A guy who has only been known as an actor for appearances in the absurd Scary Movie films and got his start in the pornography business provides one of the most brilliant character portrayals of 2021. You can't make it up, but Mr. Indie and A24 darling Sean Baker makes it possible in his new film Red Rocket. Once again, Baker devotes himself to an under-the-radar demographic, and once again he does so with a lot of realism and attention to detail.
The former porn hit Mikey Saber is unemployed and penniless. So he has no choice but to move back in with his estranged wife and her mother in the ghettos of Texas City, who really want nothing more to do with him. But with charm and sex appeal, Mikey manages to settle back in. At the beginning, he also wants to become a better person and is desperately looking for workers. In the end, he finds work with a drug family. Privately, Mikey's life also quickly gets out of hand when he meets an underage girl and immediately spies a way back into his old profession. From what I wrote about the lead actor at the beginning of the review, it sounds as if Simon Rex is playing himself here. That may be partly true, but he does it with so much charisma that I couldn't get enough of this loathsome character. He starts off on a kind of redemption arc, but it quickly becomes clear that Baker probably doesn't believe that such people can change. Because that's exactly what Mikey doesn't do in this film. His actions and statements are despicable, he harms everyone around him, and on top of that he believes he is the greatest hero. All qualities I despise in people. Still, I couldn't get enough of watching Rex ride his bike or run around stark naked with a fake penis to the musical accompaniment of the song "Bye Bye Bye" by NSYNC. The rest of the cast, largely made up of real residents of the area (which is how Baker casts some of his films) are also great, with Suzanna Son in particular giving a great application letter for the future as Mikey's naive love interest.
This may all sound very crazy and possibly off-putting, but in my opinion it is wildly original. In contrast to The Florida Project, Baker here relies on a mixture of a wide variety of genres, some of which are reminiscent of films like Boogie Nights or Uncut Gems. Red Rocket stressed me out, amused me and made me think. The courage to be explicit also pays off in full, as the film is precisely about people from this industry and with this background. Until the last ten minutes, Red Rocket was on course to become my favourite film of the year already. Unfortunately, Baker dwells too long on uninteresting and one-dimensional characters at the end. The ending is then again really strong and caught me off guard with its ambivalence. Definitely the first surprise of 2022!
