![]() ![]() Within this world of sulfuric sunsets and tumbledown ranch houses, Red Rocket follows Mikey Saber ( Simon Rex), a middle-aged Texan whose 20-year career as a Los Angeles porn star has ground to an ignominious halt. In his new film, Red Rocket, out today, Baker’s abiding fascination with landscape drew him to the petrochemical refineries of Texas City, Texas, a blighted Gulf Coast suburb that lies near the mouth of the massive Port of Houston. Since their releases, Tangerine has enjoyed a growing cult status within queer cinema, while The Florida Project gained plaudits at Cannes, the Golden Globes, and the Academy Awards. ( Tangerine was famously filmed in its entirety using an iPhone 5s, as were certain scenes in The Florida Project.) His singular aesthetic has earned near-universal acclaim from both audiences and critics. This whimsical play between domestic fantasy and economic poverty echoes the poetic realism of classic auteurs like Jean Vigo, François Truffaut, and Claude Miller yet Baker’s films eschew any fetish for nostalgia, preferring to embrace the social and technological present. Home-and the specter of homelessness-often serves as the thematic crux of Baker’s work: His protagonists struggle to survive evictions, negotiate their home turfs, or attempt to create a storybook home away from home amid a world of strangers. His films Starlet (2012), Tangerine (2015), and The Florida Project (2017) also explore the black-market economies that entangle these young women in drug addiction and sex work-though Baker much prefers to eulogize the quotidian pleasures and even comical moments that can arise from a life of precarity. Part journeyman anthropologist and part mondo filmmaker, Baker trains his camera on (mostly distaff) worlds that often lie beneath the threshold of public consciousness, from Hollywood’s black trans community to the single mothers and children who languish in extended-stay motels along suburban Orlando’s infamous Route 192. History itself took a dark direction, which could foreshadow an equally depressing ending to the film.The films of Sean Baker celebrate lumpen characters and communities that subsist within the cracks of America’s neoliberal landscape. Red Rocket is set amidst the 2016 Presidential Election. If there are any hints on whether or not Mikey is successful, it’s worth digging into the historical context of the story. ![]() As he had done with his previous films, Baker doesn’t cast judgment on the characters. It’s observing authentic characters in a realistic situation. This scene is particularly impactful because previously, the film was presented through a purely objective lens. It’s not the film that is objectifying Strawberry it’s just Mikey. It’s difficult to stomach how Mikey perceives the world, and more importantly, how he views women. Baker wasn’t trying to make Mikey empathetic, but the dream sequence of Strawberry is the first time the viewer sees things from his point of view. Mikey continues to fantasize about his future, even when he has all the odds stacked against him. Whether Mikey actually reaches Strawberry’s house, if she agrees to join him and whether he brings her with him to California are all left to the viewer’s interpretation.īaker said that he chose to show Mikey’s vision of Strawberry to dissect the male gaze. However, Red Rocket ends before either character’s ultimate fate is revealed. As he reaches his destination, Mikey has a vision of Strawberry in a red bathing suit. ![]() He knows that he’ll have to be quick once he gets there. Leondria gives Mikey $200 and tells him to never return to Texas City. He barely manages to escape and runs naked through the neighborhood. Leondria's daughter, June ( Brittney Rodriguez), and her brothers show up at Lexi’s house to threaten Mikey. Mikey has been selling marijuana for Leonadria, and Lexi tells her to take back the $3,000 that he had earned while dealing for her. She contacts Mikey’s old acquaintance Leondria ( Judy Hill). After telling Lexi, who he started sleeping with again, his ex-wife is furious. Mikey’s big plan is to bring Strawberry to Los Angeles with him and help launch her career in porn. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |