RED ROCKET
Rising American auteur Sean Baker (THE FLORIDA PROJECT, PFF26) returns with a character study about a past-his-prime porn star returning to his hardscrabble Texas hometown.
In his first previous films TANGERINE and THE FLORIDA PROJECT, Sean Baker crafted deeply empathetic examinations of life on the margins of American society, often centering on women engaged in sex work. Red Rocket marks both a continuation and broadening of Baker’s themes, focusing on a singular protagonist. In a feat of inspired casting, Baker tapped actor, rapper, and former MTV VJ Simon Rex to portray antihero Mikey Saber, a washed-up porn star who limps back to his hometown of Texas City, Texas after his career in LA tanks. Shacking up with his skeptical, estranged wife Lexi (Bree Elrod) and resorting to selling weed when getting more lawful work proves troublesome, Mikey attempts to use his smooth-talking ways to get back into the good graces of a community that mostly resents him. But when he meets young doughnut shop employee Strawberry (Suzanna Son), Mikey thinks he sees his ticket back to porn-world success. Rex delivers a magnetic, revelatory performance, though the rest of the cast is equally superb in this dynamic, freewheeling, often unsettling take on the maligned American dream.
CAST: Simon Rex, Bree Elizabeth Elrod, Suzanna Son, Brenda Deiss
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