Pearl‘s story is done…but her legacy lives on, in Maxine Minx. Ti West and Mia Goth finish their epic slasher trilogy with MaXXXine. The setting, stakes, and conclusion have never been on a bigger stage, as we’ve finally reached the place where dreams come true: Los Angeles California.
Except it generally hasn’t been coming true in 1985 for Maxine Minx (Mia Goth). She’s working really hard in the porn industry and at a video store, but just can’t seem to jump into movie stardom. She finally gets her big break from Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki), the director of B-movie horror sensation The Puritan, taking a chance on Maxine in the sequel. While Minx is thrilled for her big chance, she’s also got a lot going on: a weird guy (Kevin Bacon) has been leaving pieces of Maxine’s past life on her doorstep. And even more scary, the Night Stalker, a serial killer preying on isolated women, has picked up his murders, bringing unwanted attention to our heroine from detectives Williams (Michelle Monaghan) and Torres (Bobby Cannavale).
The best parts of MaXXXine revolve around the movie’s love letter to slasher films. With the LA setting, Ti West frames the film more as a movie within a movie, as most of the big sequences are on movie sets or in famous parts of Los Angeles. Everyone feels like they’re playing dual roles: who they want to be, and who they really are. As such, the beats of a slasher film are constantly being commented upon by the characters inside of it. Because everyone is hyper aware of what’s going on, you’re getting a better class of character than you would in a ho hum slasher film, while still getting to live out the beats of a good one with the Night Stalker’s killing spree. The best sequence is probably the hyper self aware chase through a film lot, with Maxine literally running through her horror history while being the latest part of it. And at the center of all of this action is Goth, one of our great modern horror actresses. At this point, she gets the generational arc of Maxine, and is ready to unleash all her talents in service of this final tale in her trilogy. It’s a great performance, elevated to fit the bigger scope of the film she’s in.
While Goth thrives, it’s West who can’t quite get to her excellence. The director can feel the pressure of A24 to really deliver on this surprise franchise for the studio. He has two choices: stay true to the essence of Maxine/Pearl’s tale, or give us a grand spectacle to satisfy the most people. All the ingredients are there for him to go either direction. West chooses the latter, giving Maxine a big, epic ending. Despite some solid acting and really fun sequences during this section, this part of the film stands in stark contrast to X‘s humble beginnings, and undercutting some of the key messages and themes those movies had about fame, the American Dream, and generational misunderstandings. As a standalone slasher, MaXXXine would have been a helluva fun time. But as a piece of a bigger story? It entirely misses the point, no matter how Goth tries to make it work.
At least Ti West really nails the people from LA. You’re never talking to the real person: you’re talking to a dreamer, who has ideas of their life that usually doesn’t fit into the work they’re doing right now. I would have preferred one or two condescending up & down’s, where a nice Midwest person said hello to someone, who ocularly patted them down and decided they were not “good enough” for them. Not that I’m bitter about this at all, right?