MaXXXine
Mia Goth and Ti West team up a third time in their X series of slasher pics, this time with a sleazy nostalgic glow for the hardcore horror habitué.
Titillation in Tinseltown: Mia Goth
Image courtesy of Universal Pictures.
MaXXXine opens with the Bette Davis quote, “In this business, until you’re known as a monster, you’re not a star.” It ends with Kim Carnes’ 1981 hit ‘Bette Davis Eyes.’ The film is infused with Hollywood lore, from its iconic locations to a smattering of well-known actors in flashy cameos. The film’s director Ti West – and its writer, producer and editor, for that matter – has a knack for making the most of his limited resources and at times MaXXXine feels like a massive in-joke stretched to breaking point. Even its glitterati seem to come with their own stellar connections: i.e. the participation of the partners of Shia LaBeouf, Rose Byrne and Kyra Sedgwick – and the daughter of Phil Collins. In short, Mia Goth, Bobby Cannavale, Kevin Bacon and Lily Collins.
Mia Goth plays Maxine Minx, a porn star who would like to think she has the ‘X factor’ to break into mainstream Hollywood. Or will she just stay stuck in the underbelly of X-rated eXploitation? Set in 1985, the movie has an air of Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood about it, albeit without Quentin Tarantino’s consummate flair. This feels more like Once Upon a Time… on Figueroa Street. Ti West’s MaXXXine, the movie, is also a sequel to Pearl, in which Goth played an unhinged young woman seeking stardom to escape the drudgery of Texan farm life. The latter was set in 1918, while the first in Ti West’s X trilogy, X (2022), was set in 1979 and starred Goth as Maxine on the cusp of her career in adult cinema.
Should MaXXXine prove to be a box-office hit, no doubt West and Goth could extend the franchise to cover Maxine’s porno years, prior to the sleaze of the neon underworld revealed here. Ti West himself is merely 43-years-old but seems transfiXXXed by the yesteryear of Hollywood, particularly its poor relations, the slasher pic and the sexploitationer. Early on, Maxine asks her friend Leon (Moses Sumney) to name five stars who got their start in horror. He cites Jamie Lee Curtis, John Travolta, Demi Moore, Brooke Shields… and before he can finish, she cuts in with Maxine F***ing Minx! Maybe he was about to say Kevin Bacon (husband of Kyra Sedgwick, co-star of Friday the 13th) who crops up here as a sleazy PI spilling clichés like cigarette ash (“easy Tiger, don’t go shooting the messenger!”). But Maxine has landed her first legitimate movie herself, a horror flick called The Puritan II, to be directed by one Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki, borrowing Princess Di’s accent from The Crown). To frame all this are the grisly murders of the media-dubbed ‘Night Stalker’, who singles out women of ill-repute previously associated with Maxine and whom he brands with the sign of the Devil before gutting and beheading them.
This is intentionally sordid stuff and to guarantee his 18 certificate, Ti West has thrown in scenes of pole dancing, coke snorting and genital mutilation. The fun part is the actual locations of classic movies, including Back to the Future, De Palma’s Body Double and Psycho (at one point, Maxine hides out in the house behind the Bates Motel). Take your pick. But if this is affectionate homage – West shot his movie on Super 16mm to reflect the jaundiced complexion of the video nasty – it feels closer to a love-hate relationship. A certain breed of movie buff skewered to a particular male gaze might get some pleasure from Ti West’s incestual take on the industry. However, the director’s own B-movie design is far too close to the real thing to transcend its circumscribed appeal.
JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
Cast: Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Halsey, Lily Collins, Simon Prast, Sophie Thatcher, Uli Latukefu, Giancarlo Esposito, Kevin Bacon.
Dir Ti West, Pro Jacob Jaffke, Ti West, Kevin Turen, Harrison Kreiss and Mia Goth, Screenplay Ti West, Ph Eliot Rockett, Pro Des Jason Kisvarday, Ed Ti West, Music Tyler Bates, Costumes Mari-An Ceo, Sound Karen Baker Landers, Peter Staubli and Jon Title.
Motel Mojave/Access Entertainment-Universal Pictures.
104 mins. USA. 2024. UK and US Rel: 5 July 2024. Cert. 18.
