Sean Baker

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domino harvey
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Sean Baker

#1 Post by domino harvey » Sun Apr 19, 2015 2:35 am

Sean Baker (1971 - )

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"Everyone’s asking if I’ve been offered a superhero movie, and no, I definitely have not. I’m seen as a little risky to the industry, I think."

Filmography

Theatrical Features
Four Letter Words (2000)
Take Out (2004)
Prince of Broadway (2008)
Starlet (2012)
Tangerine (2015)
The Florida Project (2017)
Red Rocket (2021)

Short Films
Snowbird (2016)

Television and Online Series
Greg the Bunny (2005-2006)
Warren the Ape (2010)

Web Resources
Film Comment interview
Cannes interview on The Florida Project
Indiewire podcast interview
Bret Easton Ellis podcast interview

Print Resources
TK

Forum Discussion
Starlet (Sean Baker, 2012)
Tangerine (Sean Baker, 2015)
The Florida Project (Sean Baker, 2017)
Red Rocket (Sean Baker, 2021)

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swo17
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Re: Starlet / Tangerine (Sean Baker, 2012/2015)

#2 Post by swo17 » Wed Nov 25, 2015 9:53 pm

What are we going to call this thread the next time Baker puts out a film?

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domino harvey
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Re: Starlet / Tangerine (Sean Baker, 2012/2015)

#3 Post by domino harvey » Thu Nov 26, 2015 3:22 pm

I'm more worried about what happens if they hire another director for the next Mission: Impossible movie!



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knives
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Re: Starlet / Tangerine (Sean Baker, 2012/2015)

#6 Post by knives » Fri Mar 25, 2016 5:16 pm

I'm posting this here given it has become basically the catch all Baker thread. Anyways, given how amazing Starlet was, thanks Dom, I had to see if he struck lightning elsewhere and his sophomore feature Take Out was the easiest to access. It's a fascinating contrast since a lot of the charm of the later film is present here, but unrefined and unsure. Baker adds on this ticking time clock of a plot which weighs with an insecurity that the more organic plotting of Starlet shows he matured on. The characters are also a little flat as if he wasn't sure how to keep the neo-realist attitude with more exterior characters. Ming, the lead here, is a very insular person who only occasionally gets to just relax allowing for his personality to come out. Additionally the aesthetic isn't the greatest. For the most part the film is composed of beautiful long shots, but, connecting to the earlier complaint, whenever we get into a dialogue scene he shifts into this over edited mess which only hurts what are otherwise the best scenes of the movie. This is merely a pet peeve, but this is shot on lowfi DV which is just a look I can't stand. As far as these things go its exceptionally well delivered, but I'm not a fan of the look.

All of this probably makes this sound like a bad movie, but they are problems which are very easy to forgive especially since they're born out of simple insecurity and are balanced out by some very daring moves which are very successful. Baker's showing himself to be the best cinematic cataloger of California I've seen (I say California more for the attitude shown which could easily be in LA's Chinatown, but I believe takes place in New York's) taking characters that are extras in the normal American dialogue and giving them their 90 minutes. I wouldn't be surprised if some people don't realize the film takes place in the states since for most of the runtime Baker only shows the Chinese immigrant world of Ming spoken in Mandarin. Even the extras for most of the scenes are Chinese. Only for deliveries is english or spanish spoken and usually not for long. Ming seems to not know any of either of these languages which makes these characters seem unusually foreign. It's a great disassociating effect that I don't think I've seen in American film before. The best thing is how casually Baker does all of this as if all of the little nervous normalizing attempts I mentioned before are the cost of quiet observation for most of the movie. It's not a great movie, but I all the same couldn't recommend it any higher.

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mfunk9786
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Re: Sean Baker

#7 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Jun 12, 2017 2:38 pm


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knives
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Re: Sean Baker

#8 Post by knives » Mon Jun 12, 2017 4:10 pm

Says the star of The Girlfriend Experience.

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mfunk9786
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Re: Sean Baker

#9 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Jun 12, 2017 4:13 pm

Not sure I see your point, exactly.

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knives
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Re: Sean Baker

#10 Post by knives » Mon Jun 12, 2017 4:16 pm

I misremembered Kenny as the critic from the movie; a film which shares a lot with the criticisms he is leveling against Baker. I still find what he said to be disconnected from the text of Baker's film, but realizing my mistake it is far less absurd for him to do such.

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mfunk9786
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Re: Sean Baker

#11 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Jun 12, 2017 4:18 pm

Oh - that is him in The Girlfriend Experience. I thought you had meant that it was made by Baker in some way, he's been friends with Soderbergh for a while and while I'm unsure what he thought of the final film, I can't understand why him accepting or turning down that role has much connection with these criticisms of Baker.

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knives
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Re: Sean Baker

#12 Post by knives » Mon Jun 12, 2017 4:24 pm

Oh okay. I was getting worried on my memory. Like I said, Soderbergh's film could easily have the same criticisms, just switch porn star for stripper, and be functionally as accurate. Without differentiating the two treatments it looks hypocritical.

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mfunk9786
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Re: Sean Baker

#13 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Jun 12, 2017 4:26 pm

Now I see what you meant, knives.

