Sean Baker’s ‘Red Rocket’ , a total gem of a film! |

A common problem with me and the mountain of films that I want to watch and often have in my home to watch, is finding the time to actually get around to watching them. On average I guess I watch perhaps 4 or 5 films a week which means the list gets longer, rather than shorter. But I know I’m not alone with that problem. Of course that also can mean that a film I get around to watching might be a year old, 5 years older,or even older. I know. terrible right. But I do need to sleep sometimes and also have a non filmy job that takes up more hours than I wish it did. Today I watched Red Rocket, from writer-director Sean Baker (The Florida Project, Tangerine) and whilst I had heard of the film, I knew nothing about it beforehand, other than that people recommended it (hence it ended up on my watch list) Now as I often mention when talking or writing about films is that I love going in ‘cold’ knowing as little about a film as I possible can and Red Rocket fits into that perfectly. I knew the films title, and I knew it was a Sean Baker film. Other than that, I knew nothing, zip, zilch. zero. Just the way I like it!

So after having watched the film what have I learned. Well many things really. I learned that Red Rocket is a total gem of a film, the cast are fantastic. especially Simon Rex as ‘Mikey’ who shows up back in his Texan hometown after being away for many years. We can quickly tell that life isn’t easy for him (and perhaps that’s his own doing) and he ends up on the doorstep of his estranged wife Lexi (played by Bree Elrod) and her mother Lil (played by Brenda Deiss) Begging to stick around on their sofa for a couple of days Mikey of course outstays that welcome and after he takes Lil and Lexi out for donuts one day, Mikey’s life gets even more complicated (if that’s possible) when he meets Strawberry (played by Suzanna Son)

But back to what I learned. I learned Red Rocket is a gem of a movie, with a great script, top notch performances from the cast (especially Suzanna and Simon) and whilst their story may be somewhat uncomfortable to watch , its meant to be I think. I think it would be more disturbing if you weren’t squirming a little when watching their relationship (to give it a word) develops. But the two lead actors sell it 100%. Great work Simon and Suzanna. I also loved the look of the film. It felt very 70s (which is my favourite decade for film). I also learned that whilst IMDB has the film listed as a comedy and a drama, and one of the poster quotes below mentions ‘hilarious’ that for me the film wasn’t funny, didn’t seem to be trying to be funny and I haven’t quite learned (yet) why it was classified a comedy or why rogerebert.com said it was unfailingly hilarious. But thats not a bad thing. Hell I loved Red Rocket and its a film that I will gladly recommend to those who love movies and who chat with movies with me. Its yet another gem Sean Baker film and if you haven’t seen it. Do check it out!