Red Rocket
classified 18Please note: This was screened in March 2022
The audacious and off-beat new film from writer-director Sean Baker (The Florida Project and Tangerine) stars Simon Rex as a washed-up pornstar who finds himself returning to a hometown that barely tolerates him.
Rex plays Mikey, an adult film actor who has been chewed up and spat out by the Los Angeles adult entertainment industry after 20 years of trying to make it big. Down on his luck, he's forced to return to his Texan hometown and moves back in with his estranged wife. A luminous portrait of America's underclass, the film is driven by Rex's darkly funny, raw and human portrait of a uniquely American hustler.
But this notorious character isn't given the most warmest of welcomes from the town's residents, and when he meets 17-year-old cashier Strawberry (Suzanna Son), he falls right back into his old habits...