🫀🧪𝘤𝘰𝘧𝘧𝘦𝘦 🔪🩸’s review published on Letterboxd:
After loving both X and Pearl so much, waiting for the finale of this trilogy felt like eternity! I’m thankful I managed to get to an early access screening, more packed than I expected because of it being the eve of July 4th - a fitting holiday to see this film that pointedly establishes its setting of a struggling Reagan-era America.
I knew from the trailer that West & co. were about to tackle a third genre for this entry, dipping into the sleazy Los Angeles erotic thriller, neon and all. Maxxxine certainly wears its influences on its sleeve, some may even say too much. It has tastes of giallo but doesn’t quite commit enough to make it feel like a full homage; just a bit adjacent to the genres it clearly loves opposed to a 1:1 match to the staples. Clearly owes a ton to Vice Squad. I love the heightened deadly version of 80s LA we get to live in with Maxine, I enjoy the atmosphere! I too love the films they were inspired by and I appreciate the intention. The 1980s Los Angeles they've put together feels right at home with those influences, where LA plays itself and is quickly established as seedy and dangerous and right out of Ti West's imagination, not unlike his earlier creepy classic film The House of the Devil, also set during a haunted era of American uncertainty when killers are on the loose and satanic panic is on the rise. And as cheesy as it is, I even love the studio locales during her Puritan 2 scenes - movies within movies are a major theme! I would be lying if I said I didn’t think about De Palma many times, especially Body Double; I saw in an interview somewhere that Blow Out (my beloved) was one of the cast’s homework watches. Playing with reality a bit more would have been so interesting, but I would also not enjoy a pure rip-off; it would be easy to go too far with that. This is just my first watch, but I really did find myself forgiving a lot of the details that seemed hokey or lazy because they are exactly the sorts of things I’d find in a similar film from the era, weird one-off characters, villains with too much personality, meddling idiot cops, tracking wides on sweltering streets or neon-lit sidewalks, quirky talent agents, it goes on and on - they fit in. But, we’ll see how I feel with future watches! I think the trilogy as a whole is very special and has been so fun to follow along with, regardless of how this one wraps things up for Maxine.
Mia Goth is stunning once again, even in this new era for Maxine after the events of X, I love seeing her embody the character and how she chose to portray her growth, trauma, and paranoia of the consequences - and her strength to push forward despite them. She’s a fuckin' movie star! Obviously I wasn’t privy to it all, but I fully believe this trilogy and this character would not be nearly as wonderful without her direct involvement.
You know who else is a star? Elizabeth Debicki in her small supporting role. Mentor!Elizabeth is making me blush just thinking about her! Direct me ma’am! Whatever Kevin Bacon is doing was also a choice, and definitely entertaining in how silly it comes off. Similarly, the talented and lovely Giancarlo Esposito gives his character so much personality with such a short screen time. I like Michelle Monaghan and Bobby Cannavale a lot, but their characters in this definitely feel a bit in the way of the story at times, and their involvement is when I recall thinking the writing was getting messy - I don’t mind the silly actor jokes from Canavale’s Hollywood detective though, that totally tracks for the vibe of the film.
I hope to roll this around in my mind with future watches of the trilogy, but Maxine really is such a great character, and is only enhanced by her parallels with Pearl. Her determination and drive to be more than society deems her is such a universal sentiment. She knows in her heart that she is destined for a better life, but she never looks down on what she is doing to get there in her career - she takes her time to learn what’s needed and does it wholeheartedly until she gets the opportunity for the next step to a new level of fame. Even when her past and her traumas come back to haunt her, she never loses sight of what’s at stake, and musters up all of her dreaming and passion and pain to blow her adversaries the fuck away. Wanting to be famous, especially in the film industry, is a crazy dream to have in the first place, and one that such a small percentage of people actually achieve, and even less if you don’t have a door already open for you. She has the guts and the willpower and the star power to succeed, and a really interesting backstory to build her career upon - turning trauma into something better for her.
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Additional ramblings: A really small detail that I loved was a brief shot of Maxxine heading up into the Hollywood Hills via a "hillavator," a small hillside railway tram leading up to an expensive house. While there have been and probably still are hundreds of these in Southern California (guys I don’t live there I know I sound crazy right now please be kind), I could only recall two films I've seen these in, both also a part of the LA sleaze canon - Brian De Palma's erotic thriller Body Double, and Hal Ashby's coked up crime flick 8 Million Ways to Die. I got so excited by this little blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment for really no reason, I just remember thinking these were so notable and kind of cool in both films. Oddly, 8MWtD actually came to mind first, I think because of the hillavator shootout being more memorable than most of the movie. I decided I would try to do some research when writing my review later, to find out if it was the very same one (it’s not)! And damn I had a hard time finding anything because search engines are dying, and my memory of what it looked like in Maxxxine is fading. But let's get a little nerdy anyway! The Body Double one was easy to figure out because of the iconic Chemosphere, but I became mildly obsessed with learning more about the one in 8MWtD. I even found that it also appeared in S02E10 of JAG. A blog I came across sourced the home down to the address, which if accurate means a remodel destroyed this hillavator - absolutely tragic! In Maxxxine they could have used any of the vintage-style hillavators left in LA so there really isn’t much mystery beyond my own curiosity, but if that’s not a little bit of an homage to Body Double I would be shocked. If I were homies with Ti West I would call his ass up and ask about the hillavator but alas I cannot! I need to gather intel! I just think they’re neat. Several other little shots and locations got my brain firing and I can’t wait to deep dive into more of it down the road. It really is a part of the “LA plays itself” canon, and the effort they put in to shoot on location and make it period (becoming more of a challenge to do practical as time goes on) really shines through.
