Simon Rex makes dubious men easy company without making them trustworthy. We rate his quick comic timing and willingness to look foolish, but his supporting roles do not always give him enough to work with.
Fi1m perspective
In Blink Twice (2024), Simon Rex plays Cody, one of the men around Slater who gets little chance to become more than a type. Rex and Christian Slater do what they can with a line apiece, a frustrating constraint on an actor whose quick talk is part of his appeal. We were disappointed: Cody gives us too little of Rex's charm or the unpleasantness he can put beneath it. Zoë Kravitz has cast the film well, but these men need writing as well as faces.
The broad comedy of Scary Movie 3 (2003) is useful preparation for this sort of acting. Sean Baker put those comic instincts to darker use when he cast Rex as Mikey Saber in Red Rocket (2021), the lead role that changed his standing after a long lull. Rex makes Mikey's charm work even when there is reason to distrust him. Baker also allowed ad-libs, giving the character a boyish silliness that matters: someone who can be ridiculous is harder to dismiss as a stock villain.
Americana (2025), with Rex as Roy Lee Dean, shows the limitations of the ensemble work that followed. It is a watchable crime western whose actors are more convincing than the writing, and our qualified recommendation rests on the humour and sympathy they preserve. Rex shares the cast with Paul Walter Hauser as Lefty Ledbetter and Eric Dane as Dillon Macintosh, but it is Zahn McClarnon's unforced dry humour as Ghost Eye that we singled out. For all its busy casting, the film cannot make every thinly written figure feel necessary to the story.
Rex is worth watching for the moments when likeability and sleaziness are difficult to separate. His willingness to look silly matters as much as the speed of his delivery; it gives an unsavoury character something recognisably human. We would like more parts that let him keep talking long enough to expose what his characters want. Start with Red Rocket, and approach the smaller ensemble appearances knowing that a good bit of casting is not always a substantial part.
Biography
Simon Rex is an American actor, rapper and comedian. Born Simon Rex Cutright on 20 July 1974 in San Francisco, he began his career as an MTV video jockey in the mid-1990s before moving into acting with roles in series including Felicity and What I Like About You.
He is known for his appearances in the Scary Movie franchise as George in the third and fourth instalments (2003 and 2006) and as Dan Sanders in the fifth (2013), as well as in Superhero Movie (2008). Under the stage name Dirt Nasty he has released rap albums and was a member of the group Three Loco.
Rex received critical acclaim for his lead performance in Sean Baker's Red Rocket (2021), for which he won the Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead. He played Cody in Zoë Kravitz's Blink Twice (2024).
