Sean Baker’s latest film charts a destitute porn star’s attempts to turn his life around — by falling into all of his old habits
In Sean Baker’s Red Rocket (2021), the weight of the world comes crashing down on a charismatic con man and destitute ex-L.A. porn star. Returning to his hometown of Texas City, Mikey Saber (Simon Rex) begs his estranged wife, Lexi (Bree Elrod), and mother-in-law, Lil (Brenda Deiss), to take him in. Cautious of Mikey’s ulterior motives, Lexi and Lil allow him to sleep on their couch, but they maintain their distance from him and demand that he pay rent. With little success finding a job, Mikey returns to his old hustle selling weed for local dealer Leondria (Judy Hill). In time, Mikey and Lexi begin sleeping together again, and it seems he is falling into his old familiar patterns. Something new for Mikey is his friendship with Lonnie (Ethan Darnone), the next-door neighbor who idolizes Mikey and freely drives him around town.
After he has pulled in enough money for rent, Mikey takes Lexi and Lil to a doughnut shop where he meets Strawberry (Suzanna Son), the pretty girl working behind the counter. Over twice the 17-year-old’s age, Mikey is drawn to Strawberry and begins pursuing her immediately. Day by day they chat at the shop as she lets him sell weed to the nearby construction workers. It isn’t long until they begin sleeping together. For a while Mikey is able to hide this new relationship from Lexi and Lil, but he soon begins to feel the pressure from both relationships as complications arise with him stashing away Leondria’s cut of the weed money.
To make matters worse, Mikey gets the idea to take Strawberry to L.A. and make her into a porn star, and to rejuvenate his career in the process, whereby he can return to his forte playing a supporting role to a female star. This, though, grows increasingly untenable as his ambitions run afoul of Lexi, Lil, and Leondria — who happens to be close with Mikey’s wife and mother-in-law — and his only option is to leave Texas City immediately with just 200 dollars in his pocket.
Mikey has almost no real regard for other people, and he does little that is worthy of respect, and yet, he remains a mostly endearing presence in his hometown. When he visits Lexi and Lil to ask for a place to stay, it is obvious neither of them want to see him. He proclaims that he will help with things around the house and pay rent when able, but Mikey is constitutionally incapable of following through on these promises. He knows that, and he knows that Lexi and Lil are aware of this too. But it doesn’t seem as if Mikey intends to deceive them — rather, he seeks them out as sources of comfort. He has failed as a husband and as a porn star in L.A., and he does not know what to do; they are the only two people who he can trust, even if they cannot trust him. In turn, Lexi and Lil know that they are making themselves vulnerable in letting Mikey back into their lives, because any number of things can go wrong with him being around. And yet, they also know that Mikey is not all bad — he is entertaining for the mishaps he gets himself into, and laughable for claiming that he can turn his life around and fly straight. It is clear that Mikey desires to do what is right, and that he does care about both of them. But it happens that Mikey cannot help himself from making the worst possible choices at every turn, almost as if he is searching for something — happiness, or maybe stability — that he seemingly cannot find.
This is what makes Mikey both a charismatic and agonizing character. Any of the pleasures he promises — of entertainment, of sexual gratification, even of making someone feel special and worthwhile — are always fleeting. Nevertheless, there is an intimacy to Mikey’s ephemerality: Precisely because things with him can only ever be temporary, there is an added enjoyment, and pain, that comes from being around him. Lexi experiences as much when she and Mikey begin sleeping together again. Initially, Lexi puts up firm barriers with Mikey and insists they will not have sex. But eventually, she relents and grows attached to his companionship, which begins to dissipate as his sexual relationship with Strawberry intensifies. Lexi, of course, has good reason to turn Mikey away. She knows that sex will complicate what can only be a temporary living situation, whether Mikey really does sort his life out, or whether he screws things up to such a point that he has to be forced out of the house.
Mikey is a quixotic character who knows his limitations well — he has to beg Lexi and Lil to take him back in, and Leondria to let him sell weed again. He has to take dick pills to keep up with Strawberry and Lexi. When Mikey is beaten up by the parents of Strawberry’s erstwhile boyfriend, he just shrugs it off, almost as if he expected it. With his way of life, there is nothing he can do to change the fact that people often feel the need to beat him up. Nothing seems to last for Mikey, be it a relationship or a career. And yet, he cannot help himself — he wants to feel alive, to be happy, and to be connected to the people around him. He is willing to be a failure in front of others, and that allows them to feel more comfortable, and more alive, too.
