Red Rocket

More of a social drama than a comedy. It's a festival film, so visually it looks cheap and the actors are rather average, but thanks to the quite unconventional and interesting premise it's watchable. The protagonist is a former porn star who returns to his hometown and the film illustrates how such a person has trouble fitting into society – getting a job, etc. – much like a convict, and when it's all redneck and loser all around, the future prospects aren't too rosy. Simon Rex may be a douchebag, but I was rooting for him, and here again, the biggest assholes are the women. I believe that with a bigger budget and better actors, this could have been a big hit, this way for me it’s a film I'll quickly forget. It could have been funnier and more daring. 6/10. (07/25/2022)

Sean Baker takes us on an excursion among Texas' small-town shady low-lives, whose life stories are regrettable yet nonetheless engaging and, in any case, entirely believable and at times subversively likable. The main (anti-)hero, played by Simon Rex, is such an opportunistic asshole you feel almost heartfelt pity for him because he is such an innocent soul, that he does not realize it himself and probably never will, and the movie does not judge him for it. Red Rocket is a movie that has been virtually ignored at all the major movie awards this year, and yet it is one of the best things I have seen from last year's releases. (05/08/2022)