OFFICIAL SYNOPSIS
In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx finally gets her big break. But as a mysterious killer stalks the starlets of Hollywood, a trail of blood threatens to reveal her sinister past. The murderous finale of Ti West’s X trilogy (X, Pearl) also features a star-studded ensemble including Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Halsey, Lily Collins, with Giancarlo Esposito and Kevin Bacon.
What We Thought:
If MaXXXine had been the first film in the Ti West/Mia Goth trilogy I might have liked it more. It’s not bad, but X is the better movie and Pearl has the better Mia Goth performance. I can’t say I was let down by the third film because overall it is something up my alley, but it’s definitely the weakest of the three.
The clothing, setting, aesthetics are all what I expect in a throwback to 80s slashers flicks, but it feels more like an homage than properly set in the 1980s. It’s what we think the 80s were like and not what we actually remember. It’s a current interpretation of the 1980s, not a movie from the 1980s. Goth plays a porn actress trying to go legit and gets hired for a horror film. That’s very 1980s. Add in the cocaine and music and normally I’m 100% down for it, but it doesn’t seem to stick to one specific year.
The biggest issue with the film is the third act. While we watch Goth’s character try to go legit, Los Angeles is being hit with murder after murder. Her past (it’s the same character she plays in X) is brought up and there seems to be too much going on outside of the movie within the movie world. The third act explains why the murders are happening and it seems pretty weak especially because we’ve seen it done before involving the wild times of that decade.
You don’t have to see the first two films to watch MaXXXine, but I’d say watch X first. There are enough flashbacks to what happened to Goth’s character in the first film, but I think seeing X first is the way to go. Plus it’s the best of the trilogy. Maybe expectations were too high after getting X and Pearl in the same year and waiting on this one, but the third film just isn’t as good. It’s watchable and I’m glad the trilogy exists, but I wanted more from it not just another Satanic Panic type of film. Goth showed incredible range in Pearl and she’s solid here, but the film just doesn’t hit the heights of its predecessors. If you’ve seen the first two films you should still watch it though even if it’s just not as good.
The Nerds Templar 