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Film reviews

MaXXXine Review

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The three Xs in the title are the correct context of MaXXXine. Ti West is back with a sexual and prolific adventure with no boundaries. The 1980s Hollywood era is mixed with tons of lethal drugs and behaviors. MaXXXine is a dangerous expedition. West did a thriller with the adult film industry in  X and Pearl. Both films opened in 2022. Mia Goth has been in both and continues to be the frightening and audacious actress in MaXXXine.

The eras of Hollywood are always a joy of grandeur for me especially when it makes its focus to be risky or risque scenarios. All the stories many have heard about Hollywood’s history play well into MaXXXine. MaXXXine though, had me in a bind. It is bonkers and quickly curated around its dangerous aspects, but is there meaning behind it? The film itself. The film tends to go down the road of being sexually horrific for the sake of it.

To explain the concept of the film, Goth is Maxine Minx. The three X’s make the point clear that she is an adult movie star. She is one of the bad choices. She does tons of drugs and is addicted to fuels of fame. She even has a nasty attitude. Regardless, she feels she is the sexy queen that conquers the world. However, the film takes place in the era of the night stalker scenario. Maxine finds herself with people who have been killed after the fact that she has seen them. Detective Torres (played by Bobby Cannavale) and Detective Williams (played by Michelle Monaghan) try to get to the bottom of Maxine’s involvement. However, Maxine is oblivious and only tries to remember she is the best.

Another officer John Labat (played by Kevin Bacon) comes around. He has got that dirty cop vibe. He is on the list of hatred for Maxine. The film is a dynamic of Maxine meeting bizarre individuals as the night stalker murder abounds. What is more invigorating? The fact that Maxine is an adult film star? The fact that it is around the night stalker scenario? The film begins to go down a road where personality is damaging. From that, I found the writing to start to have a blur.

Even around the personalities of the film, it is a ride that is average. “Average” in terms of performance and quality. Goth’s performance may be surreal, but her role in this one did not do it for me as much. That is more because I felt she was playing the same role in X and Pearl. Only this time, her way of revenge is getting people crushed in their vehicles. It is also one where bizarre exorcisms come around, and they are hard to take seriously.

The concept is interruption of fame. With all the murder moments zooming back and forth, it is Maxine being distracted from her privileged life. MaXXXine deserves three X’s because that is all the film cares about and so does the role of Goth. Drugs, sex, and murders, just keep going down the aisles. The presentation is bulky which is hard to manage. I found myself thinking how much more over-the-top grotesque moments do I have to endure? Will anyone find joy in this one? I will say I did on some levels. But I wish there was more meaning than over-the-top celebrity nonsense mended with a murder scenario. My rating falls at two out of four stars for MaXXXine.

Film reviews

Pearl Review

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Earlier this year, director Ti West took his audience on a crazy and dazzling journey with the film X. Now seven months later, he takes his audience to the world of Pearl, a prequel to X set on the farm from X, but in the early 1900s, in the olden days of filmmaking.

In the film, Mia Goth plays Pearl, a girl with many feelings of loneliness and desire, who is living with her harsh mother Ruth, played by Tandi Wright, and her disabled father, played by Matthew Sunderland. Pearl lives a depressing life of solitude and rules, with little love, and she becomes desperate to find fame. Her search for it, though, is one that is rather harrowing—and deadly. She meets a film projectionist, played by David Corenswet, who shows her classy olden films. She meets others in the film industry, including Misty and Howard, played by Emma Jenkins-Purro and Alistair Sewell. Pearl’s desire to find fame causes her to become vindictive—enough to want to kill.

There are many similarities between Pearl and X, but Pearl contains less violence than X. The violence in Pearl is still graphic, but tempered by Goth’s performance. Like X, Pearl involves the concept of sex and filmmaking, which seems to be a big theme with West’s directing. In X, it was all about porn actors and directors trying to make a movie on a farm. After all the fun of their sexual escapades and filming of adult films, they begin to be terrorized by the landlords of the farm. Pearl is, again, about a girl living on that same farm, but decades earlier.

The theme of sex and movies being frowned upon in the olden days of filmmaking was interesting. Instead of Pearl being shy about it, though, she wants to be the one involved in sexual activities in films, despite it being an era where having sex in movies was not common. For Pearl, it’s not only about being a star, she also wants her desires to be met. And if Pearl can’t get sex, she is ready for others to pay the price. Though not quite as violent as X, Pearl is easily the most eccentric, and the most crazy and erotic, directing I have seen from West.

Despite its eccentricity and disturbing theme Pearl does give an interesting look back at the classic days of filmmaking. I very much enjoyed that aspect of the film. There are some repeated aspects and events from X, but this is a prequel so some of that is to be expected. The horror in Pearl being calmer than in X was a plus. Overall, I would call Pearl a crazy ride of terror and killings, with some laughs thrown in. I am giving the flick three and a half stars.