The fall of 2021 was not the strongest period for A24. The push towards smaller character dramas garnered fans, but failed to earn much award attention. Following the similarly muted runs of C’mon C’mon (2021) and The Humans (2021), director Sean Baker returned to the studio for a follow-up to his breakthrough hit The Florida Project (2017) that brought with it a handful of problems. While far from a failure, Baker’s inability to capture magic twice with Red Rocket (2021) proved how difficult it was to find audiences in the wake of post-pandemic culture. Even with its shortcomings, it became a cornerstone to A24’s brand of brash and sometimes confrontational dramas that subvert expectations and find humor in dark places. It may have not been as accessible as The Florida Project, but it set Baker up for a promising future.
When Baker was last seen, he had directed the breakthrough hit The Florida Project which, among other things, expanded his fan base and earned Willem Dafoe an Oscar nomination. With the prospects of his next project being bigger, he teamed with co-writer Chris Bergoch during a trip to Canada. After some initial planning, they scrapped plans in favor of what would become Red Rocket. Baker was convinced that his recent success would also acquire him a bigger budget. However, a series of events caused setbacks, notably the pandemic, and resulted in a paltry $1.1 million budget. This meant that they had to work on more limited and sometimes inconvenient means.
Red Rocket may be a film that feels indicative of the feverish anxiety that arrived in the wake of the pandemic, but it has its roots even earlier than that. While filming Starlet (2012), Baker and Bergoch became aware of a term in the porn industry called “the suitcase pimp.” This was in reference to actors who mostly made careers off of their female co-stars. Having met a handful at the time, Baker began to form an idea for the character that would become Mikey Saber. Upon discovering that a large percentage of porn stars came from Texas, he chose to set the story there in hopes of better understanding how environment played into conflict.
According to Baker, they broke the story by 2017 fairly quickly. They had the whole story outlined and were ready to go. The smaller budget meant that they had to consider restrictions. Given that Baker had made a career out of independent filmmaking, he was comfortable with making everything smaller, which often meant shooting with no permits. In fact, there are several stories where strangers called the police because they believed the more argumentative scenes were real. At another point while shooting a scene where Simon Rex runs naked through a shady neighborhood, they had a run-in because the police were used to more sinister crimes happening in the area. When addressing Baker, he said that they were doing a movie, to which they acknowledged awareness and moved on.
When planning where to shoot the film, Baker and Bergoch drove around Texas admiring the different cities. When they arrived in Texas City, they found exactly what they were looking for. Baker claimed that every direction had a beautiful scenic view. There was also an oil plant that served as a backdrop to the story’s lower-class economic struggles. Given that this was set in 2016, the incoming election brought a subtext of division that could be reflected in Mikey’s character manipulating people to give him more of a chance than he deserved. While Rex saw him as having good intentions and Baker claimed to write him without judgment, it wasn’t hard to see him as reprehensible. The supporting cast was made of predominantly unprofessional actors, except for Suzanna Son. The story goes that Baker met her at The ArcLight Theater in 2018 and gave her his card. They wouldn’t talk until two years later when Red Rocket was ready to film.
Meanwhile, the story of how Rex became involved was more eventful. In some ways, his career mirrored that of Mikey. Having gotten his start in gay porn, Rex was able to comprehend Baker’s vision by suggesting that he knew people like Mikey. While there was a person Baker allegedly based it on, he legally couldn’t share who it was. Rex was also told to trust Baker about the project for another reason. He insisted that the actor not tell his agent that he was doing Red Rocket until after it finished. He also received the script and, on short notice, memorized the script while driving to Texas City. Rex claimed he had three days before everything started.
It should be noted that this was filmed in late 2020. The cast and crew have discussed how there was a lot of chaotic energy in America around the time, citing examples like the pandemic, Black Lives Matter protests, George Floyd’s murder, and the presidential election. Given their short window for filming, Baker believes that they captured that in their work. Rex meanwhile thinks that the short turnaround meant that he never had to worry about honing his craft. He was also keen to work his nonprofessional supporting cast, believing it brought more authenticity than a modified Hollywood take with fake accents. As a result of everything, Baker agreed to shoot the film following Covid guidelines that required regular testing and living in a pod. There was no reported outbreak during the shoot.
While most attention was applied to Rex, Son brought certain contributions to her role. The most noteworthy was the incorporation of N*SYNC’s song “Bye Bye Bye.” Baker claims that he didn’t have any song picked out originally. When he learned that Son was a singer and played piano, he insisted on incorporating it into the film. They hypothesized what song they wanted to use, running through the typical list of break-up numbers like Ray Charles’ “Hit the Road Jack” before settling on N*SYNC. Chronologically, they believed it fit with the timeline of Mikey’s story. Once they got approval from all five members of the boy band, they moved forward not only with the original number, but a cover sung by Son.
