Movie review
April 6, 2017 · 96 min · PG-13
Woke Score
Lower is better
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Going in Style.
Woke representation / casting
Morgan Freeman joins Michael Caine and Alan Arkin as one of three elderly leads in a Brooklyn setting. The mix adds visible racial diversity but fits the location naturally with no marketing push or audience complaints about signaling.
Woke political dialogue
A few lines mention lost pensions, corporate betrayal, and healthcare costs, but they fuel the comedy and heist plan without lectures or activist framing.
Identity-driven story themes
The plot stays on male friendship, loyalty, family support, and personal resilience against money troubles. No race, gender, sexuality, or identity-politics arcs appear.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Banks and corporations come off as heartless toward retirees through pension cuts and outsourcing. This plays as classic populist frustration and underdog revenge rather than modern ideological attacks on capitalism, patriarchy, or Western norms.
Review
Going in Style is a 2017 comedy about three elderly lifelong friends who plan to rob the bank that took their pensions after corporate restructuring leaves them broke and facing hard times. The story centers on their close bond, family pressures, health worries, and bumbling heist preparations while they try to set things right. Light frustration with big banks and lost jobs drives the plot but stays comedic and personal with no heavy identity themes or activist lectures.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. The remake adds family subplots and one diverse lead versus the 1979 version, but these are ordinary updates with zero public debate as ideological or representation-driven swaps.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
No meaningful social media, news, or audience complaints accused the film of pushing woke, DEI, or identity politics messaging.
Creator track record context
Writer Theodore Melfi previously focused on racial and gender barriers in Hidden Figures. Director Zach Braff and casting director Avy Kaufman carry moderate progressive or diverse-casting histories, but the overall team stays mainstream comedy.
Production
