Interview: Sean Baker and Simon Rex on 'Red Rocket'

by Nathaniel R

What film character will you remember best from the past year? One of our contenders for that crown is, for better and worse, Mikey Saber, the motor-mouthed adult film actor in Red Rocket. Better, because he's wonderfully written by Sean Baker and brilliantly played by Simon Rex. Worse because he's a walking disaster and narcissistic predator. Though the indie grossed a solid $1 million in limited release, it would surely have been a bigger success if its raucous mix of sex/cringe/character comedy could have played to more crowded theaters in non-pandemic times. Still, a Cannes competition premiere, 3 Gotham Award nominations, and a Los Angeles Film Critics Association win for Best Actor makes Red Rocket's brief run a major success. The film and Simon Rex's devilishly funny star turn are both bound to pick up more admirers soon on home viewing.

We had the privilege of sitting down briefly with writer/director Sean Baker and star Simon Rex prior to the release to talk about the film. [This interview has been edited for length and clarity...]

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Juneteenth is finally an official US holiday. Will we get more movies about it?

Following recent voting in Congress, Juneteenth is finally a federal holiday. It's been too long in coming. And speaking of since this is a film site ... Have you caught up with last year's Miss Juneteenth yet? It's so good and Nicole Beharie is just perfect in the leading role, as a former beauty queen who has to learn to let go of trying to strictly mold her daughter into a new version of herself. She won the Gotham Award and was a medalist here at TFE as well. For our money she was better than the bulk of Oscar's acting nominees last season...

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AGLIFF: "Saint Frances" gets an encore screening, lives up to its hype.

by Nathaniel R

After winning SXSW in Austin this spring, the festival darling Saint Frances returned to the film-friendly Texas city for an encore screening at AGLIFF. We were initially perplexed at the inclusion since we hadn't heard that it had LGBTQ content. But, then, we don't read reviews until after screening films so sometimes these details slip by. The film has been picked up by Oscilloscope for distribution (we presume in 2020?) but they have a challenge ahead in marketing it. The film has no name actors, no easy marketing hook (more of a character study than a plot film), and is a debut festival hit from a white male director. We only mention the latter, and half in jest, because the film actually has quite a fresh voice and inarguably feminine POV...

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AGLIFF: Gay Choruses, Trans Athletes, and Chicken-Fried Everything

by Nathaniel R

Nathaniel and two fellow jurors (though we weren't in the same jury) at AGLIFF

Hello "y'all" (when in Texas...) writing to you from blistering hot Austin where the 32nd annual aGLIFF festival is nearing its wrap. The festival, which runs from Thursday to Sunday each year in late August is actually the oldest film festival in Texas. Yes, even older than SXSW though not as famous.

The festiviites began Thursday night with a packed house at the Alamo Drafthouse for a performance by the Austin Gay Men's Chorus followed by the opening night film, Gay Chorus Deep South (2019). It's a very moving documentary about a the iconic San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus and an all volunteer charity tour they made of the Deep South after T****'s election. The tour was an attempt to bridge divides between red and blue, and combat rising anti-LGBT sentiment within the country and specificially the ever-present anti-LGBT sentiment within our nation's churches...

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Austin moves to "Beale St." and AWFJ loves "Roma"

by Nathaniel R

How many critics groups are left? We honestly lose track!

Today we're looking at two more. First is the Austin Film Critics Association who were the only group brave enough in 2006 to step away from Helen Mirren's inexplicable steamroll for The Queen in a Best Actress year that was insane with great options (their iconoclastic choice that year: Ellen Page in Hard Candy). This year though they haven't strayed very far from consensus except that they gave Roma only one prize (!).

The Alliance of Women Film Journalists also announced their prizes which are an exact carbon copy, down the line, of critical consensus leaders, so it's a good thing they have several unusual categories, too. Here are the results...

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