![]() No sooner has he weaselled his way back into the home of his estranged, strung-out wife Lexi (Bree Elrod) and her mother Lil (Brenda Deiss) than he's scrambling for the next big score, selling weed for a local dealer (Judy Hill) who operates out of her modest weatherboard home. Though primarily a comedic actor, Rex suggests multitudes as a performer – even in Saber's dirtbag hustle there's an irresistible charm to his sociopathic tendencies, something endearing in his dogged desperation and refusal to relinquish his slice of the national dream. Loading.īaker couldn't have cast a better performer to encapsulate the world of near-success that Red Rocket evokes, a strange parallel dimension that serves as a cracked mirror to the mainstream pop culture of the period. He also appeared, fittingly enough, in a handful of solo porn videos at the dawn of his career. Rex has been a fringe dweller on the pop mainstream of the past quarter century, a sort of low-rent Zelig refracting the era: he was an MTV VJ in the mid-90s, a minor league television star and bit player in films like the Scary Movie sequels, friends with Paris Hilton, and a cult cracker rapper known as Dirt Nasty (yep, that's Rex, moustachioed behind the wheel of a Trans Am in Ke$ha's 2009 megahit TiK ToK). The song forms a kind of running gag that turns decidedly melancholy by the film's end. Red Rocket returns the filmmaker to the periphery of an adult film industry he explored in his breakthrough, Starlet (2012), only this time the thematic stakes feel nothing short of national.Ī canny period piece set in 2016, with the Trump-Clinton election offering a running commentary on TV screens, the movie follows all-American hustler Mikey Saber (Simon Rex), a high-profile porn performer who has fallen on hard times and fled Los Angeles for his Texas City hometown – in dire need of a second chance.īaker opens on a pop gambit that marks the cruel passage of time: NSYNC's Y2K single Bye Bye Bye, a boy band smash whose processed exuberance now sounds as distant as classic hits radio – dawn-of-the millennium ambition that's become the soundtrack to the burnout and bust of the next generation. Rex blew me away with a turn that won’t soon be forgotten about.The crisis of American manhood – in every sense of the term – continues in the new film from Sean Baker (The Florida Project Tangerine), a tragicomic tale of a 40-something porn star who discovers that he can never go home again.īaker is a collaborative filmmaker who favours marginalised subjects on the cultural fringe, resulting in a series of distinctive films that have never quite marched to the standard indie beat: Tangerine was an iPhone-shot Christmas fable centring Black transgender sex workers, while Oscar nominee The Florida Project offered an empathic look at impoverished motel life. He does terrible things, but you want to believe he’s not an irredeemably bad human being. Rex’s washed up former porn actor is a complete narcissist and about as oily as it gets, but he’s also almost child-like in his actions. He attacks the role of Mikey with a zest that’s so hypnotic, you completely understand how so many could wind up under his spell. Simon Rex is an absolute force of nature here. This is some of my praise for Rex in my Red Rocket rave review: The film is hitting theaters this weekend, so make it your business to see Red Rocket as soon as possible… It’s a good chat, made even better by knowing that you all are about to understand why I love this movie so much. An odd one, to be sure, but then again, so am I. Plus, he’s super frank, quirky, and real, so you actually feel like you’re talking to a genuine human being. He’s such an interesting guy, you can’t help but be compelled by his story. If you didn’t know I’m a big fan of the flick, this should just be further proof.īelow, you can hear my conversation with Rex. In addition to Rex, we’ve had interviews with Bergoch ( here), Bree Elrod ( here), and Suzanna Son ( here) earlier in the week (with Baker still to come tomorrow). ![]() Now, with Red Rocket week continuing here at Awards Radar, he gets a chance to tell his story. His work in the movie is my favorite male turn in 2021, without question. The film is phenomenal, with his performance chief among them. ![]() Now, thanks to Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch, and Red Rocket, everyone is finally recognizing him as a force of nature. The actor has paid his dues over the years, struggling for roles and not getting the respect he deserves. Simon Rex has earned his moment in the sun.
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