Another story regarding Son was her debut scene. Baker was upfront with how he was going to use the nudity in the film. Given its frankness around sexuality that referenced Italian eroticism, he was keen on making everyone as comfortable as possible. On the day that Son arrived, she did her first nude scene. She liked to joke that it was a good way to “break the ice.” Rex similarly had to do several nude scenes, which Baker claimed would be used sparingly.
One of the few anachronisms in the story featured The Donut Hole, which Son’s character Strawberry worked at. While it wasn’t in Texas City, it would become a prominent location within the story. Baker is a self-proclaimed fan of donuts and enjoyed the chance to work there in the after hours. The place was still in operation during the day, so their time there was limited. The director even bought $1,000 in donuts believing that they would only be used for props. However, the cast claimed to have broken their habit of being healthy during the shoot by gorging on them. As with other exchanges, the police were called several times when Rex and Son shot scenes where they were arguing.
The limitations ended up not hurting Red Rocket too much. While it likely impacted the scope Baker wanted to achieve, he still made it immersive. He claimed that it was one of the least self-conscious films he made, even suggesting that there might’ve been something in his subconscious shining through. He was also concerned with how audiences would receive the film for a handful of reasons. For starters, Mikey’s unlikable personality may turn some off. His constant decision to be irresponsible didn’t seem aspirational. Baker criticized those who refused to enjoy films about anti-heroes as a response. He also joked about how he was sure audiences would send him hate mail because of how cryptic the ending was.
Around February 2021, A24 would acquire the rights to Red Rocket. The film would have its premiere at The Cannes Film Festival where it competed for The Palme d’Or. While it would lose, canine co-star Sophie the Dog would win Palm Dog Award. With the praise starting to pick up, Baker’s film was entered into a variety of film festivals before finally making its theatrical premiere in limited release on December 10, 2021. The overall box office would be very low, earning around $2.3 million.
An interesting story regarding the film’s release is how Son discovered it. She was in her home watching it on a laptop. There was nervousness around seeing her nude scenes. As she paused on an image of her breast, she tried to calm down and focus by doing a dance. The issue with this is that she fell and broke her ankle. As a result, she would appear at the Cannes screening in a wheelchair. Rex similarly had issues watching himself for two hours. However, he learned to find other things in the film to focus on.
The film would end up being a critical success. According to critics aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, the film earned an impressive 90% approval rating. Jackie K. Cooper lead the enthusiasm when suggesting, “Interesting because of its unique focus. You won't see characters like these in your average movie.” Emily Maskell of WeLoveCinema shared the sentiments when noting, “A writer-director with a keen eye for life's indiscriminate moments, Baker's films have always been resoundingly lo-fi and Red Rocket continues that aesthetic with an evolved political underpinning and attentive handling on troubled masculinity.” The few who disagreed included Yasser Medina of Cinefilia who decried, “It benefits from a solid performance by Simon Rex, but its narrative often remains stuck in a routine that weighs down its discourse on sexual exploitation and opportunism as a parable of the failures of the American dream.” Overall, it was praised as another hit that earned Simon Rex some of his most enthusiastic praise to date with some considering Oscar contention. Critics like David Ehrlich and National Board Review would also consider it to be among the best films of 2021.
The one upside to Red Rocket compared to most A24 films in 2021 was that it stood the best chance of awards. While it failed to earn any Oscar nomination, Rex was listed among actors that many felt was snubbed. He did win Best Male Lead at The Independent Spirit Awards along with several other smaller prizes. For a year when the studio wasn’t showing up in a lot of categories, it was the silver lining which reflected that A24 and, more specifically Baker, wouldn’t be away from awards circles for long.
Despite making his previous two films with A24, Baker would move onto other studios for his follow-up Anora (2024), which has also become his most financially successful film to date. It would also win him the Palme d’Or as well as earn six Oscar nominations. While it’s speculative as to whether Baker will ever return, the partnership was greatly appreciated and produced some of the studio’s most well regarded work.
Red Rocket was a film that captured a moment. Even in its limitations, it embraced the frenetic pacing of 2020 and made it a greater commentary of where America was at its time. With a career best performance by Simon Rex, Baker brought forth a movie that may have not garnered the fan base it deserved, but showed someone curious to continue playing with form and make art that was truly provocative. The same could be said for A24’s next film which found a beloved Oscar-winning director doing something unthinkable. Without a noteworthy collaborator in tow, Joel Coen would make one of the artsiest adaptations of William Shakespeare to date. It may seem like an odd fit, but that’s what A24 does best. It also meant that they were saving the best for last in a year as muddled and uncertain as 2021.
Coming Up Next: The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021)
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