Red Rocket review: the ultimate hangout with the ultimate dirtbag

In the first moments of Texas’s Independence Day, Mikey Saber (Simon Rex), arrives. Red Rocket, he’s immediately ordered to leave. “You said you weren’t gonna step your foot in Texas again!” his estranged wife Lexi (Bree Elrod) yells at him across her front lawn, after making Mikey get off her property.

“And then the world fucked me!” Mikey yells back. That’s what he really thinks. Mikey Saber’s vision of the future will continue to be shared over two hours. He sees every misfortune as someone else’s fault, while every setback is just another opportunity for him to emerge victorious, even if he never does. He’s a carnival barker without a big top, and with no real need for one. He’s effortlessly charming, and sleazy to the core. Within a matter of minutes, he convinces his wife Lil (Brenda Deiss), to let him sleep on the couch. And then, over the next few weeks, he makes them wish they hadn’t.

Sean Baker directs the latest film.Tangerine, Florida Project), Red RocketThe movie features a guy that you may know. Maybe not personally, but you’ve likely crossed paths with a Mikey Saber, perhaps at work, or more likely on TV. On one hand, he’s relatable as hell: All he wanted to do was escape the oil-refinery town he grew up in. After a while, it was possible. Only things didn’t pan out, and now he’s forced to return home to Texas City, where no one really wants him, and the few who don’t know him are about to find out why everyone else feels that way.

Photo Credit: A24

Saber is at first a sympathetic character. He’s a former porn star, and while he’s proud of his prior accomplishments (he repeatedly mentions that he’s a three-time award winner) they also make it difficult to land non-porn work. He hustles and convinces Leondria, a drug supply, that he can sell marijuana for her just like when he was young. Lonnie Darbone (now a grown man) is the one he rides on. He tries to take advantage of every opportunity he has, to not only leave but to get to Los Angeles where he is at home.

Mikey falls in love with Strawberry (Suzanna, a local teenager) and soon realizes his dreams. Soon smitten with Strawberry, he spends all his time together, deluding each other into believing they can escape Texas City. Mikey’s delusion, however, takes a more sinister turn as he starts to see Strawberry as his ticket back into the adult industry, and he slowly starts grooming her into accepting his propositions.

Red Rocket’s script, by Baker and his longtime co-writer Chris Bergoch, keeps things loose and centered on Mikey’s incessant talking. Its strengths, however, lie in the things that happen around Mikey, from the people who don’t say much compared to him, who will remain in Texas City whether or not he does, to the vast expanses of Southern land, where the only landmarks are smokestacks and Trump campaign billboards. In the background of Mikey’s hucksterism, the 2016 presidential campaign plays out on television, never commented on, but ever-present. It’s another story about a man who effortlessly spun fictions about himself and got people to believe them, to the detriment of everyone in his orbit.

Photo Credit: A24

Simon Rex’s performance as Mikey sweeps up everything around it, including the movie’s audience. This actor exudes an undeniable energy that gives life to the character. Red Rocket a bit of a real-world parallel — Rex was well-established in the early-aughts party scene, a member of a class of tabloid celebutantes mostly famous for being famous (He also starred in most of the Scary Movie films). He’s the metatextual anchor for Red Rocket’s cast of gifted unknowns and non-actors, continuing Baker’s preference for casting locals to tell local stories. Each resident of Texas City is fascinating enough to be followed. Red RocketFollow Mikey. Every scene he shares with them is suffused with hilarious incredulity, as everyone grows increasingly skeptical of Mikey’s bullshit. As Strawberry, Suzanna Son takes on the film’s most difficult task, toeing the line between conveying a 17-year-old’s oblivious naïveté and her selfish ambitions, all while being portrayed through the film’s subjective lens of this older man’s ridiculous fantasy.

Despite (or because)? Its sleaze center. Red RocketThis is comedy. It’s the ultimate hangout film with the ultimate dirtbag, and it constantly provides evidence of something viewers will likely suspect after only a few minutes with Mikey: The man is pathetic. He can’t help but tell you so, even as he thinks he’s talking himself up. About halfway through Red Rocket, Mikey gives a profane speech where we learn what he “won” his adult video awards for: Oral-sex scenes where he was the recipient. Or, in other words, as several characters point out — arguably not much.

Mikey doesn’t think so, though. He never does. It is unlikely that three people could win the same award three times in succession, where he has been the sole common denominator. Other people’s success is thanks to him. He is always responsible for his failures. It’s the American political discourse in miniature, a matryoshka doll of blame-games that take up all the oxygen in the room, while cycles of exploitation continue unabated. You can help if Red Rocket’s story extended over several years instead of several weeks, its events would likely just repeat, with Strawberry yelling across her lawn at Mikey instead of Lexi. He’d have new business partners who fucked him over, more people to fault for robbing him of his chance to shine. Mikey simply loves to fuck people and that has nothing to do sex.

Red Rocket It is currently showing in cinemas.