Red Rocket (2021) review

Five-time Adult Video News winner-turned-washout Mikey (Simon Rex) returns to his hometown of Texas City, Texas to stay with his estranged wife Lexi (Bree Elrod) and try to get a real job, but no one will hire him so he resorts to selling weed - later, he becomes infatuated with a 17-year-old Strawberry (Suzanna Son) - who works at a donut shop - that he wants to "mold" into an adult film superstar.  For being a pitch black comedy, it could have used some trimming - there are serious pacing issues and I wonder if another pair of eyes could have shaped the material better - but that issue aside, few filmmakers have fully embraced the "dregs of society" like Baker (or been able to use non-actors as effectively) and Rex is simply magnetic (in what's the role of a lifetime): a garrulous sociopath who's able to trick the audience into "accepting" that he's a middle-aged man training a high school student into doing pornography (although to be fair, she seems sort of willing).  It's thoroughly greasy, but he's the closest to Pasolini we've got.