RED ROCKET

Name: RED ROCKET
Item: RED ROCKET
Author: Tess Farrand

"Pretentious Promotion of Pornography"

Family Content: -4 Intentional blasphemy, evil, gross immorality, and/or worldview problems. (To be avoided)

Entertainment Quality:

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

Credits →

What You Need To Know:

RED ROCKET is a pornographic character study about a self-centered, down on his luck hustler and former porn star who reconciles with his estranged wife in Texas. Mikey Saber helps pay the rent for his estranged wife, Lexi, and her mother, Lil, by selling marijuana, something he used to do in high school. Soon, Mikey is cheating on his wife with a 17-year-old redhead. Mickey thinks he can turn the girl into a porn star sensation back in Los Angeles, but he first needs to make enough money for their trip back to the City of Angles.

Sadly, RED ROCKET has earned some acclaim for Simon Rex’s performance as the smooth-talking Mikey. However, the character sometimes talks like he’s still in high school, especially when he’s sweet-talking the 17-year-old girl. It’s all a bit over the top and unbelievable. Director Sean Baker tries to couch RED ROCKET’s multiple pornographic scenes and constant foul language into a pretentious drama full of “meaning.” However, there’s no way to whitewash the despicable nature of the movie’s story, its main character and its lewd, obscene content.

Content:

(PaPaPa, C, AB, Cap, AP, PC, LLL, V, SSS, NNN, A, DDD, MMM):

Dominant Worldview and Other Worldview Content/Elements:

Very strong pagan worldview in a character study of a self-centered man, a former porn star, who gets into some kind of trouble in Los Angeles, pretends to make up with his estranged wife, sells marijuana to make ends meet and keep in wife’s good graces, but cheats on her with a 17-year-old girl who he wants to groom as a big porn star and make his comeback in the industry, two women sing a hymn or refer to Jesus in two or more scenes, but the main character mocks them, plus some light capitalist content where a side character runs a donut shop, but the movie seems to have a negative view of America, and there’s an implied, but undeveloped, politically correct comparison between the movie’s narcissistic bragging of the lead character and Donald Trump on the campaign trail in 2016

Foul Language:

At least 332 obscenities (including many “f” words), 15 strong profanities, 25 light profanities, one obscene gesture, and young man vomits after causing a giant wreck on the freeway and fleeing the scene

Violence:

Man is partially beaten up, and driver causes a freeway car pileup

Sex:

Extreme sexual content includes depicted and implied marital sex between man and his estranged wife (she says they’re still married even though she left him two or more years back), the married man (a porn star who had to leave Los Angeles after running into some unmentioned trouble in the industry there) returns to his estranged wife in Texas (who left him when she got involved with some other lesser person in the industry), but he soon cheats on her with a 17-year-old who he’s trying to groom for his comeback in the porn industry, depicted and implied adulterous intercourse and oral sex with aforementioned 17-year-old, and many crude sexual references, including two or so references to homosexuality

Nudity:

Total frontal male nudity when man accidentally comes into the living room, total frontal male nudity when naked man runs from thuggish people and runs down the street at night, upper and rear female nudity at strip club, upper and rear female nudity during sex scenes, upper and rear male nudity during sex scenes, some upper male nudity miscellaneous scenes, rear male nudity in two or so miscellaneous scenes, and 17-year-old girl shows off her red bikini when her older male lover comes to visit

Alcohol Use:

Alcohol use

Smoking and/or Drug Use and Abuse:

People smoke tobacco, some marijuana smoking occurs, its implied a woman and her mother sometimes smoke crack, and man sells marijuana throughout the movie to make ends meet, and his estranged wife later uses the supplier’s family to kick her estranged husband out of the house and take all his money; and,

Miscellaneous Immorality:

Lying, cheating, man makes a younger man take the whole rap for leaving the scene of a car pileup on the freeway that the younger man caused and leaves his name out of it, and protagonist seems to just be using all the people around him and later bad mouths his estranged wife to another man even after she treated him kindly.

More Detail:

RED ROCKET is a pornographic character study about a self-centered, down on his luck hustler and former porn star who makes up with his estranged wife in Texas but soon cheats on her with a 17-year-old local girl whom he wants to groom as the next big female porn star. RED ROCKET tries to couch its multiple pornographic scenes and constant foul language into a pretentious drama full of “meaning,” but there’s no way to whitewash the despicable nature of the movie’s story, its main character and its lewd, obscene content.

The movie opens in the summer of 2016 with Mikey Saber, who looks to be in his late 30s, riding a bus into Texas City, Texas, an oil refinery town. Mikey convinces his estranged wife, Lexi, to let him stay with her and her mother, Lil, while he looks for a job. He promises to help with the rent and expenses. However, the only “work” he’s ever done is in adult movies. In fact, both he and Lexi went to Los Angeles together years ago to be actors, but only became a success when Lexi managed to become a popular porn star. Apparently, they never got divorced after Lexi ran away with another hustler in the business, who abandoned her when she got pregnant, but had her son taken away by Child Protective Services.

Mikey starts paying Lexi and Lil’s rent, when he starts selling marijuana for a black woman for whom he had sold some pot back in high school. He starts riding a bicycle around town with the name Red Rocket emblazoned on its frame. Soon, with money coming in regularly, he and Lexi have resumed marital relations in her bed. Mikey also makes friends with the young man next door, Lonnie.

One late afternoon, Mikey, Lexi and Lil decide to grab some donuts, They walk to a donut shop nearby, on the outskirts of town, called The Donut Hole. Mikey is impressed with the freckle-faced, pretty redhead girl, Raylee, behind the counter. After they walk back home, Mikey makes an excuse to get rolling papers and rushes back to the Donut Hole, but it’s closed at night.

He learns the next day that Raylee doesn’t work that day, so he returns the next morning and starts charming her with his gift of gab. She tells him she’ll be 18 in three weeks. She also tells him that people call her Strawberry. After smoking some of his marijuana with her, he lies to her, saying that he’s a Hollywood agent taking care of his sick mother. One night, he even lets her give him a ride back to a fake middle class home. When she drives her truck around the corner, he hops on his bike and rides back to his wife’s house.

Soon, Mikey is filling Raylee’s head with dreams of going to Hollywood and becoming an actress. However, he confides in Lonnie that he thinks he can turn Raylee into a big porn star. Meanwhile, he and Raylee start having a torrid affair behind Lexi’s back.

Sadly, RED ROCKET has earned some acclaim for Simon Rex’s performance as the smooth-talking Mikey. However, the character sometimes talks like he’s still in high school, especially when he’s sweet-talking the 17-year-old girl into smoking marijuana or telling him what donut she’s selling is the best. It’s all a bit over the top and unbelievable.

Director Sean Baker, who co-wrote the script and uses local actors, tries to couch RED ROCKET’s multiple pornographic scenes and constant foul language into a pretentious drama full of “meaning.” However, there’s no way to whitewash the despicable nature of the movie’s story, its main character and its lewd, obscene content.