Ti West and Mia Goth continue to raise the bar for horror over and over again. This Tuesday I finally went to go see the highly anticipated summer slasher MaXXXine and I was just about as pleased as the men inside the “Show Room.” The film opens on a home tape of a young Maxine dancing like Pearl from the second film in the X trilogy as her and her father say the infamous words, “I will not accept a life you do not deserve!” Right off the bat we know we are in for a devilish treat following present day Maxine to her audition for “Puritan II”, which will be a staple of the plot, in 1985. What I loved so much about Maxine’s audition, other than its parallels to Pearl, was Maxine’s arc from the first film to now. Something that tends to get lost in franchises, especially horror, is the final girl’s integrity. From the very first film we are made aware that Maxine’s one and only true desire is to be a star and she will stop at nothing to achieve that feat, and in her audition we see just that; though her tears may be genuine it is clear that she is a performer and deserves her flowers. I audibly gasped at the title card of the film being Maxine’s license plate. I love when a film integrates the credits in a practical way and though this has been done before it just felt so exciting in lieu of all the classic text we’ve seen in recent films. The film takes place in 1985 and so did the carnage. I admired the cheesy slasher scenes and obvious gaudy gore because it made the intentions of the film that much more obvious. With that being said I found the nudity tasteful, granted Maxine got her start in porn, the nudity never felt excessive or cheap. Oftentimes horror is used as a medium to display male fantasies of the female body, but something Ti West did across the board was make clear that nude and or sex scenes moved the plot along, unlike some creatives.
Having just watched High Fidelity I loved the reference to the film when Maxine meets Leon (Moses Sumney) in the video store to announce her big news asking what five stars got their start in porn? Nostalgia, admiration, and allusions are found throughout the entirety of the film, it was fun to pick them out like easter eggs in Pixar films. The overall who-dun-it plot was highly engaging, fast-paced, and most importantly fun! Each character was so brilliant, Kevin Bacon was unrecognizable to me at first; his walk, his swagger, his insane southern drawl and white suit were fantastic. I wish Halsey had more screen time but those five minutes were wonderful, aside from the poor diction in her exchange with Goth as they’re walking through the streets. I found a few moments in the first act of the film where I was wishing subtitles were an option on the big screen; It was just hard to hear as the two of them talked through their teeth. I was genuinely upset when I saw her cold corpse on screen. Lily James played Molly Bennet, a near long lost sister from "Pride & Prejudice", with a spotty Northern Yorkshire accent. Giancarlo Esposito plays the perfect Hollywood agent, grimey and gritty and full of surprises. Sophie Thatcher was another standout for me, maybe it’s because she is so alluring, but I really enjoyed her character’s brief moments. I have been a fan of Moses Sumney since the idol, and he did not disappoint. At first, I won’t lie, I was confused at the casting because it was so all over the place in terms of drama actors, musicians, and trailblazers, but wow Jessica Kelly did a brilliant job and the array of performers adde another level to the mixed-bag that is "La La Land." It is very hard to compete at Mia Goth’s level of devotion and raw talent in any film, but Kevin Bacon was toe to toe with her the whole time until his crushing death. I absolutely loved the limited screen time for these seasoned actors because it referenced the limited and uncertain nature of Hollywood stardom and fame.
Maxine is struggling with her past, more specifically with Pearl, as well as the death of her new friends. While balancing her new career, a Private Investigator, blasts from her past, homicide detectives and that yellow-blond hair, Maxine has a lot on her plate. It seems like everything around her is trying to detour her from stardom, except the very person we are trying to uncover in leather gloves. So let’s talk about the third act. As I said previously, this is a who-dun-it kind of slasher. Unlike the Scream franchise, our killer was not one of our friends on screen and I knew from the first murder that it would be Maxine’s father. I was very worried that the film would end up revealing Maxine’s father to be the killer, trying to make a spectacle of her past and religious background… but Ti West is way smarter than that. Simon Prast as Ernest Miller was unstoppable in the third act of this film, the declaration of his motives was surprising and quite frankly funny. Ernest explains that his motivation for killing all of Maxine’s peers was not out of spite, rather he was simply doing what he’s always promised- not allowing Maxine to accept a life she didn’t deserve. He made an entire pageant of her friends’ deaths, and nearly her own, in order to make her a grander star then she could’ve ever imagined. The apple didn’t fall too far from the tree, clearly these two need some therapy to work out their out-of-pocket approaches to family bonding. “Failing a child is the greatest sin of all” was one of my favorite lines in the film because of the weight it carried, not only for Maxine but the audience as well. I mean what’s scarier than a self-serving Christian? Maxine and her father, in his final moments, say together one last time, “I will not accept a life I do not deserve” after a frantic chase up to the Hollywood sign. Then she blows his brains out, what a way to go. Religion and horror go hand in hand, and a lot of the time these films are cascaded with crucifixes and cliches, but Ti West and Mia Goth just continue to elevate the expectations of audiences with these movies. The film ends with Maxine on set of her next film dressed up like Brie Larson in Lessons with Chemistry; she has made it, she’s a star, what’s next for her and her career who knows and she never wants it to end- but it does. The credits roll and we are left with a fan-f*cking-tastic, ball smashing summer slashing hit. This movie was fun, exciting, colorful, nostalgic, and a nod to classic Hollywood cinema. Religious horror doesn’t always have to be gray and grueling, and once again Ti West proves this theory. I rate Maxxxine 4.5 olives and encourage you to go see it before it's too late, by that I mean once it's hit streaming. Cin Cin!
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