In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx finally gets her big break. However, as a mysterious killer stalks the starlets of Los Angeles, a trail of blood threatens to reveal her sinister past.
Maxxxine is directed by Ti West who previously directed X (2022), Pearl (2022), The House Of The Devil (2009), The Sacrament (2013), In a Valley Of Violence and a few others! Maxxxine serves as the final installment in the X trilogy
Anybody who has seen me on Twitter, knows me personally or has read my reviews knows I loved X and Pearl two films that came out in 2022 the year where it was a goldmine for excellent horror films. Pearl in particular ended up being my favorite film in general from that year, so I was pretty excited to see Maxxxine and while I can see why this disappointed some I definitely thought a majority of the film worked incredibly well outside of a few things which I'll get into.
But first let's start with the positives and there's a lot, the cast as usual is something that all three of these films do super well at and it's no exception here. Mia Goth of course returns as Maxine Minx and she once again does a fantastic job, there might not be an incredible monologue this time around. But her performance makes up with tons of fun and well acted scenes that do make the viewer walk away remembering her. Plus some of the character stuff done here for Maxine is quite excellent as well. The rest of the cast are quite great such as Elizabeth Debicki who just really embodies a serious director wanting to succeed, Giancarlo Esposito's character Teddy Knight is really neat. He isn't given a whole lot to do but when he does do something he is quite entertaining.
Something I've always like about the X series is each film feels drastically different and goes for completely different styles and tones of filmmaking. In X (2022) we got a homage to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) and other 70s slashers plus a film where Ti West tries to make it as if the film was done in the 70s. In Pearl (2022) we got a throwback to the technicolor era of film The Wizard Of Oz (1939) for example and we got this beautifully done nightmare film that was just so incredibly well done. Maxxxine goes for this 80s feel and a tribute to the whole straight to home video feel which definitely works, there's a ton of easter eggs and references to the 80s that blend well with the film and don't take away from the storytelling luckily.
The kills are quite great they aren't anything too crazy but they get the job done and do have a lot of fun energy to them. Which leads to why the film mostly works….it's a lot of fun, just looking around the screen at the many details and the interactions Maxine has with the other characters is just a whole lot of fun to explore.
The two main criticisms here are lot of the characters just not given a whole lot to do and some of the third act. A lot of the side characters are really neat on paper but are unfortunately not very used that much, it's a shame because there was a lot of potential with some of these characters in the other two films despite how minor the characters were they were at least given a surprising amount to do. It's just a shame Maxxxine did not continue that tradition.
As for the third act i definitely get what they were going for and I do think parts of it works, I like that they tried to reflect the 80s with a much more campy spirit. However I do think the reveal of the killer while not terrible was a bit underwhelming, especially compared to the final acts of both X and especially Pearl that did such a great job with the endings. I don't think the ending was bad it was more so underwhelming and had this "that's it?" energy to it.
Overall Maxxine is an incredibly fun film that I really loved, it might not be as good as X (2022) or Pearl (2022) but the film does still have a solid conclusion to the series and is a whole lot of fun.
Maxxxine is currently in theaters.
9/10 A
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