I would have hundred percent out-cardio'ed that guy

Continuing my trip up Empire's top 20 films of 2022

#14 :  Red Rocket

No screen character this year has amused – and confused – us nearly as much as Mikey Saber (Simon Rex), a man as handsome and roguish as handsome rogues get, his ego trampling on everyone he meets, his dick flapping in the wind. The reprehensible but endlessly entertaining focus of Sean Baker’s Red Rocket is a true one-off – a charismatic hustler as seductive as he is repellent. With an absolute knockout of a performance, Rex proves a revelation as the down-and-out porn star fleeing back to his Texan hometown to exploit, well, whoever he can in a bid to get some cash and worm his way back into the industry that’s spat him out. The singular Baker – previously behind Tangerine and The Florida Project – once again gave us an authentic, compassionate but riotous portrait of the American fringes. What a ride.

I've heard this is good, but I'm not expecting to like it - I suspect Mikey is just going to be too annoying for my liking.

Hmmm - we basically just hang around with Mikey in rural Texas as he tries to scheme his life back together.  It's an interesting one because, for a film that's over two hours long, remarkably little happens.  It's also weird because a lot of the film revolves around how motherfucking charming Mikey is but, for me, he just comes across as a freeloading asshole that everyone just rolls over for and I've no idea why.  His relationship with Strawberry, a 17 year old donut shop worker, also isn't the most believable - and it's more than a little creepy.

But, for the most part, very little happens - until about 30 minutes from the end when something quite major and unexpected occurs and all of sudden I was quite invested in how they were going to end things (under normal circumstances I would have given up way beforehand).  And it comes up with a surprisingly ambiguous ending which surprised me - I liked the way you could choose how to interpret it (and I took it the best way, obviously).

Whatever I think of the story, it is well acted - Simon Rex is great as the human scuzzball that is MIkey and he's in the film A LOT (and his Wikipedia entry is fascinating - he's been in porn, TV, film and music over the years).  Suzanna Son is also great as Strawberry - she looks considerably younger than her 26 years at the time and acts with a great combination of naivete and wisdom.  Bree Elrod also does a good job as Lexi, Mikey's ex-wife, although it is more of a doormat role than is ideal for me for a lot of the film.  I'm also going to call out Brenda Deiss who plays Lil, Lexi's mum - it's fair to say she doesn't do a load of acting, but she was a local woman who was picked for this in first film role at the age of 60 and she died six months later. 

I quite liked the film's visual style - it somehow feels very natural (you certainly can't accuse it of glamorising Texas) but also heightened - it has some lovely use of light.  However, it's very cut-cut-cut - there's never any time to just relax and take things in.  The settings are cool though - the donut shop in front of the massive factory is a really good location and looks amazing at night.  I should also warn you there is strong sexual content and nudity (including male full frontal) here.

There was a lot to like here, but unfortunately for me, as it was presented, there was more to dislike.  I would have preferred a tauter/shorter story with a more balanced cast of characters.  The film attempts to redeem itself in the last quarter and, to be fair, it does a reasonable job of it but I feels like someone should have reduced the need for it to do so during the editing process - there's no way this film needed to be over two hours.

#15 - A film that polarised me, let alone the wider audience
#11 - So much better than I was expecting