Tideland is more of an eccentric, surreal fantasy than a platform for 'woke' messaging. Characters are built around their psychological states and tragic situations rather than any kind of forced identity politics. The film stays committed to its bizarre, dark narrative without feeling like identity is artificially injected into its storytelling.

Although the film does not especially uphold traditional family or religious values (in fact, the family is wildly dysfunctional), it doesn’t use the opportunity as a soapbox to lecture about gender, masculinity, or cultural history. Its subversions are there more to unsettle than to push a contemporary message.

There is little to no obvious ideological monoculture on display. The film’s oddball characters and surreal storytelling don’t really have space for modern ideological dogma or groupthink. It’s a bleak, chaotic world devoid of any clear contemporary agenda.