Red Rocker
Simon Rex plays a classic anti-hero in RED ROCKER, the latest film by director Sean (“The Florida Project”) Baker (who also co-wrote the screenplay with Chris Bergoch). Rex plays a burnt-out porn star named Mikey, who returns to his home town of Texas City (near Galveston) after an absence of twenty years. Mikey might be broke and hungry, but his mind and mouth are still working at warp speed as he tries to claw his way back into society.
First he seeks out his estranged wife, Lexi (Bree Elrod), who is living with her mother (Brenda Deiss) in a ramshackle bungalow at the edge of an oil field whose looming, garishly-lit derricks provide the backdrop to the tawdry tale that unfolds. Lexi, another ex-porn star, is now reduced to turning the odd trick to survive. A crack-head like her toothless (but likable) mother, she still has enough sense to try and fend Mikey off. She knows him for the braggart and liar that he is, but that doesn’t prevent him from trying to con her with his sweet talk.
Mikey professes
his love for her and swears he’s a new man, one who’ll be a
good husband this time around, one who’ll even mow the lawn for her.
Pretty soon he’s not only “crashing with her for a few days,”
but sharing her bed and eating her food...and talking endlessly about
his various get-rich-quick schemes. Trouble is, Mikey has done time for
his participation in a crooked business deal. Nobody will hire an ex-con
like him, a turn of events which mightily irks him.
Ultimately, he is obliged to peddle weed to survive. He purchases the
goods from a hard-boiled black woman named Leondria (Judy Hill) and resells
it to skate-boarders and strippers. That puts some cash in his pocket,
but it’s not enough to satisfy his dreams of wealth, power and status.
Those dreams suddenly seem achievable when he meets Strawberry (Susanna
Son), a redheaded nymphet working in a donut shop. Strawberry is seventeen
and much impressed by Mikey’s porn-star exploits. She not only watches
porn herself but loves the idea of taking part in a dirty movie.
Mikey’s predatory instincts kick in. While romancing and seducing
her, he gets on the phone and seeks out one of his old contacts back in
L.A.’s adult film industry. “I’m managing the hottest thing
since Linda Lovelace,” he tells him. When he gets a favorable response,
he quickly makes plans to leave Texas City with Strawberry and pimp her
out in California.
Mikey is such a scoundrel, such a conniving son of a bitch, that his comeuppance
is inevitable. But that shouldn’t spoil your enjoyment of the film.
Simon Rex does a nifty job as Mikey, makes you like and even admire him,
even as you disapprove of his dishonesty and cupidity. The other key actors
are equally as skilled, especially Susannah Son. Her portrayal of Strawberry
is as wily and cunning as it is sexy and provocative.
RED ROCKET takes place in 2016 against the background of the Clinton-Trump
election campaign (Trump billboards are everywhere in
this working-class corner of Texas). This gives the movie a political
edge, one which cinematographer Drew Daniels emphasizes with his atmospheric
camera work (flashes of Trump fulminating on TV, images of shabby trailer
camps and honky-tonks, glimpses of oil-stained fields and backyards. America
the Unbeautiful.)
RED ROCKER is a tough, gritty movie redeemed by profane humor and moments
of humanity at which the actors excel. There is also a catchy soundtrack,
centered on ‘N Sync’s “Bye Bye Bye.”