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Red rocket3/6/2023 ![]() ![]() His movies not only grab people’s attention but have something profound and political to say once they’ve got it, and the same is certainly true of “Red Rocket” (the title of which is slang for a dog’s erection). But behind that impulse remains a sincere respect for such characters, elevating marginal or disreputable members of society the way Honoré de Balzac did. ![]() Baker seems to appreciate the way that making movies about porn stars, escorts and the like can scandalize and even electrify an audience. The subject matter may sound salacious, but in each of those projects, Baker revealed his soft core, so to speak: This nonjudgmental humanist genuinely cares about these characters, and while he doesn’t shy away from the illicit reality of their unconventional professions (the way “Pretty Women” did), neither does he gaze upon it with a lecherous eye (à la Ninja Thyberg’s 2020 Cannes selection “Pleasure”). trans fable) and “The Florida Project” (wherein a single mom turns tricks from her motel), and now this. “Red Rocket” marks the latest addition in what could reasonably be dubbed the director’s unofficial “sex-worker quadrilogy”: first “Starlet” (about the San Fernando Valley porn scene), then “Tangerine” (an effervescent L.A. Where other filmmakers still respect more puritanical codes, Baker shows an open interest in how the commodification of desire factors into modern life - specifically, how putting out can pay the bills and shift the power dynamic. Either way, the jolt works to the role’s advantage. ![]() Here, it’s the cred Rex brings to a part that’s the first genuinely meaty role of the B-lister’s career, and he’s not about to blow it, inhabiting the hyper, always-hustling Saber the way Mickey Rourke did “The Wrestler.” We’ve never seen Rex like this before - and quite a few have probably never seen him at all. Back then, an excursion into porn could be a career ender (or at least, a major embarrassment), haunting celebs like Sylvester Stallone and Vanessa Williams … that is, until Kim Kardashian and Paris Hilton demonstrated that such exposure could actually boost one’s brand. Go on, let this man fly you to the moon.The movie stars Simon Rex, which is itself a stunt-casting coup, considering that Rex has been shadowed all these years by a handful of “solo” videos he shot before MTV tapped the chiseled and charismatic screen personality to veejay for it in the mid-’90s. Ultimately, this is a feminist fable and that blistering climax – plus a shot of Strawberry, almost crying with happiness – shows what an eye and ear Baker has for drama. Just as importantly, one of the final zooms gives lank-haired Lexi the last word. One close-up practically screams, “Want a better look at his saber?” All of which adds to our sense that anything could happen at any moment. Elsewhere, we get multiple angles on Mikey, as he runs naked through the street. As anyone who’s seen his iPhone breakthrough Tangerine will know, the man’s got vision. That said, at times, for example when Son appears topless, it can seem like Baker is having his donut and eating it. The script’s very meta (there are endless jokes about how the porn industry and Hollywood run side by side). Like so many “creatives” tackling the issue of sex work, he’s also non-judgemental.
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