Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) has desired the spotlight since she was a little girl, and now it’s finally time for her starring role. The capper to director Ti West’s horror trilogy, Maxxxine is a subversive chiller with fame, sex, and excess on its mind. The film stars Goth in the title role, reprising her character from X (2022) as the starlet looks to make the critical leap from pornographic infamy to Hollywood stardom. Given the stigma against her previous profession, and some handy bits of Hollywood trivia, Maxine figures horror is her best bet to transition to “real movies,” as she lines herself up for the starring role in the aptly titled Puritan II. But just as Maxine looks to be on the cusp of her dreams, her old life, in conjunction with a new string of murders, seems poised to ruin the festivities.
West’s trilogy has featured some of the best horror films of the last few years, each choosing to highlight and analyze different aspects of pop culture and entertainment structures. X raised questions about the artistic merit of adult entertainment, along with how the elderly and their self-esteem fit into a society so heavily obsessed with young people having sex. Pearl (2022) took the starry-eyed wish fulfillment out of the American dream, analyzing the allure of fame while showcasing a woman with too much damage and emotional baggage to achieve her lofty goals. Maxxxine, however, has a narrative that’s a little messier than its predecessors. Oh, there’s plenty of themes and ideas present here; the issue is whether these combine to become something worthwhile.
The setting of the movie is 1985 Los Angeles, perhaps the most 80s movie setting you could stumble upon, and ripe for a multitude of talking points about what life was like at this moment. The movie chooses to center the 1980s rise of satanic worship as its central focus – including headlines about the real-life LA Night Stalker. Yet, unlike Pearl & X – whose ideas were carefully woven into the story in narratively satisfying ways, Maxxxine feels disjointed, struggling to make its parts form a greater sum. There’s a wonderful montage near the start of the film that sets the table for the sinister energy bubbling under the surface of Los Angeles. But this is a fleeting feeling, the movie unable to fully capture and dramatize the fervent and dangerous tone of the era.
This is partly because, for a movie that has somewhat sold itself as a slasher flick in a slasher trilogy, it kind of sucks as a slasher. For starters, perhaps the biggest kill in the movie is completely nonsensical – a character has the back of their neck slit open, which somehow translates to their face being covered in blood in the next shot – don’t ask me how that happened. The scene continues in very bland fashion, featuring some of the worst shots in the movie. Multiple characters are either captured or murdered off-screen – in fact, too much of the action in general happens off-screen. To make nothing of the film’s other bizarre editing choices, which makes the movie seem like it was a nightmare in post-production. I wonder how much 2023’s Hollywood strike impacted production.
The history of Satanism rising in popularity is a pretty significant chapter in Western pop culture history, but Maxxxine doesn’t make it feel big. We’re not expecting a documentary of the Manson family here, but on paper, this plot seems more sinister than it is in action. The troubling part is that LA’s seedy history and carnivorous population is such a major motivation to the actions in the movie’s finale, which compounds the issue that this aspect of the story isn’t fully fleshed out. Instead, the film ventures into indulgent side quests that seem very material to the plot, but do more to add fat than anything else. I enjoy Kevin Bacon, I think he’s usually a fun screen presence to be around… I don’t think he needed to be in this movie at all.
Bacon plays a private investigator on Maxine’s trail for her past misdeeds, but their section of the film and personal rivalry is so nasty and crude, as opposed to putting Maxine in predicaments that will be suspenseful to see her get out of. You get the sense that West is partially inspired by exploitation films here, with Maxine and Bacon’s character forming a hyper violent relationship where the “hellos” and pleasantries are replaced with profanity. We understand its purpose in the plot, especially as some things are revealed later, but it is not a fun rivalry to watch and goes on way too long. I think I was about done when Bacon’s character chased Maxine around a studio lot in a manner that’s just begging for the Benny Hill theme song to cue.
It’s in this section that the movie doesn’t feel like a slasher or even a horror flick, but more like a crime thriller… but not a very interesting one. All peppered with over the top, try-hard vulgarity. By the time the two characters reach an impasse, and all Bacon’s character can muster to say is a gruititous “Fuck you, bitch!” You get the sense that the characters are feeling much too one note. The previous two entries featured characters that were opinionated and flawed, but their actions never seemed mean-spirited for the hell of it, their actions had motivations. Pearl in particular is a character of complex trauma and perspective. Maxxxine often struggles to depict similar complexity.
It’s clear from the outset that Maxine is somewhat self-conscious about her work in pornography, a feeling that is briefly glimpsed in a strong opening where the title character aces a movie audition. Later, when someone starts sending tapes to Maxine of her past work, her complicated emotions start to resemble shame. But Maxxxine doesn’t say much else about what the character does emotionally to adjust to a world that judges her so mercilessly. Other than that giant, piggy bank sized jar of cocaine (which she doesn’t share with anyone – rude). It often seems the character’s only response is violence – which is to be expected in a slasher movie, but in moderation. Maxxxine turns the heroine into a killing machine – some of the most brutal kills in the movie are of her doing. But there’s a level of vulnerability missing from a protagonist of this nature. If you make the character too powerful and badass, when can we as the audience be expected to fear for her safety or feel the suspense of impending death?
Where’s the Maxine that would take time to swim in the lake, putting her life on brief hold as she slowly floats into the belly of the beast? She shouldn’t be the exact same person we found in X – sequels should feature hardened characters who have grown from the harrowing experiences of the past. But you overdo it when it begins to feel like the villains can’t keep pace with the hero’s new power-up. The film’s screenplay is somewhat aware of this, as Elizabeth Debicki portrays an experienced film director who describes Maxine (in a roundabout meta way) as a Clint Eastwood-like avenger, giving key advice on how Maxine should handle her career and respond to backlash. I feel that Debicki killed in this role, one of the best performances of the movie, and I would have liked to see her and Bacon swap their respective screen times, because boy is their too much of the latter.
I left Maxxxine, not necessarily upset with what I just watched. The film still feels kin with the previous entries, which includes West and Eliot Rockett’s eyes for good cinematography, a well-fitting score, and multiple memorable moments. Yet, the production value can’t make up for a script that seems like it can’t pay off all that has been built up throughout this trilogy. And no, I’m talking about the inevitable confrontation Maxine must engage with when her past won’t go away – that destination feels earned and even somewhat expected. It’s more about why the movie doesn’t do anything novel with its thematic elements. Even the aforementioned confrontation ends up boiling the plot down to a simple morality test as Los Angeles’ moral depravity is put under scrutiny. But the way this transpires is hardly engaging or thought-provoking, simply a cliché of how urban decay is harshly judged.
There’s a better movie in there somewhere, one that has more thoughts on the relationship between Los Angeles, Satanism, and the uglier elements of life in Hollywood. There’s a moment where a casting director asks Maxine to show her breasts, an ironic joke that highlights how Hollywood sells sex, even if they act repulsed at Maxine’s history. But as it sits, Maxxxine feels less like a grand finale that sums up the trilogy’s many observations and more like an additional chapter to more worthwhile tales. Enjoyment was still had, blood still shed, and Maxine Minx is more firmly established as a memorable character with an intriguing, polarizing personality. I guess that’s what makes her a star, and stars aren’t always in great movies.
