1. What film inspired you to do what you do?
One Flew Over the Cookoo's Nest and Goodfellas. Milos Foreman and Martin Scorsese continue to be my favourite filmmakers.
2. What is your favourite movie or TV show and why?
Lawrence of Arabia (movie) because it is the grandest cinematic marvel there is. South Park (TV) because life is a hilarious nightmare, and nobody can quite articulate that like Trey Parker and Matt Stone.
3. Where is the most interesting place that work has taken you?
The Georgian Bay in Ontario in the dead of winter. Truly a wild, inhospitable and breathtaking landscape.
4. What is something on your bucket list?
To produce a film in the Mediterranean. Not sure how easy it would be, but have no doubt it would be incredible.
5. Who is a fictional character that you relate to and why?
Kermit the Frog, it's really hard to explain why I've always felt connected to this character. Maybe it's something a few years of therapy might divulge, but I have always admired his perspective, curiosity, courage and sense of humour. No matter what Kermit finds himself up against, he always finds a way through, and always finds a way through the cynicism.
6. What is your favourite movie snack?
Popcorn with butter and salt. For a long time it was Haribo Gummy Bears and before that it was Skittles, but these days I can't go to the theatre without getting popcorn.
7. What is one thing you couldn’t live without?
Oxygen. Not trying to be sarcastic, just don't have a good answer for this one :)
The cry laughing emoji.
9. Which band/artist would compose the soundtrack of your life?
Pink Floyd. Not sure I've done anything that would make for a particularly interesting album, but for me there is no band better at creating complex, engrossing and fully realised experiences and they have been a major influence for most of my adolescent and adult life.
10. Describe X in 1 word.
Mimetic.
Grab the popcorn and get ready to watch the horror film X here now.
It’s T-minus three weeks until the hottest indie film of the summer, Red Rocket launches into Australian cinemas. It follows the escapades of down-and-out former adult film star Mikey Saber (Simon Rex) who returns to his hometown in Texas to try to get back on his feet before leaving for L.A. again. The problem is that no one from his hometown – especially his ex-wife and her mother – feels particularly eager to welcome Mikey back.
A silver-tongued and opportunistic hustler, Mikey turns on the charm and smooth talks his way into crashing at his ex-wife’s house for a while. But just as they’re getting their relationship back on track, his attention turns towards the bright-eyed 17-year-old named Strawberry who works at a local donut shop, the Donut Hole.
Red Rocket was directed and co-written by Sean Baker, the resourceful indie filmmaker behind Tangerine (2015) and The Florida Project (2017). He earned acclaim for keeping things low-budget on Tangerine by shooting the film with three iPhone 5S smartphones.
Baker’s films are renowned for their radical empathy and depiction of characters on the margins of society. He routinely casts first-time actors in his films, imbuing them with a grounded authenticity that wouldn’t exist were the cast filled with A-list actors.
While Simon Rex, the lead actor who plays Mikey in Red Rocket, isn’t a first-time actor (you might remember him from the Scary Movie franchise), his casting in the film is a case of art-imitating-life since Rex got his start in the entertainment industry as a porn actor. His performance in Red Rocket fizzes with a manic energy, which is impossible to look away from. He lends his character of Mikey with such an endearing naivety and dogged positivity that we can’t help but root for him, even when he’s getting himself into deeper and deeper trouble.
After leaving the cinema, you’re guaranteed to be gleefully singing the *NSYNC song ‘Bye Bye Bye’ over and over in your head. Red Rocket’s opening scene introduces Mikey riding into Texas on a bus as the song plays, and then it re-appears at several other key points in the story, becoming the film’s unofficial anthem.
Since the film’s premiere at Cannes Film Festival earlier in 2021 (where it was nominated for the Palme d’Or), Red Rocket has gone on to earn several other nominations for the Gotham Awards and Film Independent Spirit Awards, among others. Let’s see if it gets a nod at the Oscars when the nominations are announced in early February 2022.
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From Director Guy Ritchie, Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre is on it's way Down Under in Jan 2022. A superstar cast leads the way with Jason Statham, Aubrey Plaza, Josh Hartnett, Cary Elwes, Bugzy Malone and Hugh Grant in a thriller, truly made for the big screen.
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