MaXXXine from filmmaker Ti West (X, Pearl) is a bit of a curious case. On the one hand, West is clearly a film buff who maintains a deep reverence for horror and exploitation cinema. He has proved this with the previous films in his X Trilogy, for which MaXXXine serves as a conclusion, though he blurs the line between artistic sincerity and over-the-top so often that one begins to question whether Maxxxine is subtly artful or overtly terrible.
In MaXXXine, we follow up-and-coming starlet Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) circa 1984 as she attempts to transcend adult film for the Wicker Man-esque horror of the fictional film The Puritan 2, a big budget studio affair with a snobby director who thinks herself the new Hitchcock (Elizabeth Debicki; who literally takes Maxine to the Psycho set during the film). Elsewhere, a killer loosely based on the real-life Night Stalker slayings roams the streets of LA ritualistically murdering Maxine’s friends while a private dick (an absurd and not-so-enjoyable Kevin Bacon) trails her, threatening to make public her sordid past.
Goth understands the assignment here and effortlessly phases between earnest emotional depth and ridiculous one-liner quippery. In West’s Hollywood—one constructed from equal parts faux glamor and real filth—the 1980s explode incessantly from every corner, be it a fridge full of Tab, the requisite mohawk-bearing punk in the distance or the cavalcade of chintzy hairdos and pseudo new wave sounds.
Everything is exaggerated, in fact, be it the larger-than-life studio system looming at all times, or the purposefully ham-fisted delivery of actors like Giancarlo Esposito (Breaking Bad) and Halsey. Even the foley audio rings fakely across cacophonous footsteps, booming gunshots and squelching gore; West goes out of his way to shoot on unoccupied but familiar sets and in backstage areas, highlighting the non-reality of film while emphasizing that fame-wanters and star-fuckers are often chasing fleeting ghosts and little else.
He even comes close to brilliance once or twice, but a pair of funny little cops played by Michelle Monaghan and Bobby Cannavale mostly muck up the pacing, and the not-so-dramatic conclusion is cause for laughs—and not particularly in the good way. If nothing else comes from the X Trilogy, however, Goth is quite the talent and it’ll be exciting to see what she does next.
6
+Interesting enough; Mia Goth kills
-Is it satirizing or up its own ass?
Maxxxine
Directed by West
With Goth, Debicki, Bacon, Esposito, Halsey, Monaghan and Cannavale
Violet Crown Cinema, R, 113 min.