Red Rocket, 2021
Mikey (Simon Rex) is an adult film actor who, having alienated his connections and associates back in LA, arrives via bus back to his small Texas hometown. After a contentious encounter with his wife Lexi (Bree Elrod) and her mother Lil (Brenda Deiss), Mikey convinces the women to let him crash at their home temporarily. Unable to find lawful employment, Mikey goes back to dealing pot. But things take a real turn when a young donut shop worker nicknamed Strawberry (Suzanna Son) catches Mikey's eye.
In director Sean Baker's films
The Florida Project and
Tangerine, there is an intense degree of suspense as the characters' triumphs play out. You absolutely know that whatever is going well in their lives, the other shoe is waiting to drop. The main difference with
Red Rocket is that its central character is so loathsome that you kind of can't wait for the world to grind him underfoot.
I think that your response to this film will largely depend on whether or not you see its portrayal of Mikey as being empathetic or positive at all. I absolutely did not. In every single interaction in the film, we see that Mikey cares only about himself and not one bit about how his actions harm those around him.
As with all of his films, Baker populates this movie with characters who are complex and flawed. Lexi, who has her own history with adult movies and is forced to rely on Craigslist-based sex work to make money, should know better. But Mikey, despite his flaws, brings a familiarity that acts as a close-enough proxy to safety. The more we learn about Lexi, the more sympathetic she seems, even if it's clear that she makes poor decisions and that she has done her own share of harm. Neighbor Lonnie (Ethan Darbone) is thrilled to get to pal around with Mikey, not realizing that he's mainly being used as a pair of wheels. Lonnie lives with his widowed father and makes his own inexplicable choices.
Strawberry, though, stands out in the film because of all the people in the film, she's the one who
shouldn't know better. Strawberry is at a turning point in her life, getting ready to turn 18 and venture out on her own. In her desire to be an adult, you can see how she imagines herself as being an equal to Mikey. As he continues to push on acceptable boundaries--flirting with her after learning her age, taking her to a strip club, having sex with her--she is unable to see these actions as inappropriate. Instead she is flattered that Mikey finds her mature enough for such pursuits. Unlike Baker's other films, we do not want our protagonist to succeed. Instead, the tension comes from wondering how much damage he will do before he is stopped, if anything can stop him.
This is a movie about a man grooming a young woman for sexual exploitation. Not just in the sense of pursuing a sexual relationship with her, but in dreaming of using her as a way back into the porn industry. There's a running joke about Mikey bragging about winning adult film awards and then being questioned about why he won when the woman did all the work in the scene. His answer that he's really always the one in control says a lot about his character and how he views the women he works with. And yet as openly gross as Mikey is, this is also kind of a movie about how this kind of grooming is able to happen. When Mikey crows that Strawberry is 17 and therefore "legal", Lonnie barely blinks an eye. While Strawberry's boss at the donut shop sees what is happening, she doesn't really do anything to stop it. Strawberry's parents are notably absent from the entire film.
Overall I did find the film to be pretty funny, despite the serious subject matter. Mikey's posturing is a constant source of cringe humor, especially a sequence where he insists on having Strawberry drive him to the home of a boy she dated so that he can threaten the kid. There are also some great moments from the supporting cast, especially Brittney Rodriguez as June, the daughter of the woman who Mikey gets his weed from. June is distinctly immune to any of Mikey's charms, and stands as a counter-point to Strawberry.
I do question a bit whether or not the film has to be as explicit as it is. There is relative parity in terms of who is nude and whatnot, but I don't know that so many scenes between Mikey and Strawberry were necessary. We are supposed to be upset by the way that Mikey plans to exploit Strawberry and her body and her youth, and yet it feels like the film is doing just that to a certain extent. In terms of how those scenes function---showing us Strawberry's infatuation with Mikey, showing us his behavior towards her--I don't know that they had to be as graphic.
Really good performances and I enjoyed the plot progression, as much as it felt like watching 122 minutes of a train wreck.