Movie review
December 1, 2023 · 99 min · NR
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
Femme is a 2023 British thriller about Jules, a Black drag performer in London whose life collapses after a brutal homophobic attack. Months later he spots one attacker in a gay sauna and begins a revenge plan by seducing him while out of drag. The story centers a queer Black lead and builds its plot and character changes around drag culture, gay spaces, homophobic violence, sexual seduction as a weapon, and shifting power between two men. It treats gender and identity as performances that people wear or strip away, with directors openly framing the film around rejecting binary gender ideas and exploring masculinity in different forms.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Femme.
Woke representation / casting
Lead is a Black drag performer played by Nathan Stewart-Jarrett in a story built around queer identity and London’s scene. Some reviews note positive centering of Black LGBT stories. Casting fits the drag-artist premise but places visible emphasis on racial and queer identity in the main role.
Woke political dialogue
Scenes and dialogue explore gender norms, hyper-masculinity as armor, and identity struggles with some queer-theory subtext. Messaging stays mostly implicit through character actions, tension, and the seduction-revenge relationship rather than direct activist speeches.
Identity-driven story themes
Core premise, arcs, and structure center performing identity (literal drag and metaphorical masks), reclaiming power after trauma via seduction and role reversal, contrasts between out queer life and closeted self-loathing, and fluid same-sex dynamics. Directors explicitly discuss rejecting gender binaries and masculinity as performance.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Portrays toxic hyper-masculinity and performative straight-acting as damaging ways to hide queerness and insecurity. Shows homophobia and conformity pressure in everyday spaces and relationships, framing traditional gender expectations as harmful. Focus remains personal and psychological rather than broad systemic attacks on institutions.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
Almost no reported complaints in news or social media treating the film as pushing woke, DEI, or identity-politics messaging. It received niche attention as a queer thriller with little mainstream conservative pushback or organized criticism.
Creator track record context
Sam H. Freeman holds a cached lower score with limited prior activist record. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping together center recent work on queer stories, identity performance, challenging gender binaries, and placing queer perspectives in traditionally straight genres. They describe themselves as queer creators entering straight spaces and stress resolutely queer casting and crew choices.
Production
