I'm going to try not to reveal too much, but there are some spoilers ahead.
"Red Rocket" is the latest film from Sean Baker, the director of "Tangerine" and "The Florida Project." It's about a porn actor, Mikey Saber (Simon Rex) who returns to his remote hometown of Texas City, broke and lacking in prospects. However, he is charming and wily - wily enough to talk himself back into the home of his hostile ex-wife, Lexi (Bree Elrod) and her mother Lil (Brenda Deiss). Soon he's dealing drugs for his old boss Leondria (Judy Hill) and palling around town with neighbor kid Lonnie (Ethan Darbone). And then he spots a seventeen year-old girl named Raylee (Suzanna Son) working at the local donut shop, and falls hopelessly in love.
If you're familiar with Sean Baker's previous films, this feels like familiar territory at first. Sex workers have been at the center of many of his stories, and fast-talking, self-aggrandizing Mikey doesn't seem too different at first from Sin-Dee Rella and friends from "Tangerine." He's dim, but affable, and has a relentlessly positive attitude. He runs small scale grifts and cons, but nothing too bad. However, as Mikey settles in, his behavior grows worse and worse, and when things inevitably go sideways, the people closest to him always sustain the most damage from his actions. "Red Rocket" turns out to be an excellent profile of a totally unscrupulous narcissist dirtbag, and so much of the suspense of the film is seeing just how low he's willing to sink. But even when Mikey is at his worst, Simon Rex is able to keep him effortlessly charismatic. It's easy to believe that he isn't doing anything wrong for much of the film, because he's completely unable to see his own behavior as harmful and toxic. It's a fantastic performance and well worth watching the film to see.
I expected that "Red Rocket" would be a difficult watch due to its uncomfortable subject matter, but the tone is kept very light and funny throughout. Mikey's bad behavior is never too tough to take, because he's so incompetent in his schemes, and his presence is well balanced by the women around him, who are a great collection of tough, colorful personalities. Leondria and her daughter June (Brittney Rodriguez) are the closest thing the film has to heavies, and the film gets so much mileage out of their complete mistrust of Mikey and their particular family dynamics. Lexi becomes more and more sympathetic as the film goes on, when you realize the extent to which Mikey has affected her life, but is never any less irascible or hilarious. And then there's Raylee, who likes to go by Strawberry, and walks that fine line between being precocious and naive, seemingly having the upper hand while also clearly having no appreciation of what she's getting herself into.
As with Baker's previous projects, "Red Rocket" is a verite style production, employing many nonprofessional actors, and shot largely in existing locations in Texas City. The featured donut shop is real, and was reported open for business during most of the filming process. Mikey's penchant for long bike rides shows off the surrounding scenery - or really the lack thereof. Texas City was clearly chosen for the film because it's an oil refinery town where the working class characters frequently look like they exist in the middle of nowhere. Cinematographer Drew Daniels keeps the visuals generally grounded in reality, but there are a few important scenes where certain elements are heightened to reflect Mikey's view of the world.
"Red Rocket" has considerably more pointed messaging than Baker's previous films, and it's easy to draw parallels to various political figures and social ills. Though there are a lot of laughs, I'd caution that this is also one of his darkest films, tiptoeing awfully close to subjects that are frankly horrific. As always, Baker shines a light on the lives of those on the bottom rung of the social ladder, but this time around he acknowledges that not everyone who's disadvantaged deserves our sympathy.
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