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RED ROCKET – Review – We Are Movie Geeks

Review

RED ROCKET – Review

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Simon Rex in Sean Baker’s dark comedy RED ROCKET. Courtesy of A24.

A shabby man (Simon Rex) stumbles off a bus and heads for a modest house in a little Texas town. He seems confident they will take him in but, despite an outpouring of charm, they refuse to let him set foot in the place. Not only don’t the residents let him in, they order him off their property. You know there is more to this story, and we are about to find out what in Sean Baker’s comedy RED ROCKET.

The film opens with NSYNC’s song “Bye, Bye, Bye,” which becomes a kind of running theme, in this comic tale. Good-bye is what most of these people want to say to Mikey Saber, the fellow fresh off the bus. Comedian and former MTV star Simon Rex is perfectly cast as smooth-talking Mikey Saber, an aging failed porn star whose fortunes have fallen so far that he was forced to flee Hollywood to return the the hometown he dumped long ago. Now, that he is back, he pours on the charm but eventually resorts to begging his ex-wife Lexi (Bree Elrod) and mother-in-law Lil (Brenda Deiss), whose doorstep he is on, to take him in. Scratch that – she’s his estranged wife; they never divorced although they parted ways only ago. Eventually, the women reluctantly do let him in, with promises that he just wants to take a shower and borrow some clothes. Yeah, sure.

Sean Baker first captured attention with TANGERINE, a groundbreaking micro-budget film of life on the street shot on cell phone, and then soared with FLORIDA PROJECT, an acclaimed, heart-rending tale of a girl growing up in a Florida weekly-rental motel, shot with striking realism. Baker has always focused sympathetically on those on the lowest economic level while showing their lives remarkable realism. That sympathy for those on the lowest rung and that realism is still here in this film, but now the focus is on dark humor and on the destructive character at the center of this tale.

Simon Rex’s Mikey Saber is funny and entertaining, but might not be a nice guy. At first we sympathize with this homeless character who has nowhere else to go but we quickly learn there is reason for the hostility of those who know him. It seems Mikey Saber – a stage name, of course – is a charming sociopath, using people and conning his way through life, before and after leaving his dusty industrial hometown behind to go to Hollywood. Confident, unfailingly optimistic, and self-centered, Mikey had plans to become a star but what he did was become a porn star. Or, at least, he says he was a star, repeatedly citing his porn industry awards – “like the Oscars” as he tells it.

Can Mikey turn over a new leaf? Despite everything that has happened, Mikey has unsinkable self confidence, along with no scruples. He’s always looking for an angle, polishing his own image, and seeking a way in to people’s hearts, to turn that to his advantage. Donald Trump is on the TV in the background of several scenes, running for president in 2016, hinting that director Baker wants to drawing parallels. Most who knew Mikey are wise to his tricks, but he does take in a young neighbor, Lonnie (Ethan Darbone), who remembers him from when he was a little kid and Mikey’s wife used to babysit him. Lonnie thinks of Mikey as a colorful local legend, and Mikey uses that admiration to his advantage, particularly getting Lonnie to drive him places.

At first, it seems that Mikey might have learned some life lessons. Once in the door, he pleads to stay and, borrowing his wife’s bicycle without asking, sets out to look for a job. Having been turned down all over town, he starts selling pot for cash. He might just turn over that famous leaf and do the right thing – like paying his own way. But meeting a pretty red-headed teen-aged girl (Suzanna Son) at a doughnut shop sets Mikey off on new schemes.

While Mikey leaves plenty of destruction in his wake but he is his own worst enemy too. Simon Rex fans will probably enjoy his rogue character in this dark comedy more than those charmed by Sean Baker’s touching FLORIDA PROJECT who might be hoping for something more like that. Certainly, RED ROCKET is a well-made film and there are some excellent performances, but the central character is such a slime ball that the film is hard to take. Baker retains his humanist view of people at the economic bottom rung who surround this hustler, and Baker’s human sensibility provides a satisfying ending. But along the way, there are plenty of cringe-worthy moments, and a creepiness about Mikey that is hard to tolerate. It’s not a film for everyone.

RED ROCKET opens Saturday, Dec. 25, in theaters.

RATING: 2 out of 4 stars