Tuesday Night | March 11, 2025

tonight’s first film is “Anora”. tonight’s second film is “Red Rocket”. you can rent both wherever you rent movies.

Sean Baker’s “Anora” is a love story.

Mikey Madison is a force as the titular character, Anora (but you can call her Annie). She’s tough, perhaps even guarded, but not at all the emotionally hollow sex worker you might be used to seeing on screen.

Baker’s lens borders on voyeuristic, allowing you to feel entirely swept up by the circumstances along with Annie. He forces you to get it. The hope she feels. The excitement of the moment. In the midst of the absurdity and comedy, you almost forget that the things happening to her, especially as the movie progresses, are absolutely bonkers and downright traumatic. Which makes it far more powerful when the high wears off at the end of the movie for a gut-punching payoff.

This is a movie Sean Baker singularly can pull off.

In “Red Rocket”, Sean Baker delivers one of the least likable protagonists to appear on screen. And somehow, at the same time, a film worth watching.

Simon Rex stars as disgraced porn star Mikey Saber, who’s returned to his ex-wife’s house in Texas to crash for a few days while he gets back on his feet. Mikey is annoying. He’s a brazen liar. Gracelessly manipulative. A relentless cheat. And he doesn’t shut the hell up.

Sean Baker excels finding comedy in the little moments. No one is telling jokes. It’s about the way the characters play off of each other. The dead-eyed, exhausted glares from Mikey’s ex-wife, Lexi, are a particular highlight. But, as you might expect after watching “Anora”, Baker finds more than comedy here, sometimes in these very same moments. By the end of the film, once Mikey has worn her down, Lexi’s dead-eyed glares are devastating, heartbreaking.

Baker also puts forth a vivid picture of the have-nots of small town Texas. There’s hopelessness and irony and a quiet sadness in contrast with the bright landscape lit by an orange Texas sun. It’s quite a beautiful picture.

You’ll see seeds here of what made “Anora” deserving of best picture this year, and what makes Baker a masterful creative.