Trump billboards and 2015 presidential debate clips act out history in the background. Landscapes - wide-open parking lots, streetlight-streaked asphalt, pastel resort condos - are filmed as beautifully as any picture in Texas Highways. Gas flares and oil rigs dominate the geography, just as brutally endemic as the craggy features of Mikey's beat-up, pretty-boy face. Except "Red Rocket" transports the viewer not to beach paradise but to the version of coastal Texas filled with fumes, scorched by UV rays and filigreed with concrete. More: We saw 'Hamilton' in Austin - how does the smash show hold up?īaker, who also co-wrote and edited the film, and Texas cinematographer Drew Daniels are in full escapist fantasy mode. This one's naked, folks, from its ambitions to its depiction of small-town grime to the occasional absence of Rex's pants. But it's his infatuation with barely legal doughnut shop employee Strawberry (Suzanna Son) that might lead life to give Mikey the shaft once and for all. Soon, Mikey is on the (adjusted for context) come-up, scoring steady weed-dealing cash and plotting how he can use anyone in a 10-foot radius as a ladder rung back to adult-film greatness. The sanctuary he picks, since he doesn't really have any other options, is the home of his estranged wife Lexi (theater actress Bree Elrod, who gives a tremendous performance). After a stroke of bad luck, he returns to his Texas hometown on the Gulf Coast seeking a place to crash and lick his wounds. Mikey Saber (played by Simon Rex) is a washed-up porn star whose reputation was never all that clean to begin with. With "Red Rocket," Baker serves up yet another outrageous trip into a place that usually doesn't get movies made about it: Texas City. Those slices, though, are never nice, neat triangles. It's a technique that's helped Baker garner plaudits for realism in his slice-of-life work. He shot to prominence for the (far better, I think) 2015 movie "Tangerine," a Christmas-set tale of a transgender sex worker in Hollywood, all shot on iPhones.īaker is known for casting from street encounters and social media he often fills his cinematic worlds, always immaculately envisioned, with unknown performers whom he and his collaborators pluck from the real world instead of a stack of headshots. You might know Baker best from "The Florida Project," his 2017 film about a troubled tyke making the shadows of Kissimmee her playground. (Except in the 2000 cyber-sex ode "Digital Get Down," but that's a deep cut for my other 30-somethings.)īehold "Red Rocket," the latest down-on-the-ground feature from director Sean Baker, which ensconces "Bye Bye Bye" at the thematic heart of its outrageous story. This is going to be a big year for him.'N Sync has never been so gleefully seedy. Before gaining notoriety as an MTV VJ and actor (“Scary Movie”), Rex appeared in a solo male pornographic film, giving a meta-layer quality to his work in “Red Rocket.”Īs the crowd in France clapped for Rex, he smiled and nervously played with his bowtie. It would be hard to imagine A24 not launching a best actor campaign for Rex, who delivers a real, charismatic, gritty performance - which includes a scene where he runs, a la Forrest Gump, through the street, only he’s completely nude. Baker also edited “Red Rocket,” in addition to directing the film. The Indie Spirits Awards should already reserve a table for Baker and his cast, including newcomer Son - who received the loudest applause in Cannes.Įven this far out before the 2022 Oscars, the movie looks like it could be a contender in the best original screenplay category, as Baker is overdue for his first Oscar nomination (he co-wrote the script with Chris Bergoch). With the right release strategy from A24, “Red Rocket” seems like it could be Baker’s most mainstream movie yet, with its setting in Trump’s America and winks at ’00s culture (the film opens with the *NSYNC hit “Bye Bye Bye”). So far, the reviews for “Red Rocket” have called it one of the best films at Cannes.īaker’s last movie, 2018’s “The Florida Project,” nabbed a best supporting actor Oscar nomination for Willem Dafoe and earned a spot on many critics’ top 10 lists, and “Tangerine” was a darling out of the 2015 Sundance Film Festival.
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