Maxxxine (2024)
Is Maxxxine an homage to a bygone film era or a cheap imitation of what horror fans crave?
The latest film in Ti West's X trilogy has hit the big screen. Has Maxine Minks finally become the big star she always wanted to be? Mia Goth steps back into the role that she started in X, and we finally get to see what happened to her after she drove off in the van. Ti West made a name for himself with House Of The Devil, but it seems that this film trilogy will solidify him as a name in the horror industry.
My own personal relationship with X isn't as shiny as a lot of other fans. After watching the film, I was left underwhelmed. I usually really enjoy the slasher setup of a group in an isolated setting getting picked off one by one. For whatever reason, I felt like the film felt more like it was just building up to "look, old people fucking! That's gross, right?" and that's about it. It could be the mindset I was in, and I'm willing to give it another shot at some point. After that, I skipped Pearl since I wasn't really into X.
Then the trailer for Maxxxine hit, and it showed that it would be set in that 80's esthetic where everything is kind of gross and sleazy. For me, that is a big "Yes, please!" so now I was torn. Do I step into the third film of a series I wasn't really into? Since Pearl was a prequel, I didn't have to worry much about missing anything, but I could hardly remember anything from the original movie. I honestly forgot that Maxine was even a character in the film until it started.
Mia Goth is back, and ever since her starring role in X, she has been on fire. Her turn in Infinity Pool made me despise the name James, as anyone who has seen that film can attest. She plays Maxine with a hardened exterior that has been forged since she drove the van away from the farm.
Even inside the film, we get to see her put on an amazing performance from the top of the movie. We open with Maxine going on an audition. She is instructed to look right into the camera and give her performance. What follows for the next minute is a great monologue from the fake film The Puritan II. On cue, she begins to cry and delivers an emotional performance. When the director yells cut she smiles and wipes away her tears as she returns as our gateway into the 1985 world of Hollywood.
The other outstanding performance comes from Kevin Bacon, who gives probably the most schlocky performance of his career—which I don't mean as a negative. As a private detective hunting down Maxine, he does a great turn as a shlub who is just doing what he is hired to do. He ultimately doesn't care what happens to her but will do whatever he has been hired to do. He purposefully chews the scenery like it's a full meal, and every moment he is on screen is just a delight.
The film itself is set against the grubby streets of Hollywood in the 1980s, which is always a great setting for me. I wonder if Ti West took some influence from 1984's Angel. If you watch the trailer for Angel and then the one for Maxxxine you can see where a lot of the look of the film came from, even if it's not a direct translation.
This film dabbles in the slasher genre of films like Angel, Out Of The Dark, or Stripped To Kill but also pulls in inspiration from older Giallo films. Our killer is clad in the stereotypical black gloves, a black trenchcoat, and a black hat. Seeing the killer grip different things throughout the movie and squeeze while we are given a leathery sound effect made me think back to the classic Italian tropes.
Even with all this, I still feel like Maxxxine is missing something. It could be the artifice of the film. While the setting is something I love, I loved it in actual 80s films. It had to be reconstructed, while in the movies I mentioned before, it felt like they just set up the camera and began to roll. Using what was right in front of them rather than having to have discussions about tone, look, production design, etc. Is that the fault of this film? Maybe. Maybe not. It depends on how much we are willing to believe in the gimmick.
For instance, while the look of specific scenes and locations is excellent, the film betrays the gimmick it is going for by being too gory. Which seems like a weird thing to complain about. It's somehow being too gross but not sleazy enough at the same time. The actual 80s films were never as gross as this film is. This might be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on what you want out of it. Heads explode, and testicles get stomped to a pulp in this film, but the movies it's mimicking never went that far. You could say it is because they couldn't due to ratings boards and even budgets, but it soon pulls you out of the world that this film is trying to place itself in.
This is also a problem with some of the cast. Since the first two films blew up after they had already been filmed, it kept the cast pretty small. None of them had become household names, even though Jenna Ortega would blow up thanks to other roles. In this film, we see Kevin Bacon chasing Maxine around the studio backlot. Watch for the Back To The Future Courthouse lawn and the Bates Motel. Then Maxine walks across the street with musician Halsey before calling her agent, played by Giancarlo Esposito in a bad wig. After getting off the phone she is questioned by Bobby Cannavale and Michelle Monaghan. All faces you are very familiar with.
Does this mean the movie is bad? No, but for me, it made the gimmick not really work. They try really hard to set it in the real world as the Night Stalker murders are constantly being mentioned in the background as the characters try to manuver through the film. Ultimately, it just took me out of the film too much for me to buy into what they were setting up. But since I had issues with this series already, it could just be me. Others will probably love the film and buy into what it's selling.