Director Sean Baker follows up The Florida Project with a more darker comedy Red Rocket.
It is another film with several amateur actors and characters living in the lower end of the socio economic scale..
Set in 2016 in the background of the Presidential election campaign. Mikey Saber (Simon Rex) is a washed up porn star who had been turfed out from LA and is returning home to a small town in Texas.
Mickey needs to get back with his ex wife Lexi or he will be homeless. She initially does not want him but Mickey manages to worm his way into the house and promises to pay his way. His mother in law is happy with that.
Unable to find a regular job, Mickey is selling weed to earn a living and skim a bit on the side.
The amoral Mickey sees a way back to the big time in Hollywood when he comes across pretty 17 year old Strawberry who works in a donut shop. Mickey is taken in by Strawberry and thinks she is a natural porn star.
Hoping to be her agent and manager. Mickey plans to manipulate Strawberry to a life of porn. First by making her fall in love with him.
Simon Rex certainly turns up the dial and energy as Mickey. Ever optimistic, charming, lying and scheming. In short a parasitic hustler. He is a born survivor who only cares about himself and getting ahead at the expense of others. The parallels to Donald Trump are obvious.
Red Rocket has a warped charm about it. You never once root for Mickey, feel appalled that he is hoping to get rich by grooming a young woman into porn. Even their affair is icky but legal in Texas. The age of consent there is 17.
I got some gratification when his plans went awry as many in the neighbourhood were on to him. I doubt Mickey will ever not be narcissistic.
