“I’m actually insulted!”: the only movie genre Sean Baker truly can’t stand
It was a big win for independent filmmaking when Sean Baker took home ‘Best Director’ at the Oscars last year for Anora, a project which was also crowned ‘Best Picture’, standing as the guy who’d shot some of his earlier features on an iPhone 5.
Baker’s indie efforts have always tapped into a side of society rarely seen on screen with such care, whether he’s delving into the complex lives of trans sex workers or spotlighting the lives of working-class families forced to live in motels. Tangerine, The Florida Project, and Red Rocket are really terrific pieces of filmmaking, but it would be Anora that made him an internationally renowned filmmaker, the story of a stripper who decides to marry the son of a Russian oligarch, finding love in all the wrong places.
It was his biggest production yet, even if it was still made on a modest budget of $6million; however, the cost of the film didn’t matter as his eye for empathetic storytelling, imbuing tough stories with well-needed humour, was enough to secure him Academy Award acclaim.
Baker prefers to root his stories in realism, drawing inspiration from the world around him, which he has always seen as inseparable from art. He once told Little White Lies, “As I got older, my interests changed towards more of a sociological point of view. Filmmaking took me down that road, especially when I discovered British social realism and Italian neo-realism, filmmakers who were using cinema to make a political statement”.
“If you removed film from the equation, perhaps I’d be a journalist, perhaps a social worker.”
Sean Baker
The filmmaker might have won the hearts of Hollywood now, but it seems like he’s never going to bow to the demands of an industry that champions certain money-making genres over others. He will always centre his narratives on social issues, it seems, refusing to give in to offers to work in other, perhaps more lucrative, genres.
You see, there are several genres he just doesn’t like, and one in particular that he actually “can’t stand”, telling The Guardian, “There are only a few films a year I’m actually insulted by. Generally, I’m not a big fan of period pieces. I think it’s important to capture the time we’re in.” That’s not the primary offender, though, as he admitted, “I can’t stand biopics. They can never be accurate or real, so they’re very silly”.
The biopic certainly has its appeal, and there are some undeniably great and creative entries to the genre, like Control, a study of Joy Division’s Ian Curtis, or Todd Haynes’ innovative take on Bob Dylan, I’m Not There. Generally, though, they stand as mere Oscar bait, often succeeding, despite the fact that many are simply an insult to their subjects.
The recent Amy Winehouse biopic Back to Black was a particular tragedy, and its existence seems pointless when the incredible documentary Amy already exists. Then there’s Bohemian Rhapsody, of course, an exploration of Freddie Mercury and Queen, which was an Oscar success despite being really quite bad.
Trying to cash in on a popular figure that is already so well-documented is always going to be a tricky thing to pull off, especially when the subject is someone as big as Elvis Presley or The Beatles. Evidently, Baker won’t ever direct a biopic because he prefers an original and authentic idea.
