Ti West
Maxxxine

Ti West is like bread: it rises. With Maxxxine, he brings to the big screen an operation as complex as it is ambitious. Returning to 1985, showcasing the muscles of Reagan's America, the encroaching puritanism, the