Ryan Reynolds' Aviation Gin Celebrates Rex Manning Day

It’s April 8, mon amour. That’s Rex Manning Day, which salutes the 1995 coming-of-age flick Empire Records. Though the film bombed in the Clinton era, it’s generated a strong cult following through the years. 

But it’s a not a cult. Nothing even remotely cultish going on here.

So says Rex Manning himself, aka Maxwell Caulfield, who reprises his role as the washed-up pop crooner in a video from Aviation Gin.

Let’s watch Rex and two acolytes—er, fans—goof around and mix a “Cult Classic Cocktail,” shall we?

They dress in matching frilly shirts and rock ridiculously wavy ‘dos. That’s a snazzy bar set, and shiny records decorate the walls. Mad props, Rex!

It’s an approach true believers—er, fans—will dig best, obvi. But the ad stands on its own as a funny piece of work, with Max-as-Rex explaining the joke in superbly smarmy style.

Ryan Reynolds—who co-owns Aviation with Diageo and co-founded Maximum Effort—is a big fan. “Everything I know about musicals I learned from Maxwell Caulfield,” Reynolds says on IG.

In fact, Caulfield’s delivery here sounds especially Ryan-esque.

You know, Reynolds would KILL as Rex Manning in a remake. What a divine way to expand the Cult of Ryan. Let us pray!