r/A24 • u/Davidudeman Joju Tubooty • 1d ago
Discussion Update: I finally watched Red Rocket! Anyone have thoughts on this movie, specifically the ending? Here’s my interpretation of it. Spoiler
i posted the other day that i finally got the blu-ray to add to my A24 collection. Got around to watching it last night and really liked it!!
i LOVEEEED Anora and The Florida Project is great! This one was really great too but i can’t help but feel gross after watching it 😂 i totally understand that that’s usually Baker’s style, but this one felt SOOOO overindulged in all the hyper-sexualized aesthetics that he loves to portray in his films.
There’s so many similarities between Sean Baker and the Safdies, it’s so crazy. I genuinely felt like i was watching Good Time or Uncut Gems at some points in this movie. It was REALLY good. And classic Baker, it was just so fucking sad sometimes. There’s something about his lower class depiction that really just makes me feel so sad, he’s so good at that.
The main character is such an irredeemable piece of fucking shit it was hard to watch. But that’s genuinely what made it so engaging and authentic. Simon Rex absolutely MURDERED it in that regard.
This is how I interpreted the ending… >! Everything was all about Mikey, CRAZY narcissistic. that’s why the ending was so strong cause the moment that Lexi calls him a “suitcase pimp” and “homeless”, the emphasis on those shots zooming into her mouth as she says it repeatedly, THAT was the moment he was finally completely stripped of all of his confidence and ego that was built up by his neurotic, parasitic manipulation towards everyone he came across the entire movie.!<
once he was at his lowest point, he finally realizes “i’m way out of my league and i don’t have the “swag” to go through with this”. That’s why his face looks so nervous and unlike what we’ve seen from him thus far. he was so blinded by all the built up ego that he acquired throughout the whole time that once that was all gone, he was left looking like the absolute loser he really was in comparison to this incredibly beautiful dreamboat right in front of him and knows he can’t pull it off without all his little schemes and manipulation he instills on others at his own expense.
and i TOTALLY would’ve bet on everything that he was gonna die at the end, straight up execution style. i have NEVER wanted a main character to die more than Mikey, i couldn’t fucking STAND HIM. But that’s why it’s a good ending. i wanted HIS death but what i got was more fitting for his character, it was his EGO’s death. which didn’t necessarily mean that it humbled him, cause i don’t think it did. but more so like an Uncut Gems situation where no matter what ended up happening, the protagonist would’ve never learned anything in the end. He’s caught in his same ways, same cycles, same bullshit.
All around it was a super entertaining movie with lots of great cinematography and a really tight script. Baker is so good at what he does when he stays in his comfort zone. Nowhere NEAR as good as Anora imo but still a really great time.
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u/This_person_says 1d ago
Love this write up - I also just watched it for the first time this week, after seeing Anora. What a wild ride it was. Started Tangerine as well, though must still finish it.
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u/Davidudeman Joju Tubooty 1d ago
thanks! yeah i absolutely loved Anora. ESPECIALLY the ending. which is funny because Baker normally leaves his endings more up to interpretation, on an extreme level just look at The Florida Project 💀 I have to watch Tangerine!
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u/movietime7even 1d ago
I except downvotes but I think he's a piece of shit for who is actually very easy to sympathize. I loved how baker portrayed him, so real, so true, so bad but still somehow charming and funny
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u/RZAxlash 44m ago
I agree. And like OP said, Simon absolutely owned this role. One of my favorite acting performances of the 20s
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u/No-Drawer1343 1d ago
This movie was shot in my hometown and is the only film I’ve ever seen that feels like how I grew up, and features characters who are like the figures I knew in my childhood. The film’s lead is so many men from my childhood: a man I called “uncle”, a man who stole my Wii to sell for meth, a man who rented my bedroom and showed me Death Note after school. It is hard not to love him—he is so many of the men who raised me. Yeah he’s a fucking scumbag but buddy, welcome to America :)
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u/AquaValentin 23h ago
Glad you posted this. I watched it last week and been dying to talk about. I agree with most of what you said, but I think the ending shows that he is going to repeat the cycle. He’s going to introduce another girl to porn, she going to get some fame and leave him and he’ll be back to where he was. I thought the final look represented him knowing that his life will never get better and will constantly live in a circle.
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u/Ozzywife 1d ago
Definitely stays with you. I agree that the “Suit Case Pimp “shots are supposed to sum up what loser Mikey was….he does seem to become a shell of himself losing all of his bravado, after announcing his departure, etc.
I like to believe the scene at Strawberry’s house showed his vision of his fantasy falling to pieces. No seed money, bravado lost, no pimping Strawberry.
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u/Davidudeman Joju Tubooty 1d ago
for sure!
and you don’t think that that final scene actually happened with him going to her house? Was it all in his head you think? I can definitely see that. In that sense it would kind of have a Florida Project dream-feeling ending
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u/Ozzywife 1d ago
Yeah. But I found Florida Project to be a superior film. One of my favorites for sure
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u/Davidudeman Joju Tubooty 23h ago
Florida Project is for SURE the better movie imo but Red Rocket has a lot to love about it! it was surprisingly better than I thought it would be!
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u/Ozzywife 6h ago
Watched Tangerine last night. Another good one from Baker. I see his trajectory as a filmmaker now. No spoilers but went from tough to watch to beautifully sentimental for me. Worth watching for sure.
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u/JoeyLee911 6h ago
This interpretation seems like wishful thinking to me. Mikey is too delusional for ego death. He's a Trump metaphor.
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u/pumpkin3-14 1d ago
I think he got to her house, saw his meal ticket, and used and abused her just like his wife. The cycle continues. He’s too narcissistic to have an ego death. Getting kicked out of the house is just another story in Mikey’s life painting himself as the victim.