'Maxxxine' Review: Ti West's Trilogy Concludes With a Mixed Bag of Tricks
Maxine Minx returns and she's ready to show you won't she "won't accept I life I don't deserve"
Ti West just gets me. Whether it’s in the moody atmosphere of his 2009 film House of the Devil or the true to events recounting of the Guyana massacre in 2013’s The Sacrament, I know if West has a film out, I’m in. And that continued with his 2022 feature X, a gritty tribute to the 1970s horror scene that gave audiences their first introduction to determined porn star Maxine Minx (Mia Goth). The film’s sequel/prequel, Pearl, didn’t hit me as hard in spite of fantastic production values and a relentless performance by Goth, but the ship rights itself and speeds into the harbor with Maxxxine.
If X was a tribute to movies of the 1970s and Pearl the 1940s then Maxxxine goes for pure ‘80s grindhouse in the vein of films like Angel. Cinematographer Eliot Rockett perfectly captures the blend of glitz and dirt that, at least to those watching it through movies, believe Los Angeles looked like in the era of the Night Stalker. Multiple scenes of Hollywood Boulevard depict a fantasmagoria of sidewalk Charlie Chaplins and Buster Keatons, coupled with open sex work on the street, peep shows, and the chronic fear that death is just around the corner. That all comes colliding together in a breathtakingly haunting scene wherein Maxine is threatened by the weirdest person you’d expect, culminating in some bloody good ultraviolence.
We reunite with Goth’s Maxine as she’s making her way in Hollywood, auditioning for a role in the slasher feature The Puritan 2, set to be directed by Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki in her John Ford era). Maxine is less interested in going the route of porn star turned actress Marilyn Chambers and more the traditional feature film route of Brooke Shields. One of many interesting threads the script tries to bring up is how women being nude in certain films dictated their career trajectory. Maxine gets the role and thus begins a journey that sees her balancing potential stardom with the realization that the past events of X are coming back to haunt her with the arrival of a private detective named John Labat (Kevin Bacon, oozing sleaze).
What makes Maxxxine work so well is how West captures time and place. The film is a horror movie, to be sure, especially as Maxine has to contend with a stalker of her own and the very real-life serial killer the Night Stalker terrorizing Los Angeles at the time. The two killers don’t dovetail as cleanly as they could have — and the third act gets a bit kooky in a reveal that isn’t given nearly enough weight earlier in the narrative — but by that time the audience is just dazzled by Los Angeles at this time. Whether it’s Maxine wandering around the Universal backlot, being given a horror history lesson by Debicki’s Liz Bender, or her walking up the Boulevard to her friend-zoned buddy Leon’s (Moses Sumney) video store, every frame of the film is fascinating to explore.
And like any good ‘80s thriller the plot is kind of a hodgepodge. The emphasis on Hollywood and its exploitation of women is fascinating, particularly in how each of the women drawn into its orbit reacts to possibly having a life-altering interaction. Both Halsey (making her acting debut) and Lily Collins are given fun moments to shine during this plot point, though it’s frustrating that Halsey, in particular, as one of Maxine’s peep show friends doesn’t have more screentime. But things come alive every time Maxine is in the studio, particularly interacting with Debicki’s Elizabeth. The two present cold exteriors but understand the judgement they’re receiving in the cinematic world — Maxine as a porn star trying to turn legit and Elizabeth as a female filmmaker trying to make her bones in movies.
As all this is happening bodies start to hit the floor, many of them connected to Maxine herself. Michelle Monaghan and Bobby Cannavale are fun as the two cops that, if you’ve seen any ‘80s movie, are chronically three steps behind. Cannavale might also have one of my favorite one-liners of 2024. But the script seems to have trouble unifying Maxine’s troubles with that of the Night Stalker and, again, it’d have probably been far easier to streamline them. It leaves actors like Kevin Bacon there for a few fun scenes — including a memorable one themed to the song from St. Elmo’s Fire which, who had that having such a huge impact in 2024? — and that’s it.
It’s probably because third act sees West fall back on a familiar trope of his. West enjoys cults and cabals which were prevalent in the 1980s but there’s not enough background presented early in the story to make it make sense. A third act character reveal slams us right into the third act. And while the movie returns to watch works — the movie within the movie — it leaves the ending a sticky, bloody mess that dulls the overall impact of the finale.
That being said, it’s been a minute since I’ve had such a fun time at the movies. Maxxxine is a movie built for a wide audience to sit down and just scream at the head bursting, neck slicing goodness on the screen. The plot machinations can be waved away with “that’s how a film would have done it in the ‘80s” and it never diminishes the fun of the movie, just whether it’s a perfect film or not. Either way, Maxine may not accept a life she doesn’t deserve, but this is definitely one you deserve to watch.
Maxxxine is in theaters July 3.