Red Rocket: Film Review
I really enjoyed Sean Baker‘s last film, 2017’s The Florida Project, so I was excited to see Red Rocket – but I came away unsure if I liked it or not.
It’s 2016, and washed-up porn star Mickey Saber (Simon Rex) returns home to Texas City after a 17-year absence and begs his estranged wife Lexi (Bree Elrod) to let him move into the house she shares with her mother Lil (Brenda Deiss). They agree on the condition that he gets a job to provide for them and help out around the house. One day, Mickey meets 17-year-old Strawberry (Suzanna Son) while she is working at the Donut Hole and becomes infatuated with her. He believes she can help him break back into the porn industry and restore his reputation.
As you can tell from that summary, Mikey isn’t a particularly likeable guy – he wants to turn a 17-year-old into a porn star and basically uses his friends and acquaintances for his own benefit. Some people might find him so repellent that it puts them off the movie as a whole but that wasn’t the case for me. Rex’s compelling performance encourages you to stick with it. He’s a charmer with the gift of the gab who is very watchable even when he stoops lower than you might have expected. I didn’t sympathise with him or want him to succeed but I had no problem watching it.
Director/co-writer Baker once again immerses us in a pocket of society you generally don’t see on film. He always focuses on people on the margins of society and makes his films as realistic as possible. Rex, Elrod and Son are surrounded by non-professional actors – another Baker trademark – and those were the supporting stars that stood out the most. Deiss, Brittney Rodriguez as backyard drug dealer June and Ethan Darbone as neighbour Lonnie ground the story even further and give it a gritty edge.
We basically just spent time with Mickey during the month he’s back home. It’s a character study and we are observing him making all his bad and unethical choices. Not much happens and the film could have been tightened up in the middle, where it loses its momentum. It comes to a satisfying conclusion in the final act, although I didn’t love where Baker decided to stop the story and fade to black. I came away confused and not sure if I liked what I just saw or not.
I really enjoyed Rex and the delightful Son (who has a gorgeous singing voice) and the repetitive use of NSYNC’s banger Bye Bye Bye but it’s a bit too long for a film in which we’re watching someone go from one f**k-up to the next. The Florida Project was definitely more my kind of movie.
In cinemas Friday 11th March