No. 2 (2022) RED ROCKET Jan. 7th.

 

Film No. 2 (2021)  January 7th.  1.30 PM   Cinema 7.  LUNA,  Leederville. 

"With my skills and ability there is no denying what I can achieve."(Mickey talks up his future as he makes plans in this run down coastal Texas coastal town where it all began, years earlier).

The first time someone mentioned RED ROCKET to me they described it as funny. My view; RED ROCKET has some amusing moments but I would not describe it as funny. Far from it! I would describe Sean Baker's (TANGARINE, THE FLORIDA PROJECT) latest comment on life in fragile America as tragic. Tragedy in a modern day Shakespearean sense.

There was a whole row of walk-outs in my session of RED ROCKET. I couldn't help but wonder if they had been lured to the film via the very clever trailer fashioned for this work. Who could resist the prospect of a likable Type A personality taking you through a 100 minute character study? Be warned, RED ROCKET is 140 minutes of high octavin, edginess. The ramifications of which prove, in life, there are prices to pay.

Mickey (Simon Rex)is an out of work ex-porn star. We meet him in possession of nothing but the shirt on his back and bruises all over him. He's just stepped off an interstate bus in the town he left 20 years earlier. Is he a likeable lad, down on his luck wanting redemption or a looser back to open up old wounds because he's still licking all of them? You guessed it!

The U.K. has Ken Loach (I, DANIEL BLAKE, THE NAVIGATORS). The French have Celine Sciamma (TOMBOY, GIRLHOOD) and U.S. cinema has Sean Baker. These artists make a commitment to remind the cinema going middle class that an underclass exists and needs to be cared about if our democracies are to remain stable. Here Baker gives us room for hope. The strength of this hope comes via the empowerment he instils within his female leads.

There are some very uncomfortable moments in RED ROCKET. The best and most powerful films often have. But remember, the monster created in this film will get their comeuppance, eventually; you just know it. 11GUMS.