Film

Red Rocket

Red Rocket is Sean Baker's fizzy, queasy comedy about Mikey Saber, a washed-up porn star talking his way back into a Texas life he already wrecked. Simon Rex is magnetic and repulsive in equal measure, charming everyone straight into disaster. Shot with sun-bleached grime and real non-actor texture, it's funny until it very much isn't. For people who don't need to like a protagonist to be riveted by him.

TMDb rating3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like character studies of a hustler with no brakes, where the comedy and the unease sit on top of each other, and you enjoy a lead you can't quite trust or root for.

Skip it if you need likable leads or a plot that marches forward; this one is loose and talky, drifts for long stretches, and hinges on a protagonist whose self-regard grates.

What it asks of you: Patience for a long, sun-bleached slow burn that lets scenes run past comfort, with its laughs arriving sideways and its tension building quietly rather than through set pieces.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

The Florida Project2017

Baker's previous film shares the same eye for sun-bleached poverty, motel-strip Americana, and adults barely holding on — funnier, gentler, and just as devastating by the end.

But Told through a child's eyes, so the con artistry is implicit; if you wanted Mikey's brand of grown-up hustling, this plays softer.

The Florida Project poster

Uncut Gems2019

The same unbearable charm-as-weapon energy — a man who can talk anyone into anything right up until it destroys him. Adam Sandler at his most feral.

But Anxiety-inducing by design; the constant hustle has almost no comic relief valve, so it's exhausting rather than breezy.

Uncut Gems poster

American Honey2016

Non-actors, real American backroads, a magnetic drifter selling something nobody needs — the same itinerant-hustler DNA stretched into a road movie with real tenderness underneath the grime.

But Nearly three hours and meandering by design; patience-testing if you want plot momentum rather than vibe and texture.

American Honey poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Red Rocket

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Nights of Cabiria1957

Both films are built around a charming, exploited outsider who keeps selling hope to themselves and everyone around them; Cabiria did the comic-tragic hustler seventy years before Mikey, minus the cynicism.

A sex worker in postwar Rome keeps believing the next man, the next scheme, will save her — heartbreaking and funny in the same breath, carried by Giulietta Masina's extraordinary face.

But Black-and-white, subtitled, 1950s Italian neorealism — a long way from Texas doughnut shops in every sense but the moral one.

Nights of Cabiria poster
More like this (8)

Tangerine2015

Baker again, shot guerrilla-style on iPhones around LA's sex-work fringe — the same unsentimental warmth toward people polite society ignores, with a wilder, funnier pulse.

But Rougher and scrappier looking; if Red Rocket's slicker 16mm gloss was part of the appeal, this will feel scrappier.

Tangerine poster

The Wrestler2008

A faded performer returns to the people he burned, trying to rebuild a life on charm that's curdled into desperation. Mickey Rourke is devastating in the role of his career.

But Almost entirely without Red Rocket's comedy — this one plays it straight and sad, no wink to soften the fall.

The Wrestler poster

Good Time2017

Safdie brothers frenzy — a small-time schemer running on charisma and bad decisions through one increasingly disastrous day, shot with the same nervy, sweaty immediacy.

But Nocturnal and propulsive with almost no downtime to breathe; less comedy, more panic attack with a plot.

Good Time poster

Licorice Pizza2021

Same year, same hustler-charm engine, but sunnier — a kid selling waterbeds and himself on pure nerve, in a glowing 1970s San Fernando Valley.

But Considerably gentler and more nostalgic than Red Rocket; the age-gap subplot draws softer, more forgiving lines than Mikey's does.

Licorice Pizza poster

Starlet2012

Baker's quieter, earlier film — porn industry as backdrop again, but this time an unlikely friendship instead of a con, showing the tenderness he's capable of alongside the grift.

But Much slower and gentler; almost none of Red Rocket's comic velocity or sense of menace.

Starlet poster

The Rider2018

Real cowboys playing versions of themselves in a story about a man whose identity depends on a body and a life that's failing him — same nonactor grain, same American margins.

But Elegiac and hushed rather than funny; if you came for Mikey's motor-mouth chaos, this stillness will feel like a different film.

The Rider poster

Hot Girls Wanted2015

It's the same world Mikey left, told from the other side — the people he might have talked into something, without his voiceover doing the talking for them.

A blunt, sobering documentary about young women recruited into amateur porn — the industry Mikey came from, seen without a script or a charismatic narrator smoothing it over.

But No comedy, no character to root for — just an unglamorous, sometimes bleak look at an industry Red Rocket only lets you glimpse through Mikey's self-serving lens.

Hot Girls Wanted poster

Trailer Park Boys2001

Same core idea — a charismatic con artist who never learns, running scams on people who should know better — just filtered through comedy instead of Baker's unease, and a long-running TV format instead of one unbroken slide.

Small-time Canadian hustlers running dumb schemes with total conviction — the same lovable-loser engine as Mikey, cranked into deadpan, endlessly rewatchable mockumentary chaos.

But Broader and cruder by design — this trades Baker's queasy realism for cheerfully trashy slapstick; it wants you laughing, not squirming.

Trailer Park Boys poster

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