Maxxxine

 

Horrormeister Ti West doesn't make serious "message movies" but that doesn't mean his films are shallow, slasher fare, despite pushing the gore envelope in so many entertaining ways.

West's artful trio of hack-em-ups -- X and Pearl from 2022 and the just-released Maxxxine -- are movies about the movie industry, which, by the way, does more than its share of evisceration and bloodletting, figuratively speaking.

British starlet Mia Goth has been West's cohort in mayhem for X, Pearl and now Maxxxine, injecting her unconventional beauty and whacked-out screen presence into each. (Her maniacal cold stare at the end of Pearl must be one of the freakiest moments in closing-credits history.)

In Maxxxine, Goth plays the title character, a porn actress trying to break into legitimate pictures in the mid-80s. (The soundtrack is ear-candy for oldsters and might reawaken interest in synth-pop and Frankie Goes to Hollywood.) Maxine wants to be a big star, an aspiration she received from her preacher father (Simon Prast) as a child and will do whatever she must to make that happen. Therein lies the "pearl" in this oyster. 

With an assist from her agent / lawyer (Giancarlo Esposito), Maxine gets signed onto a horror flick by its director (Elizabeth Debicki), who is banking on Maxine's uncanny ability to channel the character's determination (and Maxine's adult film industry profile) to give the picture added vitality.

All of this is happening during a string of slasher murders in Hollywood that is unraveling the city's nerves but leaves Maxine unmoved. When sex worker friends of Maxine are also killed, presumably by the slasher, detectives Williams and Torres (Michelle Monaghan and Bobby Cannavale, respectively) try to get an assist from Maxine, with no luck. She doesn't talk to the police -- and we discover for good reason.

All of this is further complicated by a pesky private detective, played by Kevin Bacon, who has been hired by an unnamed party to find Maxine. (Yeah, West has corralled a lot of wattage for this outing.) The mission does not go well. 

West stages a last reel showdown that ties off many of the picture's narrative threads and mysteries but might leave audiences not wholly satisfied and maybe a bit anxious.

Moviegoers either get Ti West's filmmaking sensibilities or they don't. In that way, he's like other horror auteurs -- Roger Corman, David Cronenberg, George Romero, for example -- who have distinctive stylistic touches that use madness and viscera to help audiences connect with their humanity.