Red Rocket is a 2021 American dramedy from director Sean Baker, based off a script he co-wrote with Chris Bergoch.
Washed up porn star Mikey Saber (Simon Rex) returns to his hometown in Texas City to crash at the home of his estranged wife Lexi (Bree Elrod) and her mother Lil (Brenda Deiss). Despite trying to come across an honest living, Mikey ends up selling weed and later meets a teenager named Strawberry (Suzanna Son). Mikey sees Strawberry as his comeback into adult films and begins a relationship with her.
This film provides examples of:
- 20 Minutes into the Past: Released in 2021, filmed in 2020, and set in 2016 if the clips of the presidential election are any clue.
- Acronym Confusion:June: So I heard you do porn or something?
Mikey: Five AVNs.
June: What, that's an STD?
Mikey: No, no, no. It's the adult film awards. It's like the Academy Awards for what I do. - Affably Evil: Mikey can be funny and charming, talking his way into Lexi's house after she refuses to let him in. It's not a lie, exactly, but he also turns on Lexi the minute he becomes convinced he has better prospects with Strawberry and shows no concern for anybody but himself after Lonnie's car accident.
- Allegory: A recurring motif in the background are Trump’s speeches during his 2016 presidential campaign. Mikey can be seen as an allusion to Trump in that both men make grandiose claims to earn people’s trust, in effect swindling others.
- Ascended Fridge Horror: Mikey constantly talks to Lonnie in a constant stream of bullshit while Lonnie is driving. Which comes to a horrible end when Mikey tells Lonnie to take an aggressive turn...causing a 22-car pileup that injures multiple people.
- Auto Erotica: Mikey and Strawberry's first sexual encounter has her fellating him in a truck cab.
- Betty and Veronica: Lexi is the "Betty" — Mikey's estranged wife, the familiar and responsible choice and his own age, but plain and boring, even though she wants him to start being more responsible and committed. Strawberry is the "Veronica," young, sexy, fun, exciting, more than half Mikey’s age, and unlike Lexi, she has a nice car, a better house, a job, and lots of potential.
- Bigger Is Better in Bed: Strawberry informs Mikey that he is "blessed" after they have sex for the first time (though she's also possibly referring to her own virginity.)
- Book Ends: The film opens with Mikey returning to Texas City, and the ending shows him leaving for good.
- Casting Gag: Washed-up porn star Mikey Saber is played by Simon Rex, who himself began his acting career starring in gay porn films under a pseudonym.
- Character Filibuster: Mikey constantly has these rambling spiels and excuses about why he got into trouble, went broke, or how his life was ruined by someone other than himself.
- Classical Antihero: Despite being the protagonist, Mikey is a delusional, narcissistic, manipulative jerk who mostly wants to exploit his relationship with Strawberry to get himself back into the porn scene. That said, he does have enough sleazy charm that it's enough to make you pity him whenever his plans go awry.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Strawberry's ex is a genderswapped version, as he's very clingy and thinks they're dating, despite her indifference to him.
- Con Man: Mikey uses his charm to worm his way into people’s lives and get what he wants out of them.
- Covers Always Lie: The poster (seen above) gives the impression that the movie is a wacky, lighthearted Sex Comedy, when it's anything but.
- Downer Ending: Lonnie seems to have killed multiple people in a car accident. Mikey is robbed of his money and is left with $200, forced to leave his hometown for good, and, while never outright shown, his relationship with Strawberry is most likely doomed...though it's still left ambiguous whether they end up together. Arguably, the real downer ending is if Mikey succeeds in seducing Strawberry out to LA and she winds up like Lexi.
- Exiled to the Couch: Mikey starts his stay at Lil's sleeping on the couch. Once he and Lexi start hooking up again, he starts sleeping in her bed.
- Fille Fatale: Strawberry is seventeen and ends up having sex with Mikey, who is in his late forties, multiple times.
- Hidden Depths: Strawberry is an attractive and rather wild teenager who is interested in doing porn, but she's also intelligent (rattling off algebra equations and studying for her SAT), witty (often responding to Mikey's questions with quips) and talented (playing piano and singing with surprising skill).
- How the Mighty Have Fallen: While Mikey is an obvious example, Lexi's fall is even more dramatic: after leaving Mikey to do scenes for higher pay with another man (which was viewed as a tacit betrayal) she became addicted to drugs, had a child she quickly lost custody of, and currently lives in a run-down home with her ailing mother, with no money, job, or car.
- Imagine Spot: The final scene sees Mikey go to Strawberry’s house, and while he doesn’t go to the front door, he imagines her greeting him in a bikini.
- The Jailbait Wait: Strawberry is 17. In Texas, she's past the age of consent, which makes it legal for Mikey to have sex with her, but he needs to wait a few weeks before she's able to do porn.
- Jerkass: Mikey. Any of his nicer moments are typically undercut by the clear manipulation behind them, not to mention the fact that he spends most of his time being an obnoxious, sleazy and overall self-centred individual.
