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Watching Stuff With Our Brains Turned On

Maxxxine

Maxxxine… less of a horror film than the previous two, more of a crime thriller.

When X came out a few years back, I was pleasantly surprised by pretty much everything about it. I mostly checked it out because of the cast members I recognized. Mia Goth was not one of those.

But after the movie, she certainly was. Her performances in X were fantastic. And then she followed that right up with Pearl, the prequel to X.

Now, with Maxxxine, we’re back to following Maxine as she’s put the events of X behind her and is still aiming to be a real star in Hollywood.

And, again, Goth gives a great performance… with an even better supporting cast than in the first film.

This film has a distinctly different flavor than either of the other two. X was a solid slasher/murderous family film. Pearl was like following the origin story of a serial killer. Maxxxine, being set in 1985 with the backdrop of Hollywood and the Night Stalker killings definitely feels more like a crime thriller.

It’s definitely not what I expected it to be, plot-wise.

For fans of Hollywood and especially horror, there’s a lot of find in the backgrounds, locations, and throw-away bits of dialog. More than a few clear homages to some real classics (most obviously Psycho… which was also brought up in the first film).

It’s always interesting when the characters in a film are fans of films… especially films of the same genre that the actual film is. Any horror film where horror films exist is just that much more interesting. In this movie, the movie-within-a-movie is a horror film… which makes things extra, extra interesting.

Much like Babylon, the business side of Hollywood stuff portrayed here feels about right for the time period, sleazy and annoying as it may be at times. It’s also always interesting to have actors playing actors… especially when there’s a scene that’s an audition. (Goth nails it and it served as a perfect misdirection for the trailer.)

Overall, I think this tells a better story than either of the other films in the series… but I’m not sure I like it the most overall (despite the fact that it’s likely, objectively, the best made film of the three). I definitely wouldn’t throw any of them away, but, right this moment, I may still like X just a little bit better.

Kier Duros
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