MaXXXine (dir. Ti West)
By: Adam Freed
The dark shadows of Hollywood’s Sunset Strip provide an immersive backdrop for MaXXXine, the 1985 set final film of writer and director Ti West’s X horror trilogy. The seedy stretch of Los Angeles acts as the hunting ground of the “NightStalker,” the true-to-life serial killer, who casts a large shadow over the film’s nefarious ongoings. Particularly influenced by the looming threat of death is title heroine Maxine Minx, an adult film star with big Hollywood dreams, played to flawed excellence by Mia Goth. Goth, who played two different characters across the trilogy, now commits to weaving the final chapter in Maxine’s tumultuous story. A stylish and sinister cultural cocktail of synth pop music, Z. Cavaricci jeans and cocaine fuel West’s final agonizing foray into the world of sex drugs and carnage.
Sticky strip club floors, putrid porn sets and back alleys ripe with mayhem layer nicely with a devilish cast of ne’er do well characters lead by Minx herself. It is clearly never West’s intent to create a screen idol in Maxine, rather to plant a protagonist whose flaws make her one with the depraved world in which she lives, rather than observationally hovering above it. To this end Mia Goth’s portrayal of the small town porn icon is captivating, and most notably when audiences are permitted to witness her first big screen acting audition, in which Goth, through Minx, lets loose a memorable demonstration of emotional range. This scene, shot on the Universal Studios backlot, provides a layer of complexity and talent to Maxine’s character previously untapped within the saga.
Where MaXXXine runs astray is how obsessively the film works to capture the essence of era specific “b horror” films and how it sadly allows itself to morph into one. The cinematic visual aesthetic is designed to look like it was shot on 35mm, a crafty period specific decision from West that improves the film’s ambiance. The script however needed to hold itself to a far more contemporary standard. The goodwill earned in the previous two installments X (2022) and Pearl (2022) needed to be rewarded with a story of layered complexity rather than a so-so payoff of mild convenience and massive contrivance. As much time as the titular Maxine spends entertainingly escaping her own demise in the film’s first two acts, she cannot outrun a plot that ultimately undermines the building momentum in its disappointing third act.
MaXXXine is enjoyable in the same way that witnessing a drunken street fight between mutually deplorable individuals may be. While alarms of morality are likely at full throat, it feels impossible to remove one’s gaze until a resolution presents itself. The culminating installment of the Maxine Minx saga will not provide any clarity to the X vs. Pearl debate over superiority, however it does make clear that MaXXXine is certainly not a threat to replace either of its predecessors as being considered the trilogy’s best.
Target Score: 6/10 For all of its surface glitz and grime, MaXXXine amounts to a high profile B rate genre film. At its apex, the film is entertainingly carried by its star, but this small handful of moments cannot hide a shockingly underwritten story. While the nostalgic needle drops and creative costumes are winners, Ti West’s X finale fails to live up to its well earned hype.