Kenny is nothing if not hypocritical in some of his criticisms. Although, I'm not sure I'd want an outspoken film critic to go through his Rolodex of other opinions to make sure there are no contradictions.

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Foam
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Re: Sean Baker

#14 Post by Foam » Mon Jun 12, 2017 4:40 pm

While recognizing that consistency can be a hobgoblin when it comes to matters like these, it would be interesting to see him account for why American Honey is a masterpiece while Baker's films are apparently condescending poverty porn. (I say this as someone who vastly prefer's Arnold's film but think it is probably more deserving of the accusation).

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knives
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Re: Sean Baker

#15 Post by knives » Mon Jun 12, 2017 4:47 pm

Yeah, this probably wouldn't come to mind, but the counter examples are prominent in this case.

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mfunk9786
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Re: Sean Baker

#16 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Jun 12, 2017 4:49 pm

Foam wrote:While recognizing that consistency can be a hobgoblin when it comes to matters like these, it would be interesting to see him account for why American Honey is a masterpiece while Baker's films are apparently condescending poverty porn. (I say this as someone who vastly prefer's Arnold's film but think it is probably more deserving of the accusation).
We're totally in speculation mode, but Andrea Arnold had a lower class childhood, raised by a 16 year old single mother, and Baker had an upper middle class upbringing and went to NYU film school. I can see how, like Harmony Korine, he could be seen as exploitative of the subjects of his films while Arnold could be seen as a truth teller with authenticity on her side. I like both Arnold (a great deal, one of the finest filmmakers working today) and Baker, so I wouldn't draw that distinction, but perhaps that's where Kenny draws his line.

One thing I will say is that there has been sort of a "gimmick" (for lack of a less judgmental term) to each of Baker's films to this point, and the same wouldn't be applicable to Arnold's output. Either "look who I cast" or "look what I shot this with" or both.

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domino harvey
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Re: Sean Baker

#17 Post by domino harvey » Mon Jun 12, 2017 5:23 pm

Glenn Kenny wrote:I thought Starlet was a crock
Why would anyone care what this sad man has to say after this

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mfunk9786
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Re: Sean Baker

#18 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Jun 12, 2017 5:43 pm

He gave Starlet 2.5 stars out of 5 on his Letterboxd, and Tangerine 3. So I'm sure there's a degree of exaggerating for effect, or "turning on" Baker the way he did with Lonergan last year, praising Manchester By the Sea at first and then being highly critical of it (good discussion in the comments, too) upon second viewing, and of Lonergan's body of work as a whole.

All this being said: bombastic and grouchy though he is, I'm not sure we have many better film critics than Glenn Kenny anymore.

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knives
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Re: Sean Baker

#19 Post by knives » Mon Jun 12, 2017 5:49 pm

Though that could speak more to the death of criticism than him being any sort of quality. I feel, nowadays, that the best observers of films tend to be the ones working in the industry or at colleges with newspaper/blog critics largely being uninteresting.

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domino harvey
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Re: Sean Baker

#20 Post by domino harvey » Sun Aug 30, 2020 1:16 am

It what may be just the kind of crazy-ass news story we need to turn this year around, noted big brain Bella Thorne apparently misconstrued a conversation with Sean Baker about a possible future project into joining and posting content on OnlyFans

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Mr Sausage
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Re: Sean Baker

#21 Post by Mr Sausage » Sun Aug 30, 2020 6:35 am

domino harvey wrote:
Sun Aug 30, 2020 1:16 am
It what may be just the kind of crazy-ass news story we need to turn this year around, noted big brain Bella Thorne apparently misconstrued a conversation with Sean Baker about a possible future project into joining and posting content on OnlyFans
Apparently she's been using the platform to scam people, advertising nude content but delivering bikini or lingerie photos after payment. This has led OnlyFans to change their pricing and refund structures, making it much harder for actual sex workers to earn money from the site. Quite a mess.

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therewillbeblus
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Re: Sean Baker

#22 Post by therewillbeblus » Sun Aug 30, 2020 12:49 pm

Yeah, sounds like her questionable actions here crush their potential future project together, which could’ve been a cool insight into a unique counterculture milieu. Maybe new evidence will come to light, or at least further narrative, and we’ll still see some incarnation down the line- never a dull moment with her.

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The Elegant Dandy Fop
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Re: Sean Baker

#23 Post by The Elegant Dandy Fop » Sat Jun 18, 2022 2:17 pm

UCLA Film and Television Archive is in the midst of their American Neorealist series. Last night they played Tangerine and completely unannounced to the audience was that the screening was the world premiere of a 35mm print struck in France of the film. Watching a eight year-old iPhone h.264/.mpg blown up to 35mm is an absolutely singularly bizarre experience. It’s already a bizarre looking film due to its production and far more visually ostentacious than Baker’s last two works, but seeing it on film added this bizarre dimension to it with the natural grain of a film print and the flicker of a projector over hyperdigital photography. If this print ever plays, I highly recommend the experience just to see what it’s like (on top of being a fantastic film).

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Re: Sean Baker

#24 Post by aurevoir » Sat Jun 18, 2022 8:16 pm

Is the effect markedly different from seeing early-mid '00s digital on 35mm?

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