Red Rocket review: Majestic career high for former porn star who partied with Paris Hilton
Red Rocket isn’t the first cinematic reminder we’ve had this year that penises make for hilarious viewing. Jackass Forever, the year’s most unlikely hit, was basically middle-aged men getting laughs from their appendages. This indie is going in for a slice of the same pie, although the silly jokes sit alongside a serious message about coercive control and how it damages some of the most vulnerable in society.
Mikey, played by Simon Rex, is a washed-up former porn star who turns up unannounced to visit his estranged wife Lexi, played by Bree Elrod. She lives in a rural, working class Texan town with her mother, who’s using illegal drugs to take the edge off after being refused medication. He’s got nowhere to stay, but manages to convince Lexi and her well-meaning neighbours to help him get back on his feet. Finding new work, new clothes, and with renewed confidence, he begins to exploit everyone in his path to claw back some of his former success.
You probably won’t have heard of Red Rocket’s lead actor Rex, but if you kept up with Hollywood gossip in the early noughties you might’ve seen the former MTV presenter and model splashed about in the tabloids after partying with Paris Hilton. Following years of declining work opportunities, he thought his career might have finally been over. Then he got a call from indie film-maker Sean Baker, the creative mind behind 2015’s Tangerine, a film shot entirely on an iPhone 5s, as well as The Florida Project, which got its lead star Willem Dafoe an Oscar nomination.
Put politely, Baker has a contemporaneity that could be described as at odds with Rex’s career. But Baker really wanted him to star in Red Rocket – and thank goodness he did.
Rex is magnetic as charismatic bastard Mikey, totally getting the mindset of the type of man who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. He plays Mikey as likeable because ultimately that’s what he is – pretending to be nice is how bad people get away with bad actions. Rex shows how men like Mikey’s charming facade can slip in an instant, resorting to physical power to control the women in his life, an act that sometimes boils over into violence.
The oppressive factories that line the horizon of this small workers’ town loom over the locals. Visually, they feel like another enemy, looming uncomfortably large in the frame. Characters are woken by loudhailer announcements, and cargo trains crawling past block out conversation where Mikey’s teen love interest, Strawberry, works. (Strawberry is played confidently by newcomer Suzanna Son, who displays how the damage of abusive behaviour can bleed through the generations.)
Baker filmed everything on a $1million budget during the pandemic with a crew of 10, but even with a small budget – or perhaps because of – the environments feel incredibly rich. These buildings, typically thought to be ugly, are given washes of warm orange in the evening glow, and modest back yards are bathed in the brilliant blue of daytime.
It might be a hard place to live but Baker shows how a resilient community pulling together can create a supportive and safe environment abounding with love.
Red Rocket is showing at selected cinemas now