- Male Frontal Nudity: Mikey running naked through the streets at night is one of the most iconic sequences of the film.
- Mama Bear:
- Lil tries to get Mikey’s assurance that he’ll contribute his share of the rent and bills and won’t bail on her and Lexi. She sees this through to the end.
- When the would-be boyfriend of Strawberry confronts Mike, his mom and dad come along to beat him up.
- Missing Mom: Lexi has a son but lost custody of him and views repairing her relationship with Mikey as a chance to try to get him back. Mikey, of course, refuses to even consider it.
- Mock Millionaire: Mikey has Strawberry drop him off in an affluent neighborhood so that she believes he lives in a nice, stately-looking house.
- Motif: The *NSYNC song "Bye Bye Bye" plays during the opening credits, is sung by Strawberry while she plays keyboards, gets quoted by Lexi, and plays at the end of the film.
- Motor Mouth: Mikey talks a lot and talks fast.
- Narcissist: Mikey ticks all the boxes and then some, even though the movie also presents him as believing It's All About Me in a comic way. He insults everybody behind their back, even people he depends on, but can't even fathom when they turn against him.
- Old Flame: Lexi and Mikey were high school sweethearts who became a porn star couple, and when he returns to Texas, they're still technically married. However, though she genuinely starts gaining feelings for him again, Mikey is only manipulating her to improve his domestic situation and immediately turns cold to her once he starts hooking up with Strawberry.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Strawberry's real name is Raylee, but everyone calls her Strawberry.
- Papa Wolf: When Strawberry's would-be boyfriend confronts Mike, his mother and father come along to beat Mikey up. Even after the confrontation devolves into an awkward argument, the father threatens to shoot Mikey if he ever sees him again.
- Predatory Prostitute: Mikey is a porn star (on hiatus), and an Affably Evil jerk who lies to everyone and manipulates a teenage girl with a view to making her his meal ticket.
- Running Gag:
- People being freaked out upon seeing Mikey nude.
- Mikey explaining how he lost his accent.
- Ms. Phan, the manager of the donut shop, is routinely in the background side-eyeing Mikey whenever he loiters at the store to flirt with Strawberry.
- Running Gagged: Mikey keeps telling Lonnie outrageous stuff that may or may not be lies (and is mostly likely a lie) while Lonnie drives. He causes Lonnie to get distracted and cause a massive deadly car accident.
- Scenery Gorn: Mikey's neighborhood is built around a factory constantly spewing smoke into the air. Since this is a Sean Baker movie, however, its silhouette against the sunset is nothing short of beautiful. In interviews, he has commented on wanting to bring out the appeal of ordinary neighborhoods.
- Shout-Out:
- Mikey mentions making porn parodies of The Fast and the Furious series.
- Strawberry has a poster for the 1984 English-language, Italian horror film Wild Beasts hanging over her bed.
- Skewed Priorities: Mikey talks about the aforementioned Fast and Furious porn parodies and says the death of Paul Walker sucked, not because it was tragic, but because he could not keep playing the Brian O'Connor role in future parodies.
- Small Name, Big Ego: Mikey crows about his five AVN awards to make him seem like a big-name porn star. He later reveals that three of his awards were just for receiving blowjobs. It's later revealed that he was just one in a line of men receiving blowjobs from a porn star, and everyone involved in the scene got an award, suggesting that most or all of his awards did not come with any actual name recognition.
- Spiritual Antithesis: To The Florida Project because for all of Halley's jerk behavior, she is a vulnerable girl and Struggling Single Mother with sympathetic traits. Mikey, on the other hand, is a manipulative, misogynistic, but charming predator.
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Spiritual Successor: To The Florida Project because it's set in the far South of the USA (Texas and Florida) among lower class characters in midsummer where the protagonists (or co-lead in Halley's case) are sex workers - Halley is a prostitute and Mikey is a (technically ex) porn star. - Too Dumb to Live: Mikey's narcissistic hubris gets him in trouble multiple times, but the most glaring is when he announces to Lexi that he's abandoning her and taking the money with him, despite Lexi obviously falling in love with him again, and Lil explicitly telling him that she will only accept him around if he promises to take care of her daughter. Not to mention that they know exactly where he keeps the stash, and he stays for one last night instead of leaving immediately. Unsurprisingly, they turn against him and steal his cash.
- Too Much Information: June's reaction to Mikey describing how a blowjob scene works in porn and how he feels he earned the "best blowjob awards".
- Unsympathetic Comedy Protagonist: Mikey uses the people closest to him for his own personal gain (Lexi for her home, Lonnie for his car, Strawberry for sex and a potential porn comeback). Any sort of punishment he receives is entirely deserved.
- Villain Protagonist: Mikey is driven completely by self-interest, and the film tracks his efforts to use everyone around him to get what he wants. Around halfway through the film, he sets his sights on pimping out a teenager who deserves better than to become his meal ticket.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot: After Lonnie causes a massive pile-up on the parkway, he vomits back home. Though his face behind a car door, we see the vomit fall below the door.
