Review: Red Rocket

Directed by: Sean Baker

Written by: Chris Bergoch & Sean Baker

Starring: Simon Rex, Bree Elrod, Suzanna Son, Brenda Deiss, Judy Hill, Brittney Rodriguez

Rating: [3.5/5]

Everyone needs their one opportunity to strike it large in life dependent on the talent they possess. When it arrives one needs to be prepared to strike and take this opportunity head-on and as seen in Red Rocket, at the expense of everything else around you. Carrying dubious morals hilariously, this film takes us into a specific community with an individual trying to extract whatever he can from it and get out. 

After leaving in pursuit of a better life, Mikey (Simon Rex) returns to his hometown Texas City with nothing to his name. While trying to get back on his feet while staying with his estranged wife Lexi (Bree Elord), he encounters a young girl named Raylee (Suzanna Son) who he immediately gains attraction for and imagines a bright future for them together. 

The experience of watching Red Rocket certainly will conflict some viewers because of the central relationship occurring between Mikey and 17-year-old Raylee. Especially with Mikey as a character in his mid-40s makes it nothing more than predatory behavior towards her not only in the pursuit of a sexual relationship but also proposing the dream of her becoming an adult film actor. While 17 marks the age of consent in the state of Texas, everything about this relationship still raises so many red flags because of this significant age gap and Raylee being a child in the eyes of the law and common sense. However, in the end, Mikey in no way represents a good person in the way he treats others and his journey of comedic humiliation delivers some satisfaction in presenting this whole picture. 

Mikey’s return to this town comes with a sense of humbleness and failure where he left this small Gulf Coast town where wealth does not appear in the areas Mikey frequents for making it big time in California. He spent his 17 years out in California working as an adult film actor but now must return with his head held low that he must crawl back and start all over. This adds a further significance to the number 17 where this absence from Texas City saw the birth of someone he would later return and start a sexual relationship with if it did not already make you feel sick. This return allows for a look at this part of the country and the particular struggles they carry and in the case of Mikey, the stigma still carried by those in the porn industry. 

In his attempts to get a job to sustain himself, he constantly needs to address the 17-year gap in his resume before letting them know of what he actually did and then immediately getting shut down. At the very least the man tries to make some money in a legitimate way before resorting to selling marijuana again and then his ultimate goal of taking Raylee to the big time and making her a star in adult entertainment. These particular sleazeballs certainly exist out there as these men build a career in trying to live off women’s talent in the industry and he ultimately sees this as his way back out of this city making every other interaction he has disingenuous at best and cruel on the other. 

Exploring Texas City, we get to see a corner of America not typically focused on, which has certainly become director Sean Baker’s specialty. From the forgotten communities left behind right outside of Disney in The Florida Project or the trans community in Tangerine, he highlights these specific individuals that never receive the spotlight. In Texas City, we see a town not ripe in economic development with individuals just trying to make it by day to day through whatever means necessary. They could be described as good ol’ salt of the Earth individuals, which makes Mikey’s convenient return for the purposes of using everyone for their own gain fairly heinous. 

Everything occurring in this feature sets itself to be inappropriate and it certainly succeeds in doing that in the manner it explores Mikey’s relationship with everyone around him. He wants to achieve the American Dream and will do so by extracting it from anyone he can in this small town because evidently, he sees himself as above them. This exploration of a film gets into all of the depravity he does and we can relish in the moments where he receives his comeuppance allowing for some cathartic releases. This feature has plenty of fun and gives Simon Rex the opportunity to go off and remind us of his brilliant comedic timing to make for such a fascinating watch.