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Director Ti West subverts so much of what his audience was waiting for with “MaXXXine” that he almost completely alienates the very people that were raring to go for the third installment in his “X” movie series. When we finally did get it, “MaXXXine” ends up being exactly what it wants to be. It’s not some gory horror movie like “Maniac” but a consciously dark and often over the top look at the terrifying battle that is fame. When we first saw Maxine Minx (the brilliant Mia Goth returns), she was a low budget porn star convinced she was going to be a star.
In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx finally gets her big break in a potential big budget horror film. However, as a mysterious killer stalks the starlets of Los Angeles, a trail of blood threatens to reveal her sinister past. Evading a slimy private detective, and competing with other actresses, Maxine decides to track down the killer herself.
After surviving the trials from the attack by the pair of elderly people in their farmhouse back in “X,” she arrives in Hollywood prepared to go to war. Through her battle scars, she finds that lurking serial killer slaying women in Hollywood scary. But she finds her quest to cover up her past and claim her place as a famous actress even scarier than anyone could ever imagine. Drowning in 1980’s ephemera from the beautifully tinted wide neon establishing shots, to the excellent soundtrack, “MaXXXine” prides itself in being something of more exploitative version of “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.”
Except Ti West has a much cynical picture of Hollywood and what it takes to be famous. While Tarantino gave us an alternate reality version of Hollywood in the sixties that celebrated film even in the darker moments, “MaXXXine” is just downright slimy. Hollywood here is where dreams happen, and the inevitable iconic actress rises up to stardom after willingly baring it all on screen. When we see Maxine looking for a way to evade “The Nightstalker” she’s not owing this quest to her inherent altruism. She’s doing it as a means to survive. Because if she’s dead she can’t be famous, and if she’s not famous she didn’t really serve an actual purpose to anyone in the world.
Fame, no matter how fleeting it might just ending up being, is something Maxine is willing to murder for. Maxine goes on the defensive for her own well being, as Ti West makes it very clear that she’s not a hero. Pretty much no one in “MaXXXine” is a hero or noble individual, as everyone (the supporting cast are dynamite) are sleazy, slimy or basically voyeurs. Although “The Nightstalker” does have the city of Hollywood in a panic, people are also titillated to see what they’ll do next and who they’ll murder.
“MaXXXine” is every bit as much a misanthropic monster as its former films “Pearl” and “X.” It’s a dark and relentless picture of the lust for the fame that completes the journey of a protagonist who’s so much scarier than a knife wielding slasher ever could be.