Red Rocket (2022)

Red Rocket is the audacious new film from writer-director Sean Baker (The Florida Project), starring Simon Rex in a magnetic, live-wire performance, Red Rocket is a darkly funny and humane portrait of a uniquely American hustler and a hometown that barely tolerates him.

Finding himself down and out in Los Angeles, ex-porn star Mikey Saber decides to crawl back to his hometown of Texas City, where his estranged wife and mother-in-law are living. Just as this dysfunctional family seems to be making things work, Mikey meets a young woman named Strawberry working the cash register at a local doughnut shop and promptly falls right back into his old habits.

“A beguiling and beautiful film about a total toerag”

Empire ★★★★★

“Hilarious, unsettling portrait of a tarnished American dream”

Irish Times ★★★★★

“This is vivid, real-life film-making, without the need of an epic budget”

The Guardian ★★★★