Red Rocket: Another Tangy Outsider Slice Of Life From Sean Baker
Writer/director Sean Baker is back with another tangy and humane story about a sex worker living on the fringe. Sprinkled with Baker’s signature hallmarks and charismatically glazed by a phenomenal performance from Simon Rex, Red Rocket puts the “XXX” in Texas and delivers one of the year’s funniest films that charms as much as it disturbs.
Mikey Saber is a washed-up porn star who returns to his small Texas hometown, not that anyone really wants him back.
Replete with juicy flesh and pulpy rind, Red Rocket marks another fresh-squeezed slice-of-life tale from Florida Project writer/director Sean Baker, who continues to hone his craft with each new effort. The film is a logical progression for the indie auteur that wonderfully rolls all of his signature trademarks into one raucously sleazy romp that charms and disturbs in equal measure. With a heavy emphasis on location (which is carefully considered and a fundamental character), Baker focuses once more on outsiders living on the edges of society and continues his tradition of spotlighting sex workers in particular (which has pervaded all his films from Starlet onward). He imbues the film with a loose naturalistic spirit that amps up the authenticity (which is further aided by the film’s many first-time actors) and maintains a predominantly objective perspective that shows us character without imposing any judgement. He also embraces the fantasy elements he first introduced in Florida Project to create an unforgettable and unshakeable finale.
For all intents and purposes, Red Rocket is kinda like the toxically masculine Tangerine, with some serious Lolita vibes (both in terms of content and comedy). It even largely takes place at a donut shop (this time around it’s the “Donut Hole,” as opposed to “Donut Time”), which is even managed by the same actress, Shih-Ching Tsou (who also produced many of Baker’s films, this one included). Similarly to Tangerine’s Sin-Dee, Red Rocket’s Mikey Saber (Simon Rex) makes some big waves when he comes back to town. When we first meet him, he’s slouching back to his estranged wife, Lexi (Bree Elrod), with a black eye, his tail inbetween his legs, and nothing but the clothes on his back. Despite Mikey’s West Coast porno career going tits up (hence his out-of-the-blue return), he’s determined to make it back to the limelight, and he sees an opportunity in a barely legal Donut Hole clerk named Strawberry (Suzanna Son), whose blossoming sex appeal and sweet innocence combined make Mikey all kinds of Pavlovian.
We spend the film’s two-hour runtime watching Mikey scheme and hustle his way around his rural Gulf Coast hometown of Texas City, whose exteriors are constantly filled with visual reminders that it’s an oil town that reeks like the death of an outdated American dream. At face value, Red Rocket might not sound as entertaining as it actually is. In fact, narratively, it appears to meander about or run in place for a majority of its duration (another Baker hallmark), but its simplistic plot is richly layered and carefully constructed, and it completely envelops you in Mikey’s madness. As far as we’re concerned, the film is a well orchestrated success, and while there are many things that are stellar about it, there’s a few key elements that make Red Rocket a winning combination.
The first and most obvious is Simon Rex, who delivers a Herculean performance as Mikey. Rex, who is himself an ex-porn star, fully embodies the fast-talking, always-on-the-hustle narcissist and turns the “suitcase pimp” into a lovable asshole. As a viewer, we see right through Mikey’s facade, but we’re still pulled in by his charisma and genuinely curious how his manipulation will play out. We’re consistently invested in Mikey’s harebrained maneuvering and thoroughly entertained by his antics; we enjoy laughing at his pain and watching him flounder, but we’re also surprised whenever Mikey miraculously pulls down a win. Rex’s co-stars Bree Elrod and Suzanna Son also deserve heavy praise; they both deliver excellent performances, have a palpable chemistry with Rex, and give the history between characters an authenticity.
History is a major theme in the film, and Baker makes this as robust as can be through the writing and choice of setting. Baker and his longtime screenwriting partner Chris Bergoch smartly drop us into Mikey and Lexi’s story without all the facts. As the film proceeds, we’re gradually given more details about their relationship that enrich the narrative, but it’s the setting that looms in the backdrop that contextualizes the ending and Mikey’s hustle. The wide exteriors remind us of an older version of America, one that’s no longer practical and is slowly diminishing. It’s also set around the 2016 presidential race that took so many Americans by surprise, which does interesting things to the story. Could it be that Mikey winds up broken and ruined like the town, or does he wind up like Trump: an unlikely winner?
Heavily indebted to 70s cinema and the Italian sex comedies of the era (specifically the work of Umberto Lenzi), Red Rocket is a shaggy dog story that embraces the flaws of its amoral antihero. It’s beautifully photographed by cinematographer Drew Daniels and peppered with snap-zooms that serve as the cherry on top, visually speaking. Rex’s performance shines at the forefront, but it’s really the film’s open-ended conclusion, which takes a sharp veer into fantasy, that makes it truly memorable. In its final moments, Baker puts us into Mikey’s head as he wags a fresh bone at a dirty old dog who isn’t deserving of any scraps. One thing’s for sure: you’ll never hear NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye” in quite the same way ever again.
Recommendation: Red Rocket is one of the year’s best films, and you should definitely give it a watch. Support independent films by seeing it in a theater if you can.
Rating: 5 frisky encounters outta 5.
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