MAXXXINE

US, 2024, 104 minutes, Colour.

Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, Bobby Cannavale, Michelle Monaghan, Kevin Bacon, Lily Collins, Simon Prast, Giancarlo Esposito, Moses Sumney.

Directed by Ti West.

In recent years, writer-director Ti West, has directed many television episodes. However, he made his mark around 2010 with some horror films, especially The Innkeepers. He also made a revenge Western, In a Valley of Violence, 2016, with Ethan Hawke and John Travolta. Then he made X, something of an exploitation film at a mansion out in the countryside of the Midwest. It featured Mia Goth. And it was a commercial success.

West then decided to go back in history and make a period piece, again about an ambitious actress, again played by Mia Goth, Pool. And with the same somewhat sensationalist themes and treatment.

This is the third film in his trilogy, this time set in 1985. And the audience is taken to a version of Hollywood of that period, a style of cinematography that is garish and sometimes lurid, as a symbol and as a location for part of the climax. West is enthusiastic about this portrayal of Hollywood, emphasising the seedy side, cheap apartments, video stores which were becoming popular at the time, the adult movie industry, sleazy agents in their offices. There is also the world of filmmaking, auditions, the movie lots, a visit to the Psycho motel as well as action there, sinister mansions in the Hollywood Hills. Very strong on atmosphere – and with many of the songs of the period, as was all kinds of in the occasions, billboards, almonds theatre, the stars on the walk of fame, cinemas showing St Elmo’s Fire.

Once again, this is a showcase for Mia Goth who seems to relish her performances as actresses who have more than relish and ambitions for their careers. And the supporting cast is more notable, Elizabeth Debicki as a somewhat pretentious and ambitious director, filming a sequel to The Puritan with all kinds of religious right protesters outside the studio with their placards. Kevin Bacon offers something of an absurd private eye who gets a dreadful comeuppance. Bobby Cannavale and Michelle Monaghan are the investigating police, he a would-be actor, she rather stern and critical. Lily Collins has a cameo as a British actress, Giancarlo Esposito is the agent, and Simon Prast who was a religious fanatic in X is even more terrifying here as Maxine’s avenging father.

So, a mixture of exploitative ingredients, sex, violence, ambition, religious intolerance.

1. The work of the director, his trilogy, themes, moviemaking, collaboration with Mia Goth?
2. The relationship of this film to the other two? Characters, themes, movies, sexuality and exploitation, violence and murder, ambitions and ruthlessness, religious fanaticism?
3. The title, Maxine, from Miller to Minx, adding the Xs to her name? Her car number plate? And the way that she ruthlessly drove her car?
4. The prologue, the little girl, dancing, the interview with her religious father? All of this sequence in the revelations of what was happening?
5. 1985, Hollywood, the sign and symbol, the streets, the stars and Grauman’s theatre, garish look, lurid touches? The streets, the motels, the studios, legal offices, Universal lot, the motel from Psycho, exteriors and interiors? The musical score, the range of songs from the 1980s?
6. Maxine, in Los Angeles, the move from Texas, ambitions, to get the life that she deserved, her intensity, the adult movies, pornography, her reputation and people recognising her at the studio? Her friends, performance? The apartment, moving from job to job, the video store, the owner, conversations, watching videos with him, enlisting his help to identify the mysterious video and its origins? His relationship with Maxine, exasperation with her? The brutality of his murder and her response to his being carried out?
7. The audition, the film, The Puritan, the sequel? The director, imperious presence, height, not American accent, expectations? The interview, her being in adult movies, her body? Her getting the part? Going back to the studio, the interviews with the director, her demands? The scene of making the cast of her head, the past memories, her panic? And the later final sequence with the cast of her head in the glass? The background of the, Night Stalker the many deaths, and her friend, their discussions, the discovery of the two dead bodies, the symbolic mark?
8. Mysterious video and her watching it, her panic? The address of the windscreen? The encounter with John, Kevin Bacon and the satiric performance? Confrontations, pursuit, his threats and self-confidence? Not identifying the employer? The drinks and conversation? Is appearance at the studio, the pursuit and chase, the weapon and her wound in his nose? The later encounters, the Psycho motel? Her explaining this to her agent, Ted and his personality, manner, sleazy? The confrontation with John, and the brutal crushing of the car and him?
9. The police officers, the would-be actor and his performances, the tough woman in charge? Confronting Maxine, with the death of her video store friend, the continued interrogations, her refusal to answer, the threats?
10. Demonstrations, against The Puritan, the religious right? Protests and placards?
11. The buildup to the climax, Maxine and her fears, the decision to go to the address, the detectives deciding to follow her, her entering the house, eerie, discovering her father, his speeches, showing her the video from her childhood, the massacres in Texas, fleeing? Her father, religious fanatic, his campaign, stamping Satan out of Hollywood, his followers and the ritual, the attempt to exorcise Maxine, tying her up, close-ups of his face, the arrival of the police, the shootout? Maxine free, confronting her father, eventually shooting him? The detectives, shot, wounded, dead? The hovering helicopter?
12. The aftermath,, Maxine as a celebrity, the interviews, the director and her advice? Set, her becoming respectable, the plaster cast of her head?