BEN O’GORMAN
RED ROCKET is the new film from Sean Baker, who broke through with his hugely successful second feature, Tangerine, which was shot mainly on an iPhone 5s.
Red Rocket, at first, seems like a movie about a former sex worker trying to integrate back into society, but it reveals itself to be much darker than that.
Mikey is a former porn star who returns to his home town in disgrace, with no money, and covered in cuts and bruises. He is completely delusional and narcissistic, but undeniably charismatic. He convinces his ex-wife to let him sleep on her couch, begins to deal drugs, and begins to get back on his feet. When he meets a young girl named Strawberry he thinks she could be his way back to Hollywood, and to the top of the porn industry.
Exploitation is everywhere in this movie, even in the geography. The film is set in Texas, where the main business of the town is an oil refinery. Like the oil refinery sucking oil from the earth, Mikey is taking everything he can from everyone around him.
It is no accident the film is set during Trump’s presidential campaign. Often scenes are left lingering with a news segment or piece of radio about Trump’s building momentum.
Mikey (Simon Rex ) is the perfect personification of that strange, cruel, misogyny from the early noughties - the misogyny that counted down until Emma Watson turned 18 or laughed when Britney Spears had her breakdown. Essentially he is a sociopath, and Rex delivers one of the best performances I have seen in years.
Baker is not satisfied with just telling the grim side of this story. There are some really beautiful and funny scenes. When Strawberry sings for Mikey it is genuinely moving and there are some great gags where you are laughing with, and at, Mikey. Baker lets Mikey seduce and charm the viewer like he’s doing to the characters in the film. In doing that, Baker runs the risk of not adequately condemning the appalling behaviour, but Baker trusts his audience.
This is one of the best films I have seen this year. Baker is a modern American, Ken Loach. Indeed, when he revealed Loach to be one of his major influences, I felt I understood his films (and in particular, this film ) more.
Baker makes movies about complicated people who live in the margins of society. Mikey is a true villain, but he is a product of his country and his era. Red Rocket is a rare movie and an absolutely brilliant one to have a pint after and chat about. I really could not recommend it more.
