Rent Red Rocket (2021)

Overlong US Movie Set Amongst Poor White Americans (like Florida Project) - Red Rocket review by PV

The reason films like this in recent years seem radical and new to US audiences is that they had NO kitchen sink drama over there as the UK had from the 50s on - we had our social realist films then and after (like KES), showing real poor people failing at life. Shane Meadows continues that tradition.

I must say I am not always a fan, and never sure re improvised acting of real people BUT it is all part of the whole. The point is we in Britain are well used to it; the Americans are not as most movies there portray rich people NOT the underclass. So this film is useful for that.

The problem is that this convoluted movie (which is 30 minutes too long at last) cannot decide if it is that or some bedroom farce or BOOGIE NIGHTS so often it's a bit of a mess. No doubt Americans find it hilarious. I yawned a lot.

Great lead actor BUT I have a problem with why we have so much male full-frontal nudity (even though fake) and yet when a woman he has slept with gets out of bed she has her underpants on! Now THAT is sexism.

3 stars. Better than The Florida Project which I gave 2.

Some beautiful visuals & great supporting turn from Son make up for a meandering story - Red Rocket review by TB

One thing with Sean Baker that you will always get is stunning visuals & bright colours, combined with a zesty energy which courses through the film. Irrelevant of what happens on screen, your eyes will have a feast. And this really makes a difference in Red Rocket, a look at a deplorable but undeniably charismatic hustler who returns in desperation to his hometown.

Mikey Davies is a washed-up, burnt out & out of luck ex-porn star who turns up again on the bus in Texas City, Texas, having fled California beaten, bruised & with just $22 to his name, along with the clothes on his back. He heads to the home of his estranged wife Lexi, who lives with her mother and both of whom share a visceral hatred of Mikey, due to his treatment of & subsequent abandoning of her. He then attempts to get his life back on track, as well as a chance meeting with a 17 year old girl whom he falls in love with.

There is plenty to like here, mainly the vibrant energy, which as I said earlier, spills out of the screen. The world this film creates and invites us into is a real & beautiful place which is filled with dynamic & genuine people, almost all of whom are non-actors. Speaking of performances, as much as Simon Rex got most of the plaudits, for me the real star here is Suzanna Son. It would be so, so easy for her to play Raylee as a beautiful "bimbo" who simply falls in love with & is ambivalent to the obviously horrendous traits Mikey has. But Raylee is a genuinely complex young woman, headstrong & in control of her own destiny. I also liked the fact that the script shows her to be a "real" woman who has explored & experimented with her sexuality, not just a clichéd character who has been "waiting her whole life for a guy to come along & show her what she's been missing out on."

Mikey himself was someone I didn't much care for, as well as starting to tire of him & his narcissistic personality. It is clear, both from the way the film treats him as well as the reviews which cannot stop praising him, that we as the audience should be equally as enamored with him. But for me he was basically a tic, scampering around & leeching the goodwill and generosity of everyone around him. And alongside that, the manipulation he tries to do towards Raylee is seen by the writer/director as this almost scallywag trait which makes him more charming, when the opposite is true.

However, the narrative of this film is one which I think can be at times quite dull. We have a lot of montages of Mikey cycling, as well as random meetings between characters which doesn't further the plot that much. I do however admit that some of the situations he gets himself into are sometimes quite funny, plus the ending is one which, although it can be read in many ways, I actually think is simply a prelude to everything catching up with him.

An interesting movie and one which hopefully will see Suzanna Son go on to bigger & better things.

Somewhat Seedy American Drama - Red Rocket review by GI

Here we have an indie American social drama with comedic overtones and a film that becomes more and more tedious as it traverses it's two hour plus runtime. There's an ironic study here of the Trump era MAGA mantra highlighting the underbelly of American society and it's weird, dysfunctional and at times reprehensible obsessions. The story follows Mikey (Simon Rex), a washed up porn film actor, charismatic and with the gift of the gab who has left Los Angeles and turned up at his estranged wife's house in a small Texas town. He inveigles his way back into her affections with lots of promises, including getting a job which proves rather difficult so he ends up selling weed for a local drug dealer. But it's when he meets the 17 year old 'Strawberry' who works in the local donut shop that Mikey's true colours are brought forth. He essentially seduces her with the intent of getting her into the porn film business and hence his return to his profession where he feels he has some standing. This story whilst at time intriguing is dragged out somewhat over a swear riddled and sex scene heavy narrative that, in my mind, loses its thematic goals. There's something seedy and unpleasant about every character here making the film seem sordid and creepy. Perhaps that's the aim but whatever the intentions it's a film with an interesting purpose and a difficult experience for the viewer.