As individuals, horror fans can sometimes be hard to please, and I am no exception. This is because the genre can encompass so many styles and ideas that it would be impossible for everyone to like everything. For example, I was no fan of Talk To Me, A24’s horror titan from last summer, but I know I’m definitely in the minority there, and I’m glad many others could enjoy something I couldn’t. I can now say writer/director Ti West’s decade-spanning Americana trilogy has been exactly my cup of tea the whole way through, even if many of its more nuanced ideas have only bubbled to the top of my mind after some processing and repeat viewings. I personally love all three films fairly equally, but MaXXXine may prove to be the the most divisive of the bunch among horror fans and general audiences alike. As Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) might say, that’s just showbiz!
2022’s X and Pearl were examples of West doing what he does best: fun-as-all-hell period pieces with just the right amount of substance. They can be watched as pure popcorn fare or as thoughtful meditations on generational cultural divides throughout American history. MaXXXine covers a lot of the same thematic territory, but what may trip audiences up is its dedication to many of the trappings of a 1980s slasher flick. This is nothing new for the trilogy, of course, as Pearl photographed its version of the 1910s in a dazzling technicolor homage while X reflected the grit of the 70s. However, this night-drenched vision of Los Angeles is easily the goriest of the three films, and while I had a blast with how those moments were created, staged, and edited, I could easily see others finding them superfluous, especially considering how thin the story might seem on the surface compared to its predecessors.
I think I can diagnose where that difference stems from. Maxine as written doesn’t give Goth nearly as many opportunities for sheer bravado acting as she had as the title character in Pearl. The film begins, however, with an audition monologue which porn-star-turned-scream-queen Maxine knocks out of the park. It’s a brilliant cold open, and it ends with a well-timed joke which sets in motion the film’s themes around misogyny. As we continue on, Maxine doesn’t get nearly the development that Pearl got, and that’s a crucial point of distinction. Though we met her in X and we know a bit about her through that film, there’s a level West and Goth don’t approach here, even though the film’s final reveal directly implicates her development. I personally was not bothered by this because I was comfortable with the film more simply being the homage it wants to be, but I can imagine that, for some, West may have set impossibly high standards for himself, especially with Pearl. I see these films as a kind of thematic cycle, and so I wasn’t looking for MaXXXine to be the same kind of film as either of its compatriots. In my view, these films follow American culture as it ebbs and flows around the topics of sex and violence, and their stylistic dissimilarities present fresh kinds of homage, exegesis, and deconstruction.
In terms of the overall relationship between plot and theme, MaXXXine is tough to talk about without giving away its biggest surprise, so I won’t. Instead, I’ll praise a few series newcomers as a way of relaying more of the plot. Kevin Bacon is just delightful as John Labat, a private eye trying to piece together the wreckage of what happened at the end of X. West also edited the film, and he deploys Bacon’s humor perfectly, as well as that of Michelle Monaghan and Bobby Cannavale as a pair of odd-couple police detectives. Elizabeth Debicki is a fantastic addition as Elizabeth Bender, Maxine’s director for the horror film she’s so eager to book. Debicki’s striking features (highlighted by the outstanding costume design by Mari-An Ceo) help make a great dramatic foil for the equally striking Goth. As Goth plays harried and Debicki plays cool, calm, and collected, each actor gives their character just enough inner life for their mentor-mentee relationship to be truly fascinating.
As we dive further down the rabbit hole of Night Stalker references, lush cinematography by Eliot Rockett, and a killer soundtrack (no pun intended), MaXXXine becomes more than the sum of its considerable parts, just as X and Pearl did. Only time will tell if it continues to percolate in a favorable direction, but right now (at least before the highly-anticipated Longlegs), it’s the horror song of the summer. | George Napper
