‘Maxxxine’ Accepts a Life It Doesn’t Deserve
Fun trash horror movies still need to adhere to some level of character coherence.
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I know you’re not supposed to conflate an actor with their performance, but I am damned terrified of Mia Goth1. Maybe it’s the eyebrows, or the fact that she always portrays extremely creepy people, but if I saw Mia Goth walking down the street I would flee2. And I’m pretty sure the next day I’d be reading about a city block turned to ash3.
It’s one reason I really enjoyed X, the first film in Ti West’s film series of the same name. Goth really brought a feral energy4 to Maxine Minx, the aspiring porn star whose grim determination to be the Final Girl of the film no matter the cost was exciting to watch5. I wasn’t as enthralled with Pearl, the second film that flashed back to the origins of Goth’s other character in the first film, the murderous old lady who covets Maxine’s youthful flesh, but that’s in part because Pearl was an origin story, which is always a tough sell, and in part because it wasn’t about Maxine Minx, a girl who will eat your heart if she thought it would give her an advantage6.
Maxxxine is West’s third entry in his series. Set about six years after X, it finds Maxine something of a success out in Los Angeles7: She’s what looks like the hardest working sex worker in the world, and at the very beginning of the film she nails a big audition and wins a part in a relatively high-profile (and non-porn) horror movie8. She appears as determined as ever—but she’s soon haunted by her past, tracked by a greasy private detective named John Labat (Kevin Bacon, turning the dial to maximum cheese9) while several of her friends are kidnapped, tortured, and brutally murdered in ways that implicate the real-life Night Stalker.
The setup makes sense: Alpha predator Maxine is within sniffing distance of fame, and forces are arrayed against her. Unleash hell, Maxine! Except, you start to realize that this isn’t the Maxine Minx we once knew and feared. It’s just some Final Girl who looks like Maxine.
So Said Every Dead Girl In Hollywood
Characters are slippery, sometimes, and they can be shaped by the needs of your narrative. X was a grimy 1970s-inspired slasher flick, and Maxine Minx emerged out of its swampy mix as a blank-faced anitheroine whose sole recommendation was her determination to win at all costs10. While Ti West should be commended for keeping things fresh, shifting the tone and visual references to the flat videotape aesthetics of the 1980s forces changes on the character that diminish her. The Maxine of Maxxxine has some moments of primitive predatory greatness, but she also spends a lot of the film reacting, retreating, and even freaking out.
This results in some dissonance. On the one hand, Maxine appears meek and submissive when dealing with people she should be kicking in the crotch—pretentious filmmaker Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki) gives her droning instruction on how to be a minimally acceptable actor on her set, and Maxine just nods and quietly promises to do better11, and when Labat flashes a gun and pursues her on the studio backlots Maxine runs and hides like any Final Girl. This isn’t the character we met in X, this is just some generic horror plotting.
On the other hand, Maxine engineers Labat’s hideous death and watches him be crushed to death with the expected blank-faced lack of emotion, and mutilates a would-be assaulter earlier in the film with vicious, deserved cruelty (though to be fair, she has to outsource Labat’s death to her agent-cum-attorney, Teddy Night (Giancarlo Esposito12)). None of it makes sense, from a character point of view. Is she a cold-hearted sociopath determined to be a star, or is she a normie who runs in terror from threats? Yes!
Whole World's Gonna Know My Name
Maxxxine has its charms. The opening sequence where Maxine auditions for the film role is captivating, and there are flashes of fun stuff here and there. Ultimately the film is swallowed by shallow references—how many times do we need to see a story set on a studio lot where people wander through sets referencing the dividing line between what’s real and what’s fantasy, and does the Bates Motel add anything to the story aside from a ‘Leo DiCaprio Pointing at a Reference He Understands’ moment?
Probably not. But no one came for the intricate plotting or a resolution to the mystery of Maxine’s past as the daughter of a fire-and-brimstone preacher. We came for Maxine herself, to see what this animal in a human skin would do to survive this time13. And we got a little of that, but not enough, and a bit too much of Maxine worrying about stuff, which is not a good look for her. On the other hand, we also got to see Giancarlo Esposito in a truly hideous wig14, which was also not a good look for him, but it was fun every time it appeared on screen like an oversight.
I also like to begin my days by staring into the bathroom mirror and saying ominous things like you’re a fucking star or I will not accept a life I do not deserve or you do not look at all bloated this morning, good job! and then go about my business being terrifyingly focused on my career goals. Luckily, my career goals mostly involve sitting in front of a screen all day fondling a keyboard while cats purr in my lap, so you’re all safe from my monstrous ambition15.
NEXT WEEK: Longlegs oversells itself.
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People in general, yes, but Mia Goth … especially.
To be fair, this is my general approach toward people overall and it has never once failed me.
To be fair there is always a 5% chance the arson is committed by my long-slumbering alternate personality, Mr. Pants.
I also have energy that has beend escribed as ‘feral,’ but this is usually a description of my eating style and grooming habits more than an indication of aggression.
I empathized with Maxine, because I, too, would push you all down infinite flights of stairs in order to live just a few more minutes.
Or just for fun, based on Goth’s blank-faced portrayal of the character.
Having lived through the 1980s, I am always amazed at how the era is portrayed in films as a cocaine-soaked crime against style. We mostly wore jeans and T-shirts, and if there was cocaine around no one offered 15-year old Jeff any. Then again, I have fond memories of being propositioned in the bathroom of the Port Authority Bus Terminal as a teenager, so it was kind of a wild time.
I’m not sure what’s more mesmerizing: Goth’s in-movie audition or the fact that they almost certainly had to cut her out of the skin-tight denim outfit she’s wearing in the scene. Woman must have lived on kale and dust for months before this shoot.
And taking the descriptor “greasy” very, very literally.
This is also my sole recommendation, except what I’m trying to win is five more minutes in bed in the morning.
Possibly terrified by Debicki, who has the longest limbs of any human I’ve ever seen.
In this movie for no reason whatsoever aside from making his mortgage payment for the month.
I was kind of hoping for Maxine to burn down Hollywood in a Tarantino-esque alternate history.
Worth the price of a rental all by itself.
Unless you’re standing between me and a bartender, in which case I will mess you up.
In the 80s I was wearing so much bright and/or shiny polyester products. And a curly permed mullet, so, you know, I can never be judging any fashion choices.