Tropic Sprockets / Red Rocket

by Ian Brockway 

Sean Baker (Tangerine) directs a quirky and compelling character study, “Red Rocket.” Baker is uncompromising in highlighting the anemic side of life: neon painted neighborhoods filled with run down people, drained swimming pools and deflated flamingoes. 

The home-spun decrepit setting might be too confrontational for some viewers but the film grabs you from the very first moment.

Mike (model Simon Rex) is a porn actor who moves back to small town Texas. His wife Lexi (Bree Elrod) does not want him back and he can’t find a job. 

Mike manages to meet with Leondria (Judy Hill) and deal pot for her.

Having money, Mike moves in with Lexi and Mike feels exuberant. On a chance outing to a donut shop with Lexi and Lexi’s mom Lil (Brenda Deiss), Mike catches sight of the counter waiter, Raylee (Suzanna Son). Mike is smitten and begins to flirt. Mike sees Raylee more and more, telling her he is a producer, and Raylee reciprocates his interest.

Simon Rex is terrific as the hapless hustler who is always scheming, tying himself in knots to achieve his egotistical pursuits. Though he is frankly amoral, one is fascinated by the domestic morass that sticks to him. 

Suzanna Son is perfect as a Lolita in Texas. 

The film takes cues from John Waters and Harmony Korine with a nod to The Southern Gothic.  “Red Rocket” is a charged and affecting film that rolls along like a piece of short fiction from Charles Bukowski. All is day glow and desolate. Factories encroach upon backyards like industrial pestilence. Trump billboards blaze across the sky like angry exclamation points, large and loud.

The film, having moments of cartoon outrageousness, “Red Rocket” never loses its authenticity. Not one moment is unreal, artificial or played for laughs. This is Sean Baker’s best film to date. It is a stirring seedy and eerie portrait of Texas and its small town inhabitants. The color pink in the film like “Pink Flamingoes” is both a vexing temptation to Mike and a signal of danger.

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