Niko Aldrich’s review published on Letterboxd:
After X and Pearl both made my top 10 list in 2022. Essentially reigniting my love for filmmaking in a way I hadn’t felt in decades of course MaXXXine would be my most anticipated movie of 2024.
Does it live up to my hype for it? Mostly. I think it’s simultaneously less polished than X and Pearl but strangely too polished in other ways. The first 2 acts are incredibly strong but the third act is where it will likely lose some people. I loved it but it taps in some horror genres and tropes that are a little more niche.
This trilogy is a major reason why I got back into filmmaking. A short film I finally shot two months ago is probably a result of the enthusiasm I had for X and Pearl even if the short is a very different movie/genre. If X was the movie I needed to see to reignite my passion and imagination then MaXXXine is the film that I needed to see to keep me going forward. It’s cheesy, I know but this trilogy turned into something very personal for me.
Mia Goth is obviously fantastic, as is Kevin Bacon. The rest of the cast isn’t given enough to do but they’re all great. The scope of the film is maybe a little too ambitious for its budget, something I always appreciate. It honestly felt like it could have been longer which probably means it’s the right length. I fell in love with this version of 1980s Los Angeles and just wanted to see more of it.
It’s almost certainly my least favorite of the trilogy but it’s still an a really good end to one of the more surprising horror trilogy’s in recent years.
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