MaXXXine (2024)

MaXXXine, like most of Ti West’s work, excels at nailing the aesthetic he is aiming for. The film takes place in 1985 Los Angeles, and it emulates the time and locale extremely well. The film’s events take place with the Night Stalker murders happening in the background, which is a delightfully morbid detail that helps set the mood and tone. More than that, MaXXXine is shot to look like an 80s movie, and the result is wonderfully retro— it’s nice to see some fun camerawork in the age of Marvel clones and sterile shots. 

Mia Goth is striking as Maxine. She is ruthlessly cold and determined, ready to claw her way to the very top by any means necessary. Kevin Bacon and Giancarlo Esposito both shine in wonderfully weird and twisted roles: a scuzzy Louisiana detective and Maxine’s agent, respectively. However, I was less impressed with Bobby Cannavale and Michelle Monaghan. Their bumbling detectives feel both underwritten and annoying. If they were designed to play on the trope of the underprepared local cops, they get too much screen time for it to work.

The SFX are colorful and bloody. The practical blood and guts on display here are both retro and timeless, and the film benefits highly from this fact. However, the kills themselves (with the exception of two specific demises, I’m sure you can guess which ones) are relatively boring. 

Where MaXXXine really stumbles is its uneven pacing. There never feels as though there is a proper build up of suspense in this film. Instead, there are sudden blooms of action that feel like the start of something, but never pay off. Largely, MaXXXine never gets past a simmer. Even the final confrontation feels slightly bland. Part of it is the fact that if you’ve seen X, the killer is fairly obvious right from the gate. This leaves the big reveal feeling a little flat. This could be forgiven if we had any real zeal to see this guy put down, but we don’t, really. All of our side characters are explored so little, their deaths don’t have much impact on the viewer. Still, the final execution is impressive, and makes the wait worth it, at least for me.

Of the X trilogy, MaXXXine is the weakest. However, the pure style of this flick earns it my recommendation. It looks great, and there’s enough fun to be had here that it deserves a watch. Three stars, definitely shelf-worthy if you’re a genre fan.