MaXXXine ~ Review

Note: The following contains spoilers for X and Pearl.
 
Turns out, third time’s the charm! The first two installments in Ti West’s X trilogy (X and Pearl) left me cold. From a craft perspective (acting, direction, and cinematography) the films are undeniably great, but I could not get into their stories. The worlds they conjured felt too artificial, and the commentary West was making about the exploitation of women from society to the entertainment industry felt forced. But it all comes together in MaXXXine the finale to the trilogy, which is not only a great film in its own right, but helped me recontextualize and appreciate the previous two films. 
 
First, a little recap: the 1970’s set X, followed Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) an amateur pornstar with dreams of fame and fortune as she and her friends went to a remote Texas farmhouse to film an adult film. However, things go horrifically wrong when Pearl (also Mia Goth in old age makeup) – the eighty-year-old owner of the farm starts murdering all of Maxine’s friends. Maxine barely escaped with her life, but a lifetime of trauma. 
 
The next film in the trilogy Pearl jumped back in time to 1918, telling the story of when a young Pearl became a psychopath. 
 
That brings us to MaXXXine. It’s now 1986 – Reaganomics, the moral majority, and the satanic panic are gripping the nation. Los Angeles is bathed in neon lights and an extra thick layer of sleaze. With the rise of VHS, porn is now bigger than ever and Maxine is famous but yearns for more and wants to be seen as a legitimate actress. Maxine’s big break is just around the corner, as she has landed the lead role in the horror movie “Puritan II” directed by Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki). Her agent Teddy (Giancarlo Esposito) is happy and everything appears to be going great.
 
On the sidelines, the moral majority is protesting Hollywood in general, and horror films specifically. But there’s something more sinister lurking in the shadows. A satanic serial killer dubbed “The Night Stalker” is murdering sex workers and appears to have a connection to Maxine. Will all of this derail Maxine’s burgeoning career and her dreams of becoming famous?

MaXXXineis a wild ride. At times it plays like a pastiche of schlocky 80’s horror movies and at others, feels like the “what is real” moviemaking head-trip of The Stunt Man. What makes MaXXXine so entertaining is how the film revels in its artificiality. The depiction of 80’s LA as this cesspit of grime and sleaze isn’t a recreation of a real place and time – but it’s the LA that exists in movies like Body Heat and Avenging Angel. The gore and splatter effects are all hyper-stylized and feel like an Italian Giallo film. Michelle Monaghan and Bobby Cannavale show up as two cops investigating the Night Stalker and their odd and stilted dialogue feels like it was ripped right out of an 80’s film (which is intentional). 
 
The whole cast is great, but Mia Goth is the standout here. She has a tough role to play, as Maxine’s single-minded drive for fame could come across as off-putting, but she manages to make Maxine a character with real human emotions who cares about her friends getting murdered. On top of that, she has to play the trauma that she experienced in X. 

Kevin Bacon is fantastic as a private detective who is so sleazy you might mistake him for a sentient oil slick (that's a complement). I swear that Debicki is channeling Peter O’Toole from The Stunt Man and she plays a seductive devil extremely well.  
 
Ti West’s direction is great. He manages to pull off scenes of suspense which echo Hitchcock and DePalma, while not feeling too pretentious. West's script walks the tonal tightrope between genuine suspense, Hollywood satire, and parody without feeling like a mess. Perhaps it’s the setting that worked for me more than X or Pearl, but in any case, I enjoyed MaXXXine and it gave me a new appreciation for the previous films.
 
The X trilogy is all about the allure and power that cinema has over us and how it can shape our dreams. But if those dreams are suppressed it can lead to horrifying consequences. I think West is getting at the idea that all movies (including porn and horror) are release valves for us as a society and without them, we might all start murdering each other. 
 
Three and a half out of Four Stars.