-American romantic drama in which a physics student named Vivien, played by Bella Thorne, collides with a troubled swimmer named Roy and then with a car, and spends the remainder of the running time recovering her memory and her self-esteem. It is the sort of film that treats Rome as a supporting player and quantum mechanics as a personality trait. The cultural inventory here is thin. We looked for the usual markers and found mostly a melodrama going about its business, indifferent to the era that produced it.
The one genuine item of note is a same-sex subplot: Steve, Vivien's affluent boyfriend, is conducting a secret affair with Dylan, the college-aged swim coach, and Roy stumbles upon them kissing in the pool shower. This is handled as a twist, a device for detonating the third act, not as a statement of any kind. The film's other tension is class. Roy is poor, tattooed, and one bad time trial away from his father's garage; Vivien and Steve are comfortable. The contrast exists to make the romance feel transgressive, and it never hardens into an argument about money. Vivien's arc, meanwhile, resolves in a physics test she finally sits, a modest victory for a young woman delivered through the machinery of courtship.
Beyond that, the cupboard is bare. No climate anxiety, no body politics, no neurodivergent interiority, no historical revision, no sermon. The film is too busy being forgettable to lecture anyone. Critics were unkind, and a sequel arrived anyway. Some films are vessels for ideology. This one is a vessel for a soundtrack.
Analysis generated by our Consciousness Algorithm
Synopsis
Vivien, an accomplished student with a passion for physics, and Roy, a troubled young man, are involved in an accident that forces them to reclaim their lives one minute at the time.
Questions about Time Is Up
Is Time Is Up woke?
No — Time Is Up is not woke, scoring 16 out of 100 on our wokeness meter. That earns it a verdict of Ultra Based.
Does Time Is Up have any woke elements?
1 of the 10 markers register at 30 or above, led by LGBTQ+ Themes (45). On LGBTQ+ Themes: A genuine LGBTQ+ subplot exists: Steve, the protagonist's boyfriend, is secretly in a relationship with Dylan, the male swim coach, and Roy discovers them kissing.
How does Time Is Up compare to other 2021 movies?
It ranks #127 of the 242 films from 2021 we've scored; their average is 23. The wokest is The Forever Purge (83).
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.