3/18/2023 0 Comments Red rocketIt invites audiences to question why characters struggle to feel valuable and the depths they will go to to feel anything.Įven the landscape is bleached a sickly yellow by the sun and marked with the souvenirs of deprivation. The scene is reminiscent of what Red Rocket does throughout. Baker also puts America’s military honour culture on display in a scene at the mall when Lonnie is confronted having pretending to be a veteran. Mikey’s years as a pornstar stand in the way of him getting other, more conventional jobs (although he doesn’t seem too bothered about that) and Lil worries that Lexi’s work as a prostitute is too dangerous. The film returns again and again to the subject of work: getting it, keeping it and the different kinds of value placed upon it.Īs in his previous films, director Sean Baker confronts the stigma placed upon sex work. The oil refineries spew fire into the sky and workers back into the streets after their shift, the latter dead-eyed and wanting to ‘kill themselves’. Lonnie’s dad cares about nothing except keeping his garden immaculate after the death of his wife, while Lex and Lil’s garden has been left to overgrow two opposite responses to loss and lack of opportunity. Red Rocket is littered with characters left stranded by the difficulty and hopelessness of their situation. Why should someone with 20.1 million views on Pornhub care about small things like that? It’s a warped, twenty-first century American Dream. At the core of this film is a man who believes in his ability to transform the world around him, never letting decency or conscience stand in his way. The film is set during the 2016 presidential election and the parallels with Trump are unavoidable and hardly subtle. He identifies, isolates and takes advantage of people like Raylee and his neighbour Lonnie who are too young or trusting to see through his lies. And underneath the easy-going charm Mikey is a predator. He can’t get hard without one of his ‘magic pills’. He brags about awards won by female sex workers as if they are his own achievements. For example, a set of injuries at the start of the film are explained away by a string of confectionery lies. He fills every scene with energy and it’s easy to see why his sloppy charm has an effect on people. Rex, who has done adult film work in the past, puts in a great performance as Mikey. The shots of Mikey cruising around aimlessly on his kid’s yellow bicycle recall coming-of-age films, except actor Simon Rex is forty-seven years old and came of age a generation ago. Within a few weeks he is back dealing weed and sleeping with Lexi, all while secretly dating a seventeen-year-old named Raylee/Strawberry (Suzanna Son). Moving in with his estranged wife, former co-star Lexi (Bree Elrod), and her mother Lil, Mikey must navigate his fall from LA grace in the face of some pretty complicated relationships.Ĭlaiming to hate the small town Texan life he left behind, he quickly begins to regress and recreate his teenage years. The film follows Mikey as he returns to his hometown in Texas after seventeen years working in Los Angeles as an adult film star. The dog in question is Mikey ‘Saber’ Davies (Simon Rex). Red Rocket is slang for a dog’s erection.
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