Red Rocket

Red Rocket tells the story of Mikey Saber (Simon Rex), a former adult film star who returns to his small Texas hometown after running into trouble in Los Angeles. He attempts to move in with his estranged wife Lexi (Bree Elrod) and her mother Lil (Brenda Deiss), who eventually let him stay on the condition that he gets a job. Mikey’s previous work makes finding employment hard, but he eventually gets a job selling drugs. However, his ambitions soon get the better of him, and when he meets 17-year-old Strawberry (Suzanna Son), he sees a shortcut back to fame and starts hatching schemes that affect everyone around him.

It’s a fairly engaging premise, and Mikey is a fantastically awful character for the film to focus on, with Rex bringing excellent heel heat to the role. The experience of watching the guy wrap his friends and family around his finger in service of his ambitions, and watching those plans inevitably crumble around him, is a very enjoyable one. However, his escapades can only sustain the story for so long, and with a runtime of 128 minutes, the film overstays its welcome as much as Mikey does in the story itself.

There’s definitely some exploration of more nuanced thoughts and concepts, with lip service being paid to examinations of misogyny and capitalism, as well as a wider dissection of the American psyche, but these could really have benefited from some extra room to breathe in the narrative. As is, these parts of the film feel underdeveloped, suffocated by the length of the movie in a way that really muddles the structure and effectiveness of the feature as a whole.

Red Rocket isn’t a bad movie. At its best, it’s funny and interesting, with great character work bolstered by a talented cast and stylish cinematography. It’s also not as good as it perhaps could have been and suffers from issues with pacing as well as a general lack of substance. Mikey is a fun scumbag protagonist for sure, but at times the film feels as if it’s coasting on the premise of “what if there was a guy who sucked” rather than capitalising on the more complex themes that are also at the heart of the piece.

Umar Ali

Red Rocket is released nationwide on 11^th March 2022.

Watch the trailer for Red Rocket here: