MaXXXine (2024)


I don't know if Ti West intended for X to kick off a trilogy but, because he and leading lady Mia Goth were stuck in quarantine in New Zealand for two weeks, that's what happened.  X had a lot of style but, in the end, it was a slasher film.  Pearl, on the other hand, was a period piece taking place in 1918 that slowly became a psychological thriller.  While he initially thought of extending this to four films MaXXXine, which channels the spirit of Italian giallo movies, is most likely going to be the one that rounds out the series.

When we last met Maxine she was crushing the skull of serial killer Pearl while escaping a rural Texas farm in 1979.  Six years later she is Maxine Minx, one of the most famous adult movie stars of the time.  However, she is getting older and has decided to see if she can break into legitimate filmmaking and become a star.  This chance comes with the movie Puritan II, written and helmed by an eccentric and ruthless director named Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki).  It is Maxine's big chance to finally achieve everything she has wanted.

The problem is someone knows about her past.  She receives a visit from a shady private detective named John Labat (Kevin Bacon) who represents a powerful, anonymous person who knows about Maxine's past and the massacre in 1979.  Even worse, her friends start turning up dead, and whoever is doing it is attempting to try to hide their killings behind the manhunt for the Night Stalker.  Once again Maxine finds herself having to take matters into her own hands so she can survive, but this time the threat may be much closer than she expects.

Nothing in this series could possibly eclipse Pearl.  Although nowhere near a perfect film it was a proper distillation of West's talents with an amazing performance by Mia Goth.  No matter what MaXXXine was going to disappoint, but I still find it a bit better than X.  The reason is because although this has all the usual elements of a giallo, including a black-gloved killer and a fair amount of gore and sleaze, like its inspiration it isn't afraid to go off the rails.  However, it's still Ti West, not Dario Argento, so the movie pretty much holds together much better than its Italian brethren, resembling a Hitchcock film in a number of places.  There is even a visit to the set of Psycho.  

Once again Goth's performance as the fame-obsessed, coke-snorting Maxine is fun, and watching her take care of a would-be rapist dressed as Buster Keaton is one of the highlights of the film.  Kevin Bacon is about as slimy as can be, while Giancarlo Esposito has a small part as Maxine's agent who is willing to go the extra mile to help get Labat off her trail.  Where the movie stumbles, however, is the ending.  By the time it comes along it is obvious that the person behind the killings has to be one of two people, and the reveal is just a bit too much camp for what came before it.  I mention in my review of Pearl how I like understated villains, and the one in MaXXXine is anything but. 

While there may be room for more entries in the story, particularly Howard and Pearl later in life or what happens with Maxine down the road, I believe that West's decision to end it here is probably for the best.  The ending shows that quite possibly he and Goth were running out of ideas on what to do and just came up with something wild that may have been a better fit for a different movie.  It's not a complete disappointment, and this is still a strong horror film, but it is still time to back away.

MaXXXine (2024)
Time: 103 minutes
Starring: Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debecki, Kevin Bacon
Director: Ti West

 

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