Red Rocket (new Sean Baker film)

[zomgmouse]

Sean Baker (of Tangerine and The Florida Project acclaim) has made a new film called Red Rocket, a dark comedy about a sociopathic failed male porn star who comes crawling back to his little town. It's really really funny, fucked up in more than a small way, refreshingly complex and tremendously competently made. I loved it and may even watch it again (particularly to check if certain scenes listed in the IMDb parental guidance section were excised for the Australian version, including the one that informs the below poster image). Not sure it's widely out yet (I got to see a preview screening) but it'll be interesting to see what you all make of it!

[Bad Ambassador]

if certain scenes listed in the IMDb parental guidance section were excised for the Australian version

Frightening & Intense Scenes
The film is severly set during 2016 Trump and Clinton debation and is referenced at some points.

Chilling.

[Small Man Big Horse]

This out in the US (and received a rare A- from A.A. Dowd at The AV Club) so hopefully it'll make it over to the UK sooner rather than later.

[zomgmouse]

Chilling.

hahaha - i did notice that.

Also:

Red Rocket is slang for a dogs member.
5 of 8 found this interesting

[Junglist]

It's 'out' btw gentleman

[amputeeporn]

Okay - I watched this on Saturday night and then had to rewatch on Sunday morning with my partner. What a stunning film, possibly Baker's best, although it's hard to say because it feels so different from his others. Where they've all had elements of tension before, this plays almost like a thriller - not only as beautiful, sad and wrenching as his other work but genuinely shocking.

So much to say - but Simon Rex deserves all the praise he's getting. It feels like an iconic role and at times had me howling with laughter, before taking me to the brink of despair. All of the actors are incredible, and I was shocked to learn that both Lonnie and Strawberry were people he found on the street. Also that this extraordinary film was shot by a ten-person crew. I just pray that he gets to keep making one of these things every few years - they're so singular and special.

I've had NSYNC's Bye Bye Bye stuck in my head for two days now...

Favourite moment in a film that plays like one continuous highlight:

Spoiler alert

When Strawberry smokes a joint with Mikey and blows the smoke into his mouth. Then we cut to him sitting on the porch of his ex-wife's house the next day, exhaling his morning cigarette, clearly thinking about it, just totally burning for her, but knowing he's gonna bring everything else crashing down around him. The whole film's there in that shot, just gorgeous and awful all at once.

[close]

[Noodle Lizard]

My immediate reaction is that I didn't like it, or at least not nearly as much as Baker's other films. Perhaps it'll grow on me or stick in my mind, but I didn't find it as funny as Tangerine, or as dramatically interesting as The Florida Project.

Less fairly, it probably doesn't help that Simon Rex (and his character) remind me so much of someone I knew, and not someone I'd really choose to spend two hours in the company of.

[Small Man Big Horse]

I'm not quite sure what to make of this, I found the first two thirds quite fascinating but the final half hour didn't work for me, and by the end I wasn't quite sure what the point of it all was, other than to highlight that spending two hours with an egotistical, arrogant prick would be exhausting.

[Noodle Lizard]

I'm not quite sure what to make of this, I found the first two thirds quite fascinating but the final half hour didn't work for me, and by the end I wasn't quite sure what the point of it all was, other than to highlight that spending two hours with an egotistical, arrogant prick would be exhausting.

I agree with that. I can think of several points to construct out of it that would probably get a passing grade in a film theory class, but I didn't really "feel" any of them in the film itself.

Not that films really need to have a specific point or a message, of course. The Florida Project and Tangerine didn't require that, despite subject matter which would tempt a less restrained filmmaker into an overegg, but Red Rocket felt so much less substantial than those films.

I still think Baker has an unusual aptitude for realistic, natural dialogue (I was amazed that Tangerine was fully scripted) and he seems to really understand the pockets of American society that he depicts, despite not really having any first-hand experience being a part of them. I'll give him that Red Rocket is absolutely successful in capturing the essence of small-town Texas (if my friend from the outskirts of Houston is to be believed), as well as low-status LA dickheads (as I said, I've met several people uncannily like Rex's character out here). I just didn't feel much from it.

---

On a total tangent, was Simon Rex wearing a big fake willy in those nude scenes? It's as big as a horse's willy. I've seen clips from his early porn days, and he's not that well-endowed.

[chveik]

felt like a seventies film trapped into our age

[Small Man Big Horse]

I agree with that. I can think of several points to construct out of it that would probably get a passing grade in a film theory class, but I didn't really "feel" any of them in the film itself.

Not that films really need to have a specific point or a message, of course. The Florida Project and Tangerine didn't require that, despite subject matter which would tempt a less restrained filmmaker into an overegg, but Red Rocket felt so much less substantial than those films.

