MaXXXine

Director: Ti West
Starring: Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Halsey, Lily Collins, Giancarlo Esposito, Kevin Bacon, Simon Prast, Chloe Farnworth, Sophie Thatcher, Toby Huss
Running Time: 104 min.
Rating: R

★★★ (out of ★★★★)   

After much anticipation, the third and possibly final installment of Ti West's X trilogy, MaXXXine arrives to deliver exactly what the the trailers and teasers hinted it would. If X paid homage to 70's grindhouse slashers like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Pearl drew inspiration from golden era Technicolor classics like The Wizard of Oz, this is pure 80's VHS sleaze with a nod to Giallo horror. And while it's strangely the most conventional of the three in terms of plot, it still diverges enough from those to terrorize.

Even when it's easy to telegraph where the story's headed, from purely an aesthetic standpoint, West's neon-infused interpretation of this down and dirty era is worth the price of admission alone. Of course, the obsessively ambitious title character's goal was always to be a huge star, and after escaping X's bloodbath, nothing could stand in her way. If there's a thematic through line, it's Maxine's desire to attain the life she knows she deserves, instilled in her by a televangelist father at an early age and reinforced with the chilling black-and-white home movie footage that opens this picture.

It's 1985 Los Angeles and six years after Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) survived the slaughter of her friends on that Texas farm, she's searching for stardom under the bright lights of Hollywood. With the Night Stalker murders all over the news, Maxine has been making a splash in low budget adult films while working at a dingy strip club. But her big break comes when she lands the lead role in cold, no-nonsense British auteur Elizabeth Bender's (Elizabeth Debicki) horror sequel, The Puritan II. 

Soon after sharing the good news with her loyal agent Teddy Knight (Giancarlo Esposito), colleagues Amber (Chloe Farnworth) and Tabby (Halsey) and friend Leon (Moses Sumney), Maxine receives a VHS tape of the ill-fated porn filmed at the farm house in 1979, along with a visit from bombastic private investigator John Labat (Kevin Bacon). Hired by a mysterious man responsible for Maxine's friends now turning up dead in Night Stalker inspired slayings, Labat demands she meet with his boss or have her criminal past exposed. But just as LAPD detectives Williams (Michele Monaghan) and Torres ( Bobby Cannavale) close in on these murders, Maxine decides to take matters into her own hands.

West exploits the period setting to maximum effect, using the seedy early 80's L.A. atmosphere to make a bold, visually stylish statement about how Hollywood swallows its young starlets whole. And in doing so this joins a long list of noir mysteries made in a similar vein, such as Brian De Palma's The Black Dahlia. But if West's interested in exploring the dark underbelly of Tinseltown as a natural next chapter for fame hungry Maxine, he's also committed to giving us another moody retro slasher that also carries faint echoes of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. 

Better paced and structured than X but lacking the dramatic flair of Pearl, this lands squarely in the middle, subverting expectations that it would be the most shocking and outrageous of the three. In doing a lot of small, simple things extremely well, the plot itself often taking a deserved backseat to the performances and visuals. The grungy sights and sounds of L.A. function as the story's mirror, and while it's cliché to call the city another character, the depiction would have definitely earned a mention in that great 2004 documentary Los Angles Plays Itself. It may not be the West Coast equal to what countless 70's films did for New York, but what West pulls off is still pretty impressive.

When the opening titles roll and we see Maxine driving her white convertible to this audition as ZZ Top's "Gimme Me All Your Lovin'" blasts over the soundtrack, the countdown to carnage may as well begin. But it's officially underway when she gets an unexpected visit from Bacon's wacky detective. Clearly underestimating her, Labat has no idea what he's gotten into, regardless of the anonymous leather gloved killer giving him his marching orders.

The term "Scream Queen" gets thrown around a lot, but Goth is the only contemporary actress who can legitimately lay claim to that crown, even if it oversimplifies just how much she's raised the bar for this genre. And it's a testament to Goth's grasp on the material that even her subtlest, straightforward performance in the trilogy still feels out of left field amidst these new surroundings. Sporting a Louisiana drawl, Bacon's a comedic highlight, as is Esposito, who shines as the shady talent agent that's more Saul Goodman than Gus Fring. 

Certain moments leave big impressions, like a beatdown featuring John Parr's "St. Elmos Fire (Man in Motion)" and a chase through the Psycho house. Or really anything related to the filming of The Puritan II, especially Maxine's interactions with Debicki's classy, controlling director and the original's star Molly Bennett (Lily Collins), who has some words of wisdom for her replacement. The former casts a strong presence, dishing out a blunt, icy mix of sarcastic cruelty while attempting to keep Maxine on the straight and narrow.

The killer's identity isn't exactly the best kept secret, nor is it necessarily intended to be. But anything the plot lacks in surprise it makes up for when Maxine finally comes face-to-face with this monster, culminating in a finale cleverly set against the most famous of landmarks. Strangely enough, with all its religious underpinnings, the West project this most resembles might be his 2013 found footage film, The Sacrament, based on the 1978 Jonestown Massacre. 

Unlike that, this isn't exactly about a cult, but it does share key elements, including another real life crime case that helped define an era. Given the trilogy's lofty reputation, it would be easy to take MaXXXine for granted, but Goth still carries the load as she did the others. And for fans already willing to follow this character to the ends of the earth, a depraved dive through Hollywood's so called "dream factory" proves too enticing a proposition to pass up.