By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer

Posted: July 5th, 2024 / 01:29 AM

Rating: R
Stars: Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Uli Latukefu, Giancarlo Esposito, Chloe Farnworth, Halsey, Kevin Bacon, Lily Collins, Simon Prast
Writer: Ti West
Director: Ti West
Distributor: A24
Release Date: July 5, 2024

MAXXXINE, not counting its flashbacks and flash-forwards, is set in 1985. However, it feels more like a ‘70s indie, with its mix of very tough female protagonist, soft porn (meant to be hard porn where we don’t see all the details), detective story, and horror.

It’s a completely fun blend, and star Mia Goth commits two hundred and twenty percent to everything she’s doing.

Maxine Minx (Goth), nee Miller, is a star on the XXX movie circuit in Los Angeles. She adds to her income by doing stripper gigs and peep shows. But Maxine wants to break into mainstream films. No one who saw 2022’s X, the film that introduced Goth as Maxine, will doubt her determination.

Maxine has the talent to book a lead role in a horror movie sequel, directed by hard-nosed Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki), who will brook no tardiness or excuses from her cast.

This puts Maxine in a difficult position when her porn colleagues and friends start getting murdered in horrible ways. Marks left on their bodies suggest cult killings. Meanwhile, L.A. is being terrorized by the Night Stalker.

Maxine doesn’t want to talk to the two detectives (Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale) on the case. She wants to talk even less with a private eye from Louisiana, John Labat (Kevin Bacon), who seems to know way too much about events that happened in 1979 Texas (covered in X).

MAXXXINE writer/director Ti West also helmed and scripted X and its follow-up prequel PEARL, set in 1918 and co-written by and starring Goth as its title character. In fact, in heavy makeup, Goth had dual roles in X, as Maxine and the aged version of Pearl.

West shows great love for recreating Hollywood and particularly Hollywood Boulevard in all of its freak-flag-flying ‘80s heyday, with its styles, songs and subcultures. He also is clearly in his element with the slasher sequences, which have a bit of ‘80s flavor but also fit just fine in their present-day context.

Goth lives up to expectations, which is to say that she is terrific. Debicki, Uli Latukefu as a loyal friend and Giancarlo Esposito as Maxine’s multifaceted agent also make strong impressions. Bacon is overdoing it a tad as the out-of-town slimeball, but since the character is the type who would lay it on thick, the performance suits the purpose.

MAXXXINE has a couple of moments where it is teetering on being funny or scary and doesn’t quite commit fast enough to be either. There aren’t enough of these to severely dent the overall mood, but they register.

While West and Company never overtly promised this, it’s a little surprising to find that MAXXXINE doesn’t provide more narrative throughline with X and PEARL. There is, of course, Goth at the center of all three, and there are tonal similarities in places.

However, there isn’t some “aha” moment or plot point that makes each essential for the others. X informs Maxine’s character to the extent that we know she’s not easily intimidated (to put it mildly). It’s not necessary to have seen X to understand this, though; Goth makes it wholly clear in MAXXXINE.

PEARL factors in even less to the current proceedings. It is in no way obliged to do so. it’s just that the idea that the three films form a trilogy in the conventional sense will have viewers anticipating a kind of emphasis that doesn’t surface.

MAXXXINE is certainly a kick for fans of the type of moviemaking it celebrates. Moreover, there’s no doubt Maxine herself would love it.

Related: Movie Review: DESPICABLE ME 4
Related: Movie Review: THE MOOR
Related: Movie Review: A QUIET PLACE: DAY ONE
Related: Movie Review: A SACRIFICE
Related: Movie Review: THE BIKERIDERS
Related: Movie Review: THE EXORCISM
Related: Movie Review: BLACKWATER LANE
Related: Movie Review: THELMA
Related: Movie Review:20,000 SPECIES OF BEES (20,000 ESPECIES DE ABEJAS)
Related: Movie Review:TIGER STRIPES
Related: Movie Review: LATENCY
Related: Movie Review: FIREBRAND
Related: Movie Review: LONGING
Related: Movie Review: BAD BOYS: RIDE OR DIE
Related: Movie Review: THE WATCHERS
Related: Movie Review: IN A VIOLENT NATURE
Related: Movie Review: WHAT YOU WISH FOR
Related: Movie Review: THE HANGMAN
Related: Movie Review: FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA
Related: Movie Review: WE GO ON
Related: Movie Review: IF
Related: Movie Review: YOU CAN’T RUN FOREVER
Related: Movie Review: NIGHTWATCH: DEMONS ARE FOREVER (NATTEVAGTEN: DÆMONER GÅR I ARV)
Related: Movie Review: KINGDOM OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
Related: Movie Review: THE COFFEE TABLE (LA MESITA DEL COMEDOR)
Related: Movie Review: FORCE OF NATURE: THE DRY 2
Related: Movie Review: THE FALL GUY
Related: Movie Review: SOMETHING IN THE WATER
Related: Movie Review: I SAW THE TV GLOW
Related: Movie Review: THE THREE MUSKETEERS – PART II: MILADY
Related: Movie Review: BOY KILLS WORLD
Related: Movie Review: BREATHE
Related: Movie Review: GHOSTBUSTERS: FROZEN EMPIRE

Follow us on Twitter at ASSIGNMENT X
Like us on Facebook at ASSIGNMENT X

Article Source: Assignment X
Article: Movie Review: MAXXXINE

Related

Related Posts:

Will Reeve, son of the late “Superman” star Christopher Reeve, is set to make a cameo appearance in James Gunn’s upcoming “Superman: Legacy,” currently in production in Cleveland.

