What’s this? I didn’t go see Twisters, the years-later sequel to a 90s-era disaster movie that I didn’t really care for much when I finally saw it? Well, no. I was always planning to see MaXXXine after watching the previous two parts to writer/director Ti West’s X-trilogy, namely X and Pearl. X, of course, was a 70s-era exploitation slasher style of movie while Pearl looked like an MGM musical with the occasional violent death. With MaXXXine set in the 80s, I was genuinely curious to see how West would adapt his character and style to that decade’s style of horror movie. Additionally, I decided to do something I hadn’t done in a while: order my ticket in advance rather than wait for the day of and see if I actually felt like going out.
That just means I am seeing Twisters tomorrow.
The year is 1985, and Maxine Minx, formerly Maxine Miller, is a successful porn star looking to get work in a more mainstream acting role. She auditions for a horror movie directed by artistically-minded Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki) and manages to land the lead role because, as this trilogy has made clear, Maxine has an “it” factor that could lead her to great fame and success. However, the Night Stalker is running around Los Angeles, and things get worse when two of Maxine’s friends turn up dead with a pentagram branded into their corpses. Two homicide detectives (Michelle Monaghan and Bobby Cannavale) have some questions, but Maxine won’t talk to cops after the events of X.
But Maxine’s past seems to be coming back to haunt her as she starts flashing back to the events of the earlier movie and even seeing the late Pearl in places. There’s also sketchy Cajun PI John Labat (Kevin Bacon), stalking Maxine for an unnamed client while threatening her if she doesn’t follow his client’s directions. The thing is, Maxine wants the fame and success of being a successful actress, and she proved to herself and the audience that she will not let anything get in her way, even serial killers. Will this one be the exception?
I went into MaXXXine anticipating how West would adapt his style to the 80s aesthetic. The good news there is he pulled it off again. Goth puts in another good performance, and despite the fact that this is a movie about a porn actress, Goth’s only on-camera nudity is a flashback to X. Goth carries the movie here as West once again takes a style or genre of the past, in this case the 80s thriller, and uses it to examine the idea of fame, the artificiality of the movies, and how far some people will go to achieve their dreams. I would actually rank this one as the least of the trilogy, and it is certainly the most dependent on another movie from the trilogy to tell its story, but it was still a good horror/thriller sort of movie.
It helps that Goth is surrounded by some actors putting in some good work of their own. Debicki’s ice queen director who just wants to make art out of a sequel to a slasher movie, as well as Giancarlo Esposito as Maxine’s surprisingly ruthless agent, both offer good supporting roles to Goth, while Cannavale, as a frustrated actor turned homicide cop, brings in some good comic relief. But Bacon really steals the show with a scenery-chewing performance that almost seems like he came in from a different movie. Sure, he’s menacing, but he doesn’t seem like he’s a real match for Maxine when push comes to shove, and he just doesn’t seem to realize that. As a stand-alone horror movie, I wouldn’t recommend MaXXXine even as the other two movies do stand on their own, but as a capper to a rather fun trilogy, I think West and Goth made a respectable finale here.
Grade: B-
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