Mikey’s return, he hopes, will give him a chance to act as if the indignities of the past decade and a half hadn’t happened at all. “Red Rocket” has a trace of “Rip Van Winkle” to it. Later, he says, “With my skill and ability . . . there’s no denying what I can do!” “Almost every single girl I did a scene with started fucking me off camera,” he boasts. 1 motormouthed hustler of reality television, Jax Taylor, from Bravo’s “ Vanderpump Rules.”) He obsessively dwells on his past achievements: he has won five Adult Video News Awards-“Best oral three years in a row,” he says-and seems convinced that his once successful porn career is evidence of a still bright future ahead.
(After watching the movie a couple of times, I suddenly realized that the figure he most reminded me of was the No. He has been run out of Los Angeles, where he was working in the adult-entertainment industry, and is making his way back to his home town, Texas City, Texas, on the Gulf Coast.Ī fast-talking scammer whose corny niceties are as well-worn as his good looks, Mikey is still convincing as a hunk, if only you don’t look too closely. When we first meet him, he is on a cross-country bus, with nothing more than twenty-two dollars in the pocket of his stonewashed skinny jeans. The man is Mikey Saber, a washed-up, middle-aged porn star, and the protagonist of Sean Baker’s excellent new film, “ Red Rocket.” Mikey’s naked dash comes late in the movie, but from the get-go we can sense that his character is something of an escape artist. And, although one can’t help but notice that he has an unusually large penis, this conventional signifier of virility can only dingle-dangle helplessly, bobbing rhythmically as he tears down the road. He is fleeing, totally nude, his eyes wide with panic. It’s the middle of the night, and a man is running down a deserted street, to the tune of ’NSync’s 2000 hit “Bye Bye Bye.” The song’s bombastic, driving beat gives its melancholy breakup lyrics some urgency: “I know that I can’t take no more / It ain’t no lie / I wanna see you out that door / Baby, bye bye bye.” This particular man, however, has clearly been tossed out of someone’s door, rather than the other way around.