The 32-year-old ABC News correspondent was seen filming a scene for the movie on Tuesday morning, according to Cleveland.com.

Will Reeve plays a TV reporter, Deadline reported, which aligns well with his real-world career as a journalist for ABC News. He is the youngest of the actor’s three children and the only child of Christopher Reeve and widow Dana Reeve.

Christopher Reeve is remembered for his portrayal of Superman in Richard Donner’s 1978 “Superman: The Movie.” This marked the beginning of a legacy that saw Reeve don the iconic cape in three sequels: “Superman II” (1980), “Superman III” (1983) and “Superman IV: The Quest for Peace” (1987).

Gunn, known for his work on the “Guardians of the Galaxy” franchise, is directing the new movie from his own screenplay, which draws inspiration from characters created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. The DC Studios movie is slated for release July 11, 2025.

The Reeve family has maintained a strong connection to Christopher Reeve’s legacy, with Will Reeve actively involved on the board of directors for the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation, dedicated to spinal cord injury research. Christopher Reeve, who died in 2004 at the age of 52 after suffering a paralyzing injury in an accident on horseback in 1995 — left behind a lasting impact on both the entertainment industry and advocacy for disability rights.

The new “Superman” cast includes David Corenswet as Superman, Rachel Brosnahan as Lois Lane, Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor, Nathan Fillion as Green Lantern, Anthony Carrigan as Metamorpho, Edi Gathegi as Mister Terrific and Isabela Merced as Hawkgirl. Milly Alcock, who played young Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen in six episodes of “House of the Dragon,” will play Kara Zor-El, aka Supergirl.

Henry Cavill, who played the superhero in “Man of Steel,” “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” and “Justice League” and gave up his role in “The Witcher” to return to the franchise, lost the Superman gig in 2022, months after Gunn and Peter Safran were named to lead DC Studios for Warner Bros. Discovery.

“After being told by the studio to announce my return back in October, prior to their hire, this news isn’t the easiest, but that’s life,” Cavill said in a statement that December. “The changing of the guard is something that happens. I respect that. James and Peter have a universe to build. I wish them and all involved with the new universe the best of luck, and the happiest of fortunes.”

Times staff writer Christi Carras contributed to this report.

The Bikeriders starts in the middle of its own story. A man in a “Chicago Vandals” jacket, head hanging over the bar counter.

“You can’t be wearing no colors in this neighborhood,” someone threatens, to which he replies: “You’d have to kill me to get this jacket off of me.”

The man, Benny, approaches most things in his life with this same kind of fervor. His wife, Kathy, describes Benny camping out in her front yard until her boyfriend at the time packed up his car and left.

It’s through Kathy’s eyes that we come to know the Vandals: The leader, Johnny; his right hand, Brucie; and a menagerie of other club members — Cockroach, Zipco, Cal, Funny Sonny, Corky and Wahoo, to name a few. Kathy, with varying levels of exasperation, takes us through the club’s rise and fall over her interviews with Danny, the photojournalist meant to represent the author of “The Bikeriders,” the book on which the film is based.

Johnny’s vision for the club starts simply enough — just guys talking about bikes. But, as The Vandals grow, he realizes what he’s created might have become impossible to control.

The first, most obvious thing to say about “The Bikeriders” is that it’s gorgeous.

The beauty and effectiveness of Danny Lyon’s photography translates perfectly to film. Although an article by the Smithsonian reports 70% of the film’s dialogue is taken from Lyon’s interviews, you could almost watch this movie with the sound off.

Color, light and framing are used so beautifully here it’s hard not to spend the whole review geeking out. Stoplights, bars and midwestern houses and parking lots become art pieces, dioramas of the tumultuous life of a “bikerider.”

Beyond the surface, though, I’m not sure how to feel about this movie.

When Kathy says Johnny got the idea for the club while watching TV, we cut to him staring, enraptured, as 1953’s “The Wild One” plays in his living room. “Hey Johnny, what are you rebelling against?” The girl in the movie asks. Marlon Brando replies, “Whaddaya got?”

This listlessness, this sense that Johnny doesn’t have any purpose in mind, that the club doesn’t have much of a point, permeates the film. For me, it extended to the movie itself: At the beginning I thought life in a motorcycle gang would be exciting but dangerous, and by the end I thought the exact same thing.

Maybe it’s Kathy’s perspective leaking through the narration, but the deaths in this movie are, as a rule, abrupt and stupid. Once the shock wore off, I found myself wondering, “What was that all for?”

For all the glamor and power being a bikerider supposedly grants, they don’t die for great causes or in blazes of glory. The end is a car in reverse, an empty parking lot.

“The Bikeriders” is gorgeous and exciting, but doesn’t appear to say very much. Maybe that’s exactly what it’s saying.

Caroline Julstrom, intern, may be reached at 218-855-5851 or cjulstrom@brainerddispatch.com.

Caroline Julstrom finished her second year at the University of Minnesota in May 2024, and started working as a summer intern for the Brainerd Dispatch in June.