“MaXXXine” - Film Review
Some people grow up with the dream of seeing their name in lights, of having crowds of people chanting their name, worshiping the ground they walk on, and begging for autographs. Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) is a person who has been bitten by the Hollywood Dream. Of course those who saw writer/director Ti West’s previous installment, X, are already aware of Maxine’s dreams of stardom. MaXXXine is X’s direct sequel, but follows Pearl in release order for West’s trilogy. MaXXXine takes viewers to the video-nasty era of the ’80s and drops Maxine exactly where she wants to be: Los Angeles, California.
courtesy of a24
When we last saw Maxine in X, she was the lone survivor of a porno film shoot that went wrong in middle-of-nowhere Texas. She left that in the rearview mirror, literally and figuratively. While the porno from X hasn’t seen the light of day, Maxine has made quite the name for herself in adult films. She wants to make the jump to commercial pictures and nails the audition for a horror movie. Just as everything seems to be going her way, a videotape shows up at her apartment and it’s the footage from the failed Texas porn film. Someone is blackmailing her and the threat of the Night Stalker is ever-looming. Maxine is desperate to get to the bottom of things because she refuses to give up what she believes is her big break.
West’s unnamed and originally unplanned trilogy is an interesting exercise in filmmaking. While filming X, West and Goth began brainstorming about a possible backstory for the old woman, Pearl (played by Goth in prosthetics). After X wrapped, West immediately shot Pearl. Based on the success of both, A24 greenlit a third film, MaXXXine. An organic trilogy built of audience excitement and filmmaker passion is something worth celebrating, but MaXXXine bears the burden of being a sequel to a film that was never intended to be created in the first place. What West’s trilogy lacks in narrative plot is made up for in spades in style. Each entry is its own ode to a different era of filmmaking. MaXXXine especially, given its setting, is a love letter to the film industry and the way storytelling has shifted throughout the years. All the movies are stylish feasts of worldbuilding anchored by bizarre, completely committed performances from Goth.
courtesy of 24
As referenced at the end of X, Maxine’s dad, Ernest (Simon Prast), is a TV preacher. MaXXXine takes place in the era of televangelists, when religious zeal meant opulence. Televangelists are their own kind of fame and power, the same sort of notoriety that Maxine is chasing. The more interesting angle for MaXXXine to have taken would have been that Maxine and Ernest are two sides of the same coin. Both obsessed with being known, but recognized for opposite means of achieving fame. Maxine is most known for her adult films, which her dad would call sin, while Ernest is building her brand on holiness. There’s tension there, a duality that binds them together and could have been mined as an interesting backdrop for the film.
Instead of looking at these two characters in a critical sense, MaXXXine is little more than an expertly styled slasher film. To its credit, it’s a fun flick with a charming group of characters. Kevin Bacon plays a private investigator from New Orleans with a southern drawl and an all-too-charming smirk perpetually on his face. Bobby Canavale is a failed-actor-turned-cop, with Michelle Monaghan as his more competent partner. Giancarlo Esposito is a menace as Maxine’s agent, Elizabeth Debicki is an aloof director trying to add purpose to the money-grab sequel she’s directing, and Moses Sumney is Maxine’s closest friend and source of common sense. All these colorful characters make for a vibrant world, and Goth’s Maxine is no slouch either.
courtesy of a24
MaXXXine has the same problem as X. Both have too much style and not enough substance. They’re fun genre entries, but those looking for the undercurrents of something more won’t find much here. Maxine Minx is a star, but one that doesn’t shine as brightly as she could.
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