![]() Sean Baker had carried out, if one can formulate it thus, a business investigation near these fallen stars of the porn. After listening to them, he often felt in an ambiguous position. One day he goes to a doughnut shop and discovers a 17 and a half year old girl, Strawberry, at the cash register…Ī scenario not easy to film in the era of me too and feminism. Reluctantly, they eventually take him in, but Mikey can’t help but get into trouble. The story? Mikey Saber, a ruined porn star, returns from Los Angeles to live with his wife and mother-in-law in Texas. To pay his rent, he resumes his little schemes but an encounter will give him the hope of a new start.Īt a time when male sexuality is both questioned and taken very seriously, Sean Baker has made a film about a porn star. With no money, no job, he has to go back to live with his ex-wife and his mother-in-law… In Red Rocket, Sean Baker’s new film, Mikey Saber returns to his hometown in Texas after years of being a porn star in Los Angeles. “Red Rocket” could have soared in a traditional Hollywood feel-good way but instead stays small and down to the ground, sticking with you uncomfortably and brilliantly.Red Rocket, new film by Sean Baker, in your theaters on February 2nd An open-ended ending awaits, with a final scene open to many interpretations. But if you’re looking for a miracle from him, you’re as deluded as he is. “Red Rocket” is filled with Baker’s people - the deluded and surrendered, those drifting, paycheck to paycheck, far from the bright lights, unless they’re the refinery lights.Ī critical event towards the end turns into a watershed moment for Mikey, a test of his character. The film sits well in Baker’s career, whose previous works “The Florida Project” and “Tangerine” also dealt with sex workers on the margins and mixed professional actors and real people. Their first date is at a strip club and they consummate their union in the bed of a pickup. Viewers will likely wince as he grooms her - “You could be a huge star,” he says to her - and “Red Rocket” is hard to watch once we realize that Mikey isn’t capable of real love, unless it’s self love. “She’s my way back in,” he says to a friend. ![]() ![]() If he can exploit this young woman - first-timer Suzanna Son, terrifically playing a girl-woman nicknamed Strawberry - into porn, he can return to his heights. There’s a reason NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye” opens the film and becomes a motif. Rex is perfect playing the guy who’s the life of the party but not the guy you can ever rely on for anything. We never fall for his manipulations but, from afar, admire his machinations, nonetheless. Mikey is a very hard character to play well but Simon Rex has his rascally number. ![]() He can’t find a job - that porn thing is too much for many - so he ends up selling weed. Mikey is a good-looking dude who talks a mile-a-minute, a charmingly charismatic egoist - “Google me! Twenty-one million views on PornHub” - who holds grievances and is always dreaming big.īut when we meet him in “Red Rocket,” he’s a penniless washed up ex-porn star who has left Hollywood - driven out and beaten up, more likely - and taken a bus to a place he never thought he’d end up: begging his estranged wife to let him crash with her in Texas City, Texas. That’s an exploitative field for the ultimate exploiter. He explains to the bosses at Dollar General or the local diner that he was “self-employed” or was in “entertainment.” The prospective employers just want to know what he was doing for so long. He has a hole in his resume - stretching some 20 years. Mikey Saber, the antihero of Sean Baker’s new film, has a bit of a problem during job interviews. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |