Movie review
February 5, 2021 · 101 min · NR
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
Little Fish is a 2021 sci-fi romantic drama directed by Chad Hartigan from a screenplay by Mattson Tomlin. It follows a young married couple in near-future Seattle whose relationship faces collapse when a memory-loss virus called NIA spreads and threatens to erase their shared history and courtship. The story centers on personal love, memory, and emotional resilience through intimate character moments and flashbacks rather than any identity-driven or activist framing.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Little Fish.
Woke representation / casting
Prominent leads are a white heterosexual couple (Olivia Cooke and Jack O’Connell) whose romance drives the film through chemistry and balanced character arcs. Supporting cast adds some ethnic variety in fitting story roles, but it remains incidental to a modern setting without audience-visible quota signaling, identity emphasis, or unearned competence tied to race or gender.
Woke political dialogue
No activist speeches, ideological debates, or explicit political messaging appear in the screenplay or performances. All conflict and dialogue stay personal, focused on memory loss, love, and daily survival.
Identity-driven story themes
The narrative structure and arcs center on universal experiences of romantic love, memory fragility, and personal resilience during crisis. No plotlines, character motivations, or thematic emphasis involve race, gender, sexuality, or identity politics.
Western institutional / cultural critique
The virus creates societal isolation and strain that affects the couple, but these elements support the intimate love story without reframing into modern critiques of patriarchy, toxic masculinity, institutions, whiteness, or anti-conservative social norms.
Production
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant. The film adapts an original short story by Aja Gabel with no identity-driven alterations to established characters, canon, source material, or historical figures.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
No anti-woke or right-leaning complaints exist in reviews, social media, or news coverage accusing the film of DEI, identity politics, or activist messaging. Public discussion remained apolitical and centered on its emotional romance.
Creator track record context
Key producers carry low documented woke scores from genre and mainstream work. Director Chad Hartigan’s indie output includes personal dramas with occasional diverse casting choices, but without clear patterns of activist statements, repeated identity-driven themes, or public alignment with woke priorities.