I still think Baker has an unusual aptitude for realistic, natural dialogue (I was amazed that Tangerine was fully scripted) and he seems to really understand the pockets of American society that he depicts, despite not really having any first-hand experience being a part of them. I'll give him that Red Rocket is absolutely successful in capturing the essence of small-town Texas (if my friend from the outskirts of Houston is to be believed), as well as low-status LA dickheads (as I said, I've met several people uncannily like Rex's character out here). I just didn't feel much from it.

The latter was my response too, watching Mikey manipulate others was quite fascinating during the first half of the film, especially when it came to his ex-wife and her mother. But after meeting Strawberry and it taking on a deliberately creepy edge, I felt it ran out of things to say and became repetitive, so began to struggle to stay interested in it.

On a total tangent, was Simon Rex wearing a big fake willy in those nude scenes? It's as big as a horse's willy. I've seen clips from his early porn days, and he's not that well-endowed.

I wondered that, occasionally over the years I've seen something akin to that size in porn but it's a pretty rear occurrence.

[Noodle Lizard]

I wondered that, occasionally over the years I've seen something akin to that size in porn but it's a pretty rear occurrence.

I bet it was, ya dirty etc.

[sevendaughters]

apologies for the impersonal tone, i posted this in a different thread. will read your posts in a sec

There's been a few attempts at capturing sad small America of late - Nomadland, Support the Girls, 3 Billboards - but most of them end up with 'these people in hardscrabble lives have hearts of gold'. None of them have been (for my money) as angry and cynical as this one; up there with the Armin Tamzerian episode of the Simpsons for woah hang on a minute.

Fortunately Baker doesn't have a whole history of the Simpsons to potentially undermine in his film; as a result it is a film that takes a fairly ambivalent (in the sense that I am not sure he 'likes' the ones who are suffering here, I feel like that empathy is slipping away in a land past curing) look at decayed America. A vast refinery looms over every other shot like Disney loomed over The Florida Project. Trump is on the telly. Some people are suffering and trying to get by but they're also capable of being selfish and spiteful. The only innocents either get corrupted, screwed, or set-up for a real long game of a hustle.

The lead role is a motormouth charmless dick (almost literally) who is incapable of beauty and love. He is a doltish thinker whose schemes will only ever see him return back to a shitted bed. He is an ugly American who preys on the least resistance, and though he gets knocked down, he lives in a land that would rather have a loudmouth spectacle than quiet dignity. It's quite a compulsive watch and Simon Rex is perfect in the role.

I don't want to be too specific. I liked it a lot, and the thing that sets off the final act is really jaw-dropping out-of-nowhere stuff. There's a lot of non-actors in this and I don't think all of them manage to competently play "themselves", but the important ones do.

[Small Man Big Horse]

There's a lot of non-actors in this and I don't think all of them manage to competently play "themselves", but the important ones do.

I know what you mean on that front and wish in some places that more experienced actors had been cast, but like you I thought the main cast worked well, the Mum especially, who sadly died recently: https://variety.com/2022/film/news/brenda-deiss-dead-dies-red-rocket-mother-1235183536/

[joaquin closet]

felt like a seventies film trapped into our age

Quite The Heartbreak Kid.

[zomgmouse]

Quite The Heartbreak Kid.

great comparison!

[Vitalstatistix]

Re the ending:

Spoiler alert

Maybe I'm just a bit basic and wanted to see the inevitable messy breakdown of the relationship once she starts realising she's been exploited? Or at least a glimmer of the start of that process...

I don't know, the jump to that weird, fantasy image, the detachment from reality. Didn't quite work for me.

Interesting comment from Baker:

"I have to sort of embrace that male gaze at this moment. Because that's part of what Mikey is. Like even in that moment where he's all down and out, it's all still about him and his fantasy and his best-case scenario for himself."*

I get it, and I usually like ambiguous endings, but the film pov embracing this fantasy at that moment makes it feel almost like a 'win' for Mikey, where I don't think morally that's where the film actually wants to land?

*https://www.thrillist.com/entertainment/nation/red-rocket-director-sean-baker-interview-ending-explained

[close]

I don't know, probably not articulating myself well. Fucking brilliant film, though.

[Noodle Lizard]

I took it to be representative of his naivety and/or arrogance (as well as possibly a counter to the similar sequence at the end of The Florida Project). He seems perpetually stuck in a cycle of big dreams, stomping all over people to reach them, burning all his bridges and then beginning the cycle all over again whilst never learning anything from his mistakes. Even getting away with causing the literal car wreck (at a comparatively innocent person's expense) didn't result in any kind of sincere reflection or epiphany, other than basically seeing it as a sign that he's blessed and must double his efforts. With the girlfriend, there's a bit of dramatic irony in the fact that, as far as she's concerned, everything's totally fine and above board. He hasn't ruined her yet, even he might not exactly know he will, but we do.

