Sean Baker’s “Red Rocket” is a comedy-drama about the return of once-popular adult actor Mikey Davies to his hometown of Texas City and his desperate need to get back on his feet financially in any way possible. As Mikey goes downhill, the film shows a wide range of people who live in the neighborhood, and at times it seems to point out that these people have different socioeconomic backgrounds. Even though they’re very rare, they keep “Red Rocket” from being a bad movie. It’s because of the cinematic experiments and the weird plot that keep it from being a bad film.
Red Rocket Plotline
At least a decade after leaving his wife Lexi and her mother Lil for good, Mikey comes back to Texas City on a long bus ride. He knocks on their door, and Lexi and Lil answer. He looks like he has been beaten up, and he begs his ex-wife to let him stay at their house for a few days. Lexi and Lil don’t want to let Mikey into the house, but the twenty dollars he had with him makes them think about it. Michael: Mikey: I had to leave LA so quickly because I got into trouble with women and gangs, but I don’t know if that’s why. Michael: I don’t know, because of your character. His promise is that he will help with chores and quickly find work so he can pay for his rent while he stays at the house. Because of his past as an adult actor, he can’t get any small-time jobs in the town.
In the end, he meets a well-liked woman in the neighbourhood who sells marijuana. He starts working for her as a drug peddler. It helps Mikey get away from town to sell drugs in a strip club when he makes a friend with his neighbour, a young boy named Lonnie. Lonnie lets Mikey drive around in his car. Their conversation shows that Mikey and Lexi were popular adult film stars when they left Texas City 17 years ago to work in the adult film industry. So Lexi left him and got married to someone else, then moved back home to live with her mother. But things started going downhill over time. Mikey tells Lonnie that he has been in a lot of adult videos with famous stars and even won three AVN awards, which he says are like Academy Awards in the adult video industry. Lonnie isn’t so sure.
Meanwhile, Mikey starts making money selling drugs. One day, when Lil is mad at him for not washing the dishes, he bursts out and waves a stack of money, worth the entire month’s rent, in their faces. That quickly changes the mother-attitude daughter’s toward him. He makes himself the only person who makes money in the house, and now they go out to a donut shop to celebrate. As soon as Mikey sees the young and attractive server at this donut shop, his eyes start to sparkle. He thinks about going back home to Los Angeles, where he could be famous and make a lot of money.
What Is Mickey’s Future Planning
To get to know her better, Mikey goes back to the donut shop on his own that very evening. He sees someone else at the counter. His mother is very sick and has been in the hospital for two weeks. He finally gets to meet her and says that he is a big-time entertainment worker in Las Vegas who has come back to take care of his sick mother. Her friends call her Strawberry. Raylee is a 17-year-old high school girl who is about to turn 18 in three weeks. Mikey is attracted to her beauty and charm, so he tries to get close to her with humor and his ability to talk her into things. As time goes on, Strawberry helps the donut shop owner make even more money by selling marijuana to the construction workers who come in and buy donuts there.
Because of the money the man is bringing into the house, Lexi is now more open and warm towards him. He starts sleeping with her more often. Strawberry’s old boyfriend, Nate, helps her get rid of him now that he wants to launch Strawberry in adult videos and get back into the industry. They start having s*x and soon go on dates together. During one, Strawberry tells him that she knows who he is and that his job doesn’t bother her at all. It doesn’t work the same way with Mikey. She doesn’t want to be in adult movies because she doesn’t want to have a bad life. It turns out that when she invites him to stay over at her house that night, Mikey convinces her to film their inmate acts only for them to enjoy. He then praises Strawberry for her seemingly natural talents that would be great in show business. This time, the young girl is more open to the idea. She says that she only wants to shoot scenes with Mikey, and Mikey should only shoot scenes with her. Finally, at the end, he gets Strawberry to run away with him to LA, where they would perform in adult videos.
People think of Mikey as a conman who has the charisma to talk people into following his ideas. He gets a place to stay and then a job when he comes back to Texas City. He convinces people and sometimes gets a little help from cash. Finally, when he meets Strawberry and starts to dream big again, it doesn’t become clear whether he is actually attracted to the young girl, who isn’t even an adult yet, or if he sees her as yet another ace card that he can use to get back to his old life. The film prefers to keep it this way, though. This is true on the other side, too. It’s not clear if Strawberry is in love with this older man or if she is just using him to get out of the small town. Mikey may think that she is the same as Lexi, who he fell in love with (or pretended to be) and used to make a name for himself in the adult film business.
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Ending of Red Rocket Explained
Lexi and Lil don’t want Mikey to leave their lives as quickly as he came in. On the night before he is about to leave with Strawberry, Mikey tells Lexi he is going to leave. He thanks Lexi and her mother, who let him stay with them for one month when he was in need of it most. But Lexi isn’t happy about it, maybe because Mikey would have brought in more money if he had stayed. When Mikey goes to sleep that night, June, Leondria’s daughter, and her henchmen come and wake him up. They want all the money he’s made from selling weed. Lexi had Lil call them and tell them that Mikey was going to leave. As a naked Mikey runs to Leondria’s house, he somehow manages to get away from them. He only manages to get back two hundred of the three thousand dollars that he had made for himself. Another night, he has to leave Lil’s house. He walks until morning. He then appears in front of Strawberry’s house, where he sees her dancing in front of the doorway in a red bikini as he walks by. A close-up of Mikey’s face shows teardrops rolling down his cheeks as he smiles and the film ends.