Mikey and Strawberry’s relationship is a good demonstration of this. When Mikey first approaches her at the doughnut counter, he is clearly smitten. He does not know what to say, and rides the flimsy excuse of not knowing which doughnut he wants in order to buy himself more time talking with her. He keeps this performance up for several days, until their relationship becomes more intimate. Essentially, the sex worker who has never had any issues with his sexual confidence is turned back into a boy, both nervous in front of a girl he likes and ashamed that he is trying to pick up a teenager. He goes to extreme lengths to cover up his living situation, telling Strawberry that he is only in Texas temporarily and that he is staying with his mother in an affluent suburb. Seemingly, Mikey does this to gain Strawberry’s trust, as if she would be more willing to sleep with him if she understood him to be on stable ground. But it is very funny that Mikey should go through this trouble anyway, because Strawberry is clearly attracted to him and would be taking a risk becoming involved with a strange, older man regardless. After all, Strawberry learns about Mikey’s porn career on her own. She sees in him something more exciting than what she experiences working in the doughnut shop or in sleeping with boys her age. Indeed, as she considers doing porn herself, with Mikey as her mentor, she forms a misguided attachment to Mikey.
But then again, Mikey’s connection to Strawberry is also misguided, a result of his constant searching for a kind of security, but never quite finding it. Lexi might have represented stability to him for a while upon his return, but Strawberry makes Mikey feel desirable, possibly younger, and even that he may have a second chance in his former industry. Incidentally, this is what makes the film’s conclusion both ironic and terrifying: As Mikey pictures Strawberry standing before him in her bikini, he begins to cry, as if he understands that what he longs for — security, importance, immortality — is never going to last for him. It is not that he cannot have these things, or that he is never able to find them, rather, he simply cannot hold onto them. He destroys them or he runs away, in search of something else.
Unlike Baker’s previous film, the celebrated The Florida Project (2017), Red Rocket is more recognizable as a comedy, albeit one that takes its characters quite seriously. In a way, the absurdity of Mikey’s exploits rhymes more with 2015’sTangerine. (Chester, the crass but oddly charming pimp played magnificently by James Ransone in Tangerine, feels like he could be Mikey’s cousin.) But all three films feel like spiritual siblings, given Baker’s interest in characters at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder and the desperate conditions they find themselves in.
Related: Killing Time: Frank V. Ross’ Bloomin Mud Shuffle (2015) by Brett Wright
The Florida Project and Red Rocket are an interesting pair for how Baker imagines the impossibility of escape for his characters. At the end of The Florida Project, young Moonee (Brooklynn Prince) is to be taken to a foster home after the Department of Children and Families determines that her mother, Halley (Bria Viniaite), cannot take care of her. Tearfully, Moonee says goodbye to friend Jancey (Valeria Cotto). Not fully understanding what is happening, Jancey takes Moonee’s hand and they run to the Magic Kingdom in Disney World. The film ends there. We see no DCF agents pursuing Moonee, and there is no indication of what happens to the girl. It feels very unreal, in part by Baker’s jump cuts of the girls running the distance from the motels they live in to the utopia of Disney World. Red Rocket ends on a similarly unreal note. Mikey’s final vision of bikini-clad Strawberry hovers on the fantastic, and leaves audiences to wonder whether the two leave Texas, if Mikey goes it alone, or if he makes it out of town at all.
Tangerine ends on a much simpler note than The Florida Project or Red Rocket, but in each of these films, Baker finds ways of rendering these characters as more than victims of an economic system, but people whose lives are filled with tears and laughter. They wade through moments of confusion and clarity. As with all of Baker’s characters, Mikey Saber is someone who simply wants to live on his own terms, but he struggles to recognize what those terms are.
Stream Red Rocket here
Purchase Red Rocket on Blu-ray here
Stay up to date with all things Split Tooth Media and follow Frankie on Twitter
(Split Tooth may earn a commission from purchases made through affiliate links on our site.)
