'Red Rocket' review: Simon Rex blasts off as porn star starting over

Simon Rex — yes that Simon Rex, the washed-up former MTV personality and star of "Scary Movies" 3-5 — gives one of the year's most triumphant performances in "Red Rocket," starring as a burnt-out porn star who returns home to Texas City, Texas, to try and put his life back together. 

For Rex, it's nothing short of a revelation and a career resurrection. For writer-director Sean Baker ("The Florida Project"), who had the vision to even cast Rex in the first place as well as the faith he could pull it off, it shows he is one of Hollywood's most visionary outsiders, a filmmaker who doesn't chase clout but who follows the storytelling muse in his head wherever it takes him. It's a thrilling, wholly unexpected thing to see.  

Rex is Mikey Saber, down on his luck, flushed out of the porn biz and back in his industrial hometown, where the skyline is marked by the local oil refinery's lights which twinkle all hours of the night. With nowhere else to turn, he arrives at the doorstep of his ex-, Lexi (Bree Elrod), to whom Mikey either doesn't care or forgot that he's still married. 

Mikey's got all of $22 to his name but he's got a lot of wiry charm, and he gets Lexi to allow him to move in with her and her mother, Lil (Brenda Deiss). He can't get a job due to his adult film past, so he convinces Leondria (Judy Hill), the local drug dealer for whom he used to work, to let him sell weed for her. 

Mikey starts putting together a little bit of cash, enough to cover rent for the month, and he takes Lexi and Lil out to the local doughnut shop to celebrate. It's there where he spots the counter girl, a fetching 17-year-old named Strawberry (Suzanna Son), whom he sees as his ticket back to porn superstardom. It's only a matter of who he has to lie to, cheat and screw over in the process to get there. 

Baker, whose work has always shown an affinity for down-and-out types, sex workers and other figures cast aside by society — he casts a lot of non-actors in roles — has no interest in playing by conventional rules here, and his story joyously, wildly zigs and zags to places completely unexpected. He has an innate understanding of people like Mikey, whom he by no means glamorizes but with whom he certainly sympathizes, at least on a human level.  

And Rex is simply magnetic as Mikey, a character he brings to life through his rat-a-tat patter, his jittery mannerisms and the self-serving interactions he has with others. Mikey is a mooch and a schemer but he has an electrifying personality, which is why his neighbor Lonnie (Ethan Darbone) gets a contact high from hanging around with him and agrees to be his chauffeur all over town. (The scenes where Mikey recaps the highs and lows of his porn career to Lonnie are outright hilarious.) Mikey is never on an upward trajectory, but there's a part of Rex's performance that makes you root for the guy anyway. 

Baker, who also edited the film, sets the story in 2016, with the presidential election between Donald Trump and Hilary Clinton playing out in the background. It was a transitional year for America where lines that many thought would never be crossed were instead flown over, like a stunt performed by Evel Knievel. "Red Rocket" is a tale of dashed dreams, renewed hope and characters scraping by along society's fringes. It's funny and unpredictable and a little bit sad, just like the world Mikey inhabits, which is very recognizable to our own.  

agraham@detroitnews.com

@grahamorama

'Red Rocket'

GRADE: B+

Rated R: for strong sexual content, graphic nudity, drug use and pervasive language

Running time: 128 minutes

In theaters