One of the most frequent criticisms of the film seems to be that we're essentially spending 2 hours with an arsehole, and by the end he hasn't really changed at all. I actually agree with that criticism somewhat, but I understand what Baker's doing (or at least I think I do). The problem for me was that didn't feel especially substantial, whereas similar "watch an arsehole for 2 hours" films (like Five Easy Pieces or The Comedy) really do. It'd take a far more articulate (and motivated) writer than me to properly analyse the reasons why, though.

[sevendaughters]

I think that's a good analysis Noodle Lizard. What I would add to it is that I think all of Baker's films make a specific point about the mindset of their characters in juxtaposition with their environment; I can't think of an American filmmaker of recent vintage who makes these quite regionalist (in the sense of early 20th century American literature) connections be they between Hollywood and sex workers/appearances, Disneyland and poverty, and then a belching retching polluting refinery and the various inhabitants of Texas City.

Kermode's criticism of this being 2hrs with an arsehole and therefore it being bad just showed me that his recent sniffiness and need to have an opinion to deadline on some films that people are less interested about leads to him taking mental shortcuts and relying on his vast knowledge a little too much. It is bad criticism and bad FOR criticism.

Films are not there to be your friends, Mark, particularly ones like this. Hopefully no one will closely identify with Mikey Sabre in an aspirational sense, so it creates what bell hooks calls 'an oppositional gaze', where the viewer has a space to critically inhabit, to detach and think about what they see. Perhaps they identify with some of the minor players. I think it is interesting that the only people who seem to see Mikey as he is are Leondra and her daughter.

I like how he was actually able to preserve some of the illusions he created about himself: that's really how it works when you get rumbled, particularly in this era and world. Think how many times prior to becoming president Trump was rumbled as being an exploiter, a fake rich person, a bully, a misogynist, someone deeply compromised as a human and a leader. Certain people leant harder to defend those points. Mass acceptance of a viewpoint has died in this world.

I think the ending might have been just as powerful if he did the same sad walk from Texas City to San Leon (15 miles if you walk down the highway like Mikey does) and Raylee appeared at the door just ready to go; maybe even more innocent than sexualised would have hit home that she was young and being predated upon. I personally didn't need that callback and the stylised sexualisation. Only a minor quibble but - to me - the point is the same; this is an exploiter born in an exploitative world who is taught by his environment to exploit or die.

Maybe Baker is saying that these dreams are not unique to Mikey Sabre, as they weren't to Lexi. In this exploitative male gaze world you don't get out of the donut shop and the refinery and school by not giving into it. As the rockets red glare, bombs of cum arcing in air.

[zomgmouse]

I think with the ending

Spoiler alert

it felt really tragic because we know he's a failure and so this big dream (which incidentally involves grooming a young girl) is destined to fail and so it becomes not just an ambiguous conclusion but an ambitious sentiment - are we meant to feel good for him, bad for him, do we think he'll succeed or more likely flop again, what's her position in all this, etc. Many-layered, which is why I appreciate/d it.

[close]

[sevendaughters]

I think with the ending

Spoiler alert

it felt really tragic because we know he's a failure and so this big dream (which incidentally involves grooming a young girl) is destined to fail and so it becomes not just an ambiguous conclusion but an ambitious sentiment - are we meant to feel good for him, bad for him, do we think he'll succeed or more likely flop again, what's her position in all this, etc. Many-layered, which is why I appreciate/d it.

[close]

There's a couple of possibles off the top of my head

Spoiler alert

that yes he does exploit her and she ends up as Lexi, drugged and despondent and living with her mum after being spat out of the industry

or that, as Mikey intimates in several of his self-aggrandising monologues, that he will 'lose' her to someone better placed to make her rich/exploit her more/or even that she might get away from him and not be completely miserable

[close]

that she actually displays some actual talent in the bit where she plays the piano and he seems to begin to comprehend that he might be doing something bad could offer some kind of optimism, idk.

the ambiguity does appeal.

[zomgmouse]

There's a couple of possibles off the top of my head

Spoiler alert

that yes he does exploit her and she ends up as Lexi, drugged and despondent and living with her mum after being spat out of the industry

or that, as Mikey intimates in several of his self-aggrandising monologues, that he will 'lose' her to someone better placed to make her rich/exploit her more/or even that she might get away from him and not be completely miserable

[close]

that she actually displays some actual talent in the bit where she plays the piano and he seems to begin to comprehend that he might be doing something bad could offer some kind of optimism, idk.

the ambiguity does appeal.

yeah it's all muďdy stuff - there is certainly also the argument that

Spoiler alert

she is very much self-aware and has the agency to choose to run away from the shithole small town to a more glamorous and more pleasurable life, so maybe she's also using him, although then of course she is also basically a minor being groomed by a manipulative prick but then both things can exist at once which makes it all so juicy

[close]