Sean Baker knows how to make films that feel like documentaries. The filmmaker is adept at discovering fresh talent and using their lack of experience to create worlds that feel tactile and real, a skill he's used to give us striking looks at forgotten or underseen communities in the fringes of American society. For his latest film, Red Rocket, Baker travels from Florida to Texas and follows his Oscar-nominated film The Florida Project with a tale of manipulation, charm, and deception, all while giving Simon Rex the Uncut Gems-style leading role that could finally catapult him to the stardom he was always just on the outside of.

The film opens with *NSYNC's banger Bye Bye Bye as Rex's Mikey as he arrives at the door of his estranged wife Lexi (the phenomenal Bree Elrod) and her mother Lil (the hilariously deadpan Brenda Deiss, a total revelation) with nothing but a dirty tank top, the jeans he's wearing, and his tail between his legs. He announces that he just said bye bye bye to what he calls a highly successful career as a porn star in Hollywood and is back in his hometown to rebuild himself. He talks his way into a shower and then a spot on the couch, because despite loud objections from the two women, Mikey is full of smooth-talk and big, empty promises.

Though Baker quickly sends signals that we are not meant to sympathize with Mikey, Rex plays up the charm up to 11, quickly making friends in his hometown of Texas City and exhibiting what feels like a genuine desire to help those around him, or at least a desire not to do them harm. He may be playing up the nostalgia of the good old days to get into bed with Lexi only to avoid the uncomfortable couch, but he is helping around the house like he promised.

Cinematographer Drew Daniels uses wide shots of the summer sunsets to make Texas City feel as charming as the fancy Hollywood sights Mikey left behind, even if the constant shots of oil refineries remind you of how the city has been eaten from the inside by the industry that left it behind when it no longer needed it. Adding to the mix between the fantastical and the painfully real, Baker uses a mix between professional and first-time actors to give Red Rocket a feeling of neorealism, while also giving us stars in the making, like Suzanna Son, the heartbreaking, doe-eyed 17-year-old donut shop employee who instantly captures Mikey's sight and interest. Baker cleverly and terrifyingly plays up the audience's expectations and guesses as to what exactly Mikey wants with the red-haired teenager. He excitedly tells himself that she is legal when Strawberry (yes, that's her name) tells him she's just 3 weeks shy of turning 18, but then again, he's a fading porn star who also doubled as the agent/manager for the girls he slept with, and a newly legal girl already named Strawberry seems too good to pass up.

Red Rocket rests mostly on Rex's shoulders, and he more than steps up to the challenge. The actor, who has worked as everything from a solo porn performer, to MTV VJ before his biggest claim to fame acting in the last three Scary Movie entries, perfectly plays Mikey's boastful pride for his work and his desire to obtain more glory. Though Rex may play a little too close to Mikey's charm that the film nearly loses sight of its intentions with the character, the script balances that with dialogue that drives up the narcissism, like when Mikey laments how Paul Walker's death meant he couldn't play Brian O'Conner in any more Fast and Furious porn parodies. Likewise, Baker constantly shows us news reports from the 2016 election campaign trail, using our knowledge of the last four years to frame Mikey's attitude and actions with the historical context of the time where it seemed like abusers and con artists could get away with almost anything.

This can make the film a hard and uncomfortable watch, and an abrupt ending doesn't provide much catharsis, but Red Rocket makes sure to show that there will always be people that actually feel empathy to pick up the pieces.

Rating: B+