White Stefani, who imitates the vernaculars of Black English to ingratiate herself with others, soon persuades Zola to join her on an excursion to make some cash dancing at a Florida club. Based on A’Ziah “Zola” King’s real-life Twitter account of a road trip that descended into mayhem, the film tells the story of Zola, a young part-time stripper (Taylour Paige) who becomes fast friends with smooth-talking Stefani after a night dancing together. Mikey’s sweetsy aw-shucks narcissism has a kinship with the beguiling insta-BFF charisma exuded by Stefani (Riley Keough), the subordinate but ruthless femme fatale of Janicza Bravo’s darkly funny Zola. with him to jump-start her own adult film career. Before long, his methodical grooming has convinced Strawberry of her undying love for him, and she agrees to go back to L.A.
Mikey works slowly with smiles, jokes and goofy romanticism until she thinks she’s the one seducing him. In the midst of long-conning his ex into returning to porn, he meets redheaded teenage cashier Strawberry (Suzanna Son) and dollar signs immediately bloom in his eyes. With his cheeky boyishness and vulnerable wheedling, Mikey Saber (a masterful Simon Rex, who himself appeared in solo porn videos in his early acting career) worms his way back into the household of his resistant ex-wife (Bree Elrod) and mother-in-law (Brenda Deiss). In Sean Baker’s superlative Red Rocket, the third film in his trilogy on the lives of marginalized sex workers, following 2017’s The Florida Project and 2015’s Tangerine, a middle-aged motormouth adult film star returns to his Texas hometown broke as a joke after some shady dealings go awry in California.
The latter point isn’t necessarily meant as a critique of those movies’ storytelling choices, but to underscore that gregarious and captivating people, like the ones seen in Red Rocket and Zola, can oftentimes be more threatening than the more obviously telegraphed baddies highlighted in the other three films.Ĭharm disarms. Conversely, the more intentionally scary or anxiety-producing movies - ghostly psychological horror flick Last Night in Soho, French body horror film Titane and panic-attack-inducing cringe comedy Shiva Baby - rather seem to make a joke of sex work with their grandiloquent visual and aural filmic styles. Jon Bernthal Lost 30 Pounds Learning to Play Tennis for 'King Richard' RoleĪlthough each film peddles in heart-pounding tension, it is ironically the lightest and funniest of the bunch - bonkers Texas porn dramedy Red Rocket and dreamy black comedy thriller Zola - that actually showcase the insidious terrors of sex trafficking.
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