Who is this film for?! Seriously. Who is supposed to enjoy this movie? People into the idea of porn? Those who love it when losers wreck lives? Statutory rape enthusiasts? Red Rocket is the story of a has-been porn star returning to his estranged wife’s home -where he is not welcome- and proceeding to show us exactly why they’ve been estranged for so long. All the while, the story kept focus on this piece of crap human being.
Does Mikey Saber (Simon Rex) get credit for being a relatively nice guy? No. Why? Because he’s the kind of “nice” guy who always wants credit for doing the humane thing while having no integrity. Oh, it may look like he’s trying to go straight, but when it comes down to it, he’d happily throw a friend under the bus to save his own skin and enthusiastically employ his entire make-out playbook to score with a minor.
Let me put this another way: I didn’t like the guy before the under-the-bus or the statutory rape stuff. I think this whole movie is like watching over two hours of a good-natured toadie or a light-hearted neo-Nazi. It doesn’t matter how he does what he does if what he does sucks … and if you’re pushing me? I don’t even like how he does those things, either.
In the unspoiled back-non-waters of Chlamydia, Texas dwell Lexi (Bree Elrod) and her mother (Brenda Deiss). Their lives suck, but not so much they can’t get worse. Enter Mikey. Mikey has just climbed out from whatever rock he’d been hiding under. Mikey’s porn career is over, and –apparently- it’s easier to find work as an ex-con than an ex-dong. Lexi doesn’t want him. Mom doesn’t want him. Porn doesn’t want him. Work doesn’t want him. So here writer/director Sean Baker has gone and made me feel sorry for the hero of his film.
I regret that. A lot.
Talking his way into a drug-dealership, Mikey eventually makes enough money to justify coming “home.” He even made enough money to pay one (1) month of rent and take the fam out for donuts! Woo. Big spender. 
And that’s when little Mikey comes out and never leaves, for little Mikey is immediately smitten with Strawberry (Suzanna Son), the seventeen-year-old donut counter girl.
Let me reiterate: I had not enjoyed the picture to this point, at which time the film introduced its best character only to have her manipulated and abused by the hero until the credits rolled. Fantastic.
I think Red Rocket wanted to be an R-rated comedy along the lines of Superbad. Little Mikey (who ain’t so little) logs a fair amount of screentime including a naked jog through the neighborhood. This is it? This is your big laugh? I’m equally as amused as the forced nude running in Schindler’s List. Ok, maybe that’s too much of an exaggeration, but you get my point. In order to find this funny, you have to dislike Mikey. In order to dislike Mikey, the needed to present us with two full hours of Mikey to dislike.
Whatever I might have enjoyed about Red Rocket was sapped up when the film quite clearly didn’t have a problem with a middle-aged man dating a teenager. So I am left with my original query: who is this film for? Dudes into forced humiliation? Pedophiles? People who hate movie characters? Who? Well certainly not me. That’s who.
There once was a guy named Saber
Just your average ex-porn star neighbor
But that teen didn’t spurn
And my stomach did turn
The details I will not belabor
Rated R, 130 Minutes
Director: Sean Baker
Writer: Sean Baker, Chris Bergoch
Genre: Who is this for??
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: I have no freaking idea. Misunderstood washed-up porn stars, maybe? Sexual predators, maybe? Oh, and pretentious film critics, apparently.
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: People who want to like the hero
