MaXXXine stuffs sex, purity culture and practical effects into a rip-roaring trilogy finale starring Mia Goth
Characters in Ti West's X trilogy learn very fast not to mess with Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) (Supplied: Universal)
A long glamorous shadow casts through a studio lot before an aloof, freckled actress plops in a seat to deliver an emotional, tortuous monologue, real tears illuminating her eyes — she's utterly captivating.
She then quickly and confidently complies with a casting agent's request to flash her chest for the panel.
That's Maxine Minx, baby! And in MaXXXine, the last film in director and writer Ti West's X trilogy, she cements her place in the final girl hall of fame.
A journey through the 20th century
If you want to get the full "hell yeah, good for her" effect that ramps up so spectacularly in MaXXXine, you should carve out the time to watch X, the first film released, but the second film chronologically.
Ti West's X trilogy takes place over the better part of the 20th century. (ABC News: Velvet Winter)
MaXXXine will probably still make sense if you don't, but it's a direct continuation of X and thus includes quite a bit of implied knowledge.
It's in X we first meet Maxine (Mia Goth), a runaway adult film actress that's as tough as old boots and determined to have a life abound in fame and riches.
X, which is set in the 70s, also introduces Pearl (also Mia Goth, caked in candle wax prosthetics) a sexually repressed nonagenarian who, along with her lackey husband, owns the farm X's film within a film is being shot on.
Real-life production for X in New Zealand halted for a COVID-19 lockdown, leaving West with the time to buff up the screenplay for Pearl, an origin story for X's main antagonist.
The movies were filmed back to back and released within months of each other. Which means audiences got to know a 1910s Pearl and her monster pipes very well but were left to wonder what happened to Maxine after she drove off into the sunset (leaving her spicy film behind as evidence).
Back to the future
When MaXXXine opens it's now 1985 and Maxine has made such a name for herself in Hollywood porn that she's ready to take the leap to the mainstream. Her breakthrough role is in director Elizabeth Bender's (Aussie Elizabeth Debicki: death stares as sharp as her shoulder pads) sexploitation sequel, The Puritan II.
Elizabeth Debicki shakes off her crown to play ice queen Elizabeth Bender in Maxxxine. (Supplied: Universal)
But this is 80s tinseltown — no one's allowed a purely lucky break and suddenly all of Maxine's friends (including musician Halsey in a glaring stunt cast) are winding up slayed and branded. The media are happy to pin the murders on the Night Stalker but two wily homicide cops (Michelle Monaghan and Bobby Cannavale) follow the trail right back to Maxine's grubby apartment.
It's not just the feds that are hot on Maxine's tail. She's also being trailed by a sleazy private dick John Lebat (Kevin Bacon, barely able to conceal his delight over getting to play such a slimeball). He's taking orders from a mysterious leather-gloved man whose identity might not be so mysterious to anyone who has seen X or carefully watched MaXXXine's opening scene. The tension that slowly builds throughout comes not from a question of 'what is going to happen?' but 'Is this really how it's going to go down?'.
Despite getting a few bumps and bruises along the way, Kevin Bacon has a whale of a time as sleazy PI John Lebat. (Supplied: Universal)
Final girl fever
Goth's Maxine is a woman so world-weary and ruthless that it feels like she could reach right through the screen to threaten anyone who dares take away her big shot.
Maxine isn't scared of death, she's scared of obscurity.
Goth plays 80s Maxine close to her chest, all plump-lipped sneers and staccato sentences, which makes it even more of a righteous joy when she lets the mask slip to plunge her stiletto heel into a predatory dude's nether regions.
It's a dangerous idea to get on the bad side of Maxine Minx. (Supplied: Universal)
X and Pearl had limited and sparse worlds which amplified the claustrophobia felt by Maxine/Pearl in their small-town lives. MaXXXine cracks open a much larger and grimier universe and swaps the desolate farm spaces for the suffocating bustle of 80s LA.
One second we're watching Maxine have a panic attack in a monster-mask-filled prosthetics studio and the next we're following Lebat chase our girl through the Universal backlot and into Norman Bates' old house (one of the many benefits the film reaps from being given Universal's toy box of resources to play with).
She's conquered the porn world, now Maxine Minx is ready for the silver screen. (Supplied: Universal)
Where Pearl and X favoured long lingering shots of backwater countryside, MaXXXine is moved along at a frenetic speed. Scenes chop, change and transition bathed in cutting neon colours like an extra-long music video. Many scenes, especially those stuffed into the bonkers third act, are delivered with a visually dramatic flourish, followed by a knowing wink of homage.
West isn't reinventing the wheel with MaXXXine but he's scraping up all the best bits of 80s slashers (satanic panic, purity morals, practical effects) and pitting them against the most formidable final girl of the 21st century.
MaXXXine is in cinemas now.