With his last two filmsTangerineandThe Florida Projectand now his latest film,Red Rocket, director Sean Baker has shown himself to be a master when it comes to enticing authentic performances out of his actors. Whether it’s people who he merely plucked off the street or saw in his real life, or character actors with decades of experience and a specific style like Simon Rex, Baker makes everyone fit their character and serve the story. InRed Rocket’s case, that story is so exaggerated that it features three different NSYNC musical cues, but still finds a way to be unnervingly captivating.
Mikey Saber (Rex) has returned to his hometown in Texas following a seemingly successful career in the adult entertainment industry. We say seemingly because everything that comes out of Saber’s mouth sounds like he is trying to sell you something. He’s a silver-tongued menace that has already created one wake of devastation on his road to the porn industry and his return spells bad news for everyone he encounters. And yet Saber has an oddly fascinating quality about him that doesn’t make him likable, per se, but it does make him watchable.
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Saber’s relationship with his ex-wife Lexi (Bree Elrod), for example, has an obvious feeling of exploitation, but Lexi and her mother Lil (Brenda Deiss) are willing to put up with his shenanigans as long as it’s also to their benefit. While Saber is always trying to get back on top, Lexi and Lil are merely trying to get by and Elrod’s and Deiss' performances are heartbreakingly authentic and touching. Of course, Saber’s scheming gives the ominous sense that a rug pull is just around the corner, but Baker injects his characters with just enough positivity and hopefulness that you may’t help but see if they end up thriving.
But make no mistake, Saber is a schemer of the highest order, as evidenced by his relationship with Strawberry (Suzanna Son), a 17-year-old donut shop cashier that is clearly enamored with the older Mikey. Red Rocket’s script, written by Baker and Chris Bergoch, gives Saber every opportunity to do the right thing and he’s oblivious to the path before him. All he sees are dollar signs and a chance to get clear of Texas once again. His blissful ignorance - typified by his gleeful bike rides through dangerous neighborhoods at any hour - is infectious with the knowledge it is obviously toxic.
Rex is captivating as Mikey Saber, packed with energy and exuberance on the level necessary to make this outlandish character seem real. He fires off stories at a rapid clip that it’s so impossible to tell what details are fake and best to just assume it all is. The performance skirts the line of parody just enough to allow for Rex to showcase his years in comedic roles but never too much to pull the audience out. The rest of the cast are virtual unknowns and they all fit so perfectly into this podunk town. Rex’s character is such a gravitational force that each is not asked to do much but react, but Baker finds a way to pull authenticity out of them in a way that is very impressive.
In terms of its filmmaking,Red Rockethas a texture to it that strips the lower class Texas neighborhoods of any personality it might have otherwise had. Baker’s use of 16mm film adds a grit and a grime that punctuates why Saber wanted to leave his hometown in the first place. Pops of color like the neon pink on the donut shop is alluring to the audience just like Strawberry is to Mikey. They are diamonds in the rough.
A lot of the film hinges on Rex’s performance and he nails it. The characterization of Mikey is such that the delusions of grandeur are both alluring and offputting. Make no mistake, though, Baker does enough to ensure thatRed Rocketdoesn’t leave audiences with the feeling that Mikey Saber is a good guy. He’s a character that can only exist in the 21st century and whose only concern is how to get back to where he thought he was years ago.
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Red Rocket
The audacious new film from writer-director Sean Baker (The Florida Project, Tangerine), starring Simon Rex in a magnetic, live-wire performance,Red Rocketis a darkly funny and humane portrait of a uniquely American hustler and a hometown that barely tolerates him.
