MaXXXine closes out Ti West’s Goth era with a worthy payoff

MaXXXine. // Courtesy A24

Ti West loves movies. But does he understand why they have value?

That’s been the question running throughout West’s current trilogy, the one that started with 2022’s X, continued with its unexpected prequel Pearl and comes to a highly-anticipated conclusion with MaXXXine, out this weekend.

So far, these movies have been examples of high filmmaking craft, from their meticulous production design to star Mia Goth’s endurance-test performances. Oddly, however, they’ve never offered much beyond gobs of style. These movies have had little interest in substance, which is particularly irritating coming from a genre where subtext is everything. What, exactly, was all this in service of?

Fortunately, while West’s trilogy-topper clings to its subgenre formula like a final girl clutching a flashlight at Camp Crystal Lake, MaXXXine offers the kind of thematic payoff that retroactively elevates its predecessors. It turns out finally learning where we were going made the journey make a little more sense, even if you’re left feeling like the guide could’ve left a few more breadcrumbs along the way to keep you engaged.

We re-encounter Goth’s Maxine Minx in 1985, six years after surviving the massacre at the rural Texas farmhouse that killed her would-be porn star friends. Maxine is now in Hollywood, and a bona-fide adult entertainment star, ready to break into mainstream movies. She lands a lead role in The Puritan II, a demonic possession movie helmed by take-no-shit director Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki). Simultaneously, Maxine is receiving threatening messages from a black-gloved stalker and a sleazy private detective (Kevin Bacon), and her friends are, once again, turning up dead. Can Maxine stop the past from repeating itself? And how far will she go to make sure she doesn’t lose out on her dreams?

As with the previous entries, MaXXXine displays deep love for the period it depicts and the genre movies it produced. The fashion choices are stunning—particularly Debicki’s outfits, which add plenty of sharp-edged shoulder pads to her already-intimidating height and confidently set jaw. This is a land of garish neon, hair crimped to the point of near-ruin and high heeled boots that no sane person would consider running in, and the camera lingers over all of it to let you take in every detail.

MaXXXine. // Courtesy A24

Fortunately, vibes and references aren’t all there is this time out. X lightly alluded to the contentious relationship between christianity at the time and filmmaking (you could argue that maybe porn isn’t the best way to couch that argument, but whatever). MaXXXine uses its Satanic Panic-era setting to dig into the cultural discourse in more broadly relevant ways. It’s there in montages of famous news footage from the time — Tipper Gore complaining in Congress about Prince’s Purple Rain and Dee Snider in full Twisted Sister regalia on Capitol Hill going to bat for freedom of expression. It’s there in the protesters outside the Puritan II set, and it’s there in Maxine’s ongoing battle against her tent-revival origins, a story teased at in X that finally gets a fuller exploration here.

MaXXXine also lets its main character develop in ways that make it easy to enjoy Goth’s performance and root for her character. Maxine’s come a long way from the insecure victim grasping for stardom that she once was. Now, the character’s confidence is undeniable, and her drive impossible to ignore. When she’s pursued by a would-be mugger, she pulls a gun on him. When she’s threatened, she doesn’t hesitate to call in reinforcements and take care of the problem. When her friends are hurt, she takes revenge. She might still harbor some delusions of grandeur, but you get the sense that she’ll do everything in her power to make sure they won’t be delusions for long.

MaXXXine struggles a little with its dismount, leading up to a reveal that’s unsurprising and a little disappointing in its abruptness.

However, West, Goth and their cohorts deserve points for putting in legitimate effort where before there were mostly pleas for attention. MaXXXine’s consideration of Big Religion vs. Big Hollywood is one that remains unpleasantly relevant today, as do its observations about the way the industry treats women and dehumanizes artists in the race to the top. West managed to hint at those concepts in his previous two movies. Here, it seems he finally has something to say.