Movie review
June 2, 2016 · 111 min · NR
Woke Score
Lower is better
Review
Tallulah is a 2016 indie comedy-drama about a young drifter who impulsively takes a neglected toddler from her irresponsible Beverly Hills mother and pretends the child is hers while bonding with the grandmother figure in New York City. The story examines the stresses of motherhood, personal responsibility, and makeshift family connections through everyday character struggles. No strong woke elements appear; the narrative stays personal and grounded in parenting realities without ideological lectures, identity politics, or cultural critiques.
Breakdown
These are the editorial factors and ratings behind our score for Tallulah.
Woke representation / casting
Natural casting for a contemporary New York and Los Angeles story world, with supporting roles like a Black female detective fitting the setting and plot logic without emphasis, swaps, or visible forcing.
Woke political dialogue
No political speeches, activist language, or ideological messaging appears in the story, dialogue, or marketing.
Identity-driven story themes
Focuses on motherhood struggles, female independence, and non-traditional family attempts in a personal way that some might read as lightly feminist, but stays character-driven without identity politics or social-justice framing.
Western institutional / cultural critique
Shows class contrasts and a personal coming-out subplot as story elements, but offers no activist-style attacks on patriarchy, institutions, toxic masculinity, or Western norms.
Woke character or canon changes
Not relevant; this is an original story.
Anti-woke backlash and complaints
No documented backlash, social media outrage, or news treating the film as pushing woke or activist content.
Creator track record context
Sian Heder shows no activist history; Elliot Page’s prior queer-rights projects provide some background, yet the film’s heterosexual motherhood focus shows no alignment with that work.
Production
