Film review: Turning Red
Charming Pixar animation about female puberty
Sean Baker has long used his films (Tangerine, The Florida Project) to “expose the underbelly of American life”, said Brian Viner in the Daily Mail, but with his racy new one, he ventures “lower down than the underbelly”. Simon Rex stars as Mikey, a “well-endowed but washed-up” porn actor who returns to his blue-collar hometown in Texas, just as the 2016 US presidential campaign is getting started, to throw himself at the mercy of his estranged wife (Bree Elrod). Unable to get a job, he turns to drug-dealing instead. Along the way, he charms a “pretty teenager” at the local Donut Hole outlet, hoping she will be his ticket back into the porn industry. “Seedy as it sounds”, the film is made with “tremendous heart and humour”, and it brings an “almost painterly eye” to the “kind of America that Norman Rockwell certainly never depicted”. As in Baker’s other films, the leads are all “relative unknowns”, which brings a welcome “documentary feel”; in particular Rex, who was briefly a porn actor himself years ago, is “a revelation”.
The film is meant in part to be a comedy, said Bryan Appleyard in The Spectator, but the pity is that it’s overlong and not very funny. Ultimately, it is just another example of the now ubiquitous “new American noir style”, with a hero who is little more than a “bad guy”, surrounded by “nasty people”, hustling in an America imagined as an “impoverished wasteland”. He is dislikeably chauvinistic, said Ryan Gilbey in the New Statesman; and unlike Michael Caine’s Alfie, say, Mikey doesn’t develop as a character, and Red Rocket suffers for the lack of it. “A doughnut can get by with a hole in the middle”, but “films without a centre tend to struggle”.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
5 high-caliber cartoons about Kristi Noem shooting her puppy
Cartoons Artists take on the rainbow bridge, a farm upstate, and more
By The Week US Published
-
The Week Unwrapped: Why is the world running low on blood?
Podcast Scientists believe universal donor blood is within reach – plus, the row over an immersive D-Day simulation, and an Ozempic faux pas
By The Week Staff Published
-
Rishi Sunak's asylum spat with Ireland explained
In Depth Irish government plans to override court ruling that the UK is unsafe for asylum seekers
By The Week UK Published
-
Properties of the week: houses with enchanting gardens
The Week Recommends Featuring pretty homes in Hampshire, Devon and West Sussex
By The Week UK Published
-
Venice Biennale 2024: from the good to the bad to the downright 'bizarre'
The Week Recommends Central exhibition features the work of some 330 artists
By The Week UK Published
-
Sunset Song: gripping theatre that's 'close to magic'
The Week Recommends Morna Young's 'first-class adaptation' of Lewis Grassic Gibbon's classic novel
By The Week UK Published
-
Challengers: 'the most purely pleasurable film of the year so far'
The Week Recommends Zendaya plays a former tennis player turned coach in this 'almost ridiculously' sexy drama
By The Week UK Published
-
Baby Reindeer: a 'compelling and unforgettable' series
The Week Recommends Comedian Richard Gadd's disturbing Netflix drama about stalking
By The Week UK Published
-
Daniel Wallace's 5 favorite books that should not be forgotten
Feature The author recommends works by Italo Calvino, Evan S. Connell, and more
By The Week US Published
-
6 picturesque homes in Arizona
Feature Featuring a glass elevator in Sedona and a grotto waterfall in Paradise Valley
By The Week Staff Published
-
Silversea cruise review: a Central and North American adventure
The Week Recommends An incredible journey featuring cultural exploration, cooking classes, comfort and more
By Yasemen Kaner-White Published