Reality in the raw

There's a certain appeal to Sean Baker's films that one could almost call "street-level." The fact that he tends to pick stories that are largely centered around the American underclass is part of that, but there's also his tendency to pick non- or new actors to fill his roles so that they feel natural in their environment. In his latest offering, Red Rocket, he cast one actor (Brittney Rodriguez) after seeing her walking her dog on the street, followed by him pulling over and asking if she'd like to do an audition. That's about as "street-level", literally, as it gets and it's that kind of unusual approach that gives his films an emotional authenticity that makes them so compelling, even if the situations that his characters end up in don't leave his audiences walking away feeling like something good has happened. Most people don't make it out of poverty and the tough situations that it creates, after all.

Red Rocket is the story of Mikey Saber (Simon Rex) returning to his hometown of Texas City after his porn career has ground to a halt and trying to generate some fast cash so he can find an opportunity to get back in the swing of things. That involves crashing at his ex-but-still-current wife's mother's home, becoming a dealer for one of the local under-the-table weed distributors, and getting involved with a cashier at the local donut shop whom he thinks he can turn into a star and use to ride back into the San Fernando Valley as a (re)conquering hero (but not, as his ex-wife, Lexi (Bree Elrod) points out, a "suitcase pimp" aka a male porn star making a living off a female talent.) Along the way, Mikey sponges off anyone who will offer a hand, including Lexi's neighbor, Lonnie (Ethan Darbone), whom he knew as a child and who still looks up to Mikey as a good guy to hang out with. Mikey, of course, is not a good guy, but is instead someone obsessed with his previous status as someone able to escape the confines of Texas City and the shadow (and fumes) of its massive refinery and whom can't stand the fact that he- a star -is stuck living with these regular people once again.

In the same way that his previous work, The Florida Project, dealt squarely with the lives of people living on the fringes of the Magic Kingdom and forced audiences to take a look inside the daily grind of their lives, Baker isn't afraid to step right into topics that are bound to make some viewers uncomfortable. Above and beyond his acknowledgment of the reality of sex as a fact of daily life, professionally and otherwise, he's willing to tread some sensitive ground when his protagonist, Mikey, essentially seduces a teenager into a career that she may not be interested in or prepared for, but which will make Mikey a lot of money and we're left with a mild feeling of tragedy when he realizes that his reach exceeded his grasp; not least because he makes the mistake of constantly trying to prove that he is more capable than everyone else around him until they decide to take advantage of that situation. In that respect, it's almost possible to feel like Mikey is correct in that he doesn't belong in this small town with all these other small people who aren't as, uh, gifted. But we also can't escape the fact that he's willing to sacrifice everyone else, to one degree or another, to his own self-interest. Baker and cinematographer, Drew Daniels, frequently highlight this contrast in a series of little moments, such as when Mikey is sure that he's sold Strawberry (Suzanna Son) on his scheme and we see him swaying from side to side on his battered bicycle on the way home in a moment of ecstasy that's just as intense as any orgasm. It's not a good thing that Mikey has done, but it's a little triumph that makes his world light again.

There are several great performances here; not least Rex's as the irrepressible Mikey, but especially Son as Strawberry, who is playfully magnetic every time she appears on screen. She responds to Mikey's expansion of her horizons with a growing self-confidence, leading us to believe that she understands more than she lets on, despite still being a prospective victim in this whole scenario. It's a role both understated and physically flamboyant, which presents Son as something of a natural and yet another of Baker's significant finds (He recruited her outside a theater in LA and didn't call her for a job for two years.) Another highlight is Judy Hill as Leondria, the local drug kingpin, who is fully aware of just who and what Mikey is from the moment he returns to town. Like him, she's more than willing to take advantage of another talented outlet for her business, but is also more than willing to cut him loose in favor of the residents (and regular customers) who are still interested in calling Texas City home, rather than discard it (and them) as trash in their wake. Leondria adds yet another key moment of hilarious normalcy when she insists on a family meeting to sort out the problems between her abrasive daughter, June (Rodriguez) and disinterested son, Ernesto (Marlon Lambert.) But possibly most affecting was Darbone (another newcomer; spotted as a waiter in a Nederland, Texas restaurant by Baker) as Lonnie, the neighbor kid whom Lexi used to babysit for and who naively believes that Mikey is someone to admire. At one point, Lexi asks that he keep Mikey from getting into trouble which he earnestly agrees to, not knowing that the situation will become quite reversed, as all of us anticipate much earlier.

Just as with The Florida Project, we can look at this film as an example of how there are often no happy endings, deserved or otherwise, but there are still real and interesting stories to tell in those situations. This film was in contention for the Palm d'Or at Cannes and it's not difficult to see why. While it does feel like it drags a little bit in the middle, as we wonder just how long it's going to take for Mikey to execute his master plan, the journey to get there is still wholly worthwhile. Highly recommended.