Maxxxine (2024) * * *

 

Directed by:  Ti West

Starring:  Mia Goth, Kevin Bacon, Elizabeth Debicki, Halsey, Lily Collins, Giancarlo Esposito, Bobby Cannavale, Michelle Monaghan, Moses Sumney

Maxxxine is the last of the X trilogy starring Mia Goth as Maxine, who survived the slaughter of her friends and castmates from X.  Maxxxine picks up her story in 1985 Hollywood.  She believes her past is behind her as she attempts to move from adult film star to starring in a Hollywood studio movie.  She wins the role, but soon she receives an incriminating video cassette from an unknown source from the gruesome 1979 murder scene.  If you recall from X, Maxine was the sole survivor of a porno movie shoot which became the site of a murderous rampage by two farmers.  One of the farmers named Pearl (also played by Goth), was the subject of the second film (which I missed) of this trilogy.  

You really wouldn't need to see X to follow Maxxxine.  Maxine is ultra confident since hey, she survived nearly being killed six years earlier and the lurid adult film scene, but when she's followed by sleazy New Orleans private eye John Labat (Bacon), she becomes rattled.  Her past may ruin her chances at stardom, and she soon enlists her slickster agent Teddy Knight (Esposito) to help her get rid of Labat and find out who is stalking her.  Teddy goes above and beyond the call of duty as Maxine's agent.  He knows people in the removal business and we'll leave it at that. 

Goth's Maxine isn't always likable, but the pressure on her to get rid of this obstacle jeopardizing her future (and her life) is palpable.   I also liked Elizabeth Debicki, the no-nonsense, straightforward director of Maxine's movie who tells Maxine in no uncertain terms that she fought for her to be cast and that any slip-up will result in her being replaced.  Like X, Maxxxine has a strong sense of time and place and an undercurrent of religious intolerance which fuels repression and thus a stronger desire for the forbidden world of porn and sex.  

Ti West's previous film I've seen (Zola and X) did not work for me on the level Maxxxine did.  Maxxxine is a suspenseful whodunit as well as a commentary on the 1980's, which was the decade of excess and a period in which warning labels had to be placed on albums for explicit lyrics.  Like George Carlin said, "You can talk about fucking.  You just can't say fucking,"  Maxxxine understands that dynamic.