An up-and-coming twenty-something adult film star, a scorned Black transgender hooker, a down-on-her-luck Florida mom turning tricks, a well-endowed, washed-up male porn star, a Brooklyn stripper and sex worker—these are the protagonists of Sean Baker’s filmography, brought vividly to life in his uncompromising, deeply empathetic movies. To say he has a type is to state the obvious: the man likes to make movies about people whose work, in one form or another, is sex. And yet his subjects are all so different, so grounded in harsh realities, so uniquely broken, that to lump them together under their professions is perhaps to miss his distinctly humanist approach to storytelling. Through the lens of sex work, Baker crafts stories that reflect modern-day America in all its myriad challenges, where the boot of capitalism presses heavily upon underrepresented, working-class people like Jane (Starlet), Sin-Dee (Tangerine), Halley (The Florida Project), Mikey (Red Rocket), and Anora (Anora), each of whom struggles to find their American Dream in tragic, funny, jaded, and heartbreaking ways. Read More
