It took me a beat to remember where I’d seen the remarkable Hill before: in Roberto Minervini’s powerful 2019 documentary, “What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire?,” which illuminated her experiences as a bar owner, a recovering addict and a forceful advocate for the Black women and men in her fast-gentrifying New Orleans neighborhood. Broke, desperate, dumb as a stump and persistent as hell, Mikey is bad news through and through. Lexi lives with her mom, Lil (Brenda Deiss), and they greet him as enthusiastically as they would a termite reinfestation. But despite his saber-esque endowment and a raft of porn-industry prizes, Mikey’s back in town, crashing once more with Lexi (Bree Elrod), the wife and former co-star he ditched some time ago. But he’s also returning to something: This Gulf Coast port city is where he grew up, years before he headed off to Los Angeles to pursue his calling as an adult entertainer. Mikey seems to be on the run the moment we meet him, riding a bus that will drop him off amid the depopulated streets and smoke-belching oil refineries of Texas City. Getting away with things, much like getting off, has long been one of this great American hustler’s favorite pastimes. But then, there may be no real difference. But he’s smiling here for a very different, singularly appalling reason, and it’s worth discovering for yourself suffice to say it has less to do with pleasure than relief. It’s a look we know well by this point: Mikey is a porn star, or at least he was one until recently. The money shot in “Red Rocket,” Sean Baker’s glorious gutter dive of a movie, is of Mikey Saber (Simon Rex) joyously riding his bicycle, his seamily handsome face twisted into a smile of near-sexual bliss. Because moviegoing carries risks during this time, we remind readers to follow health and safety guidelines as outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and local health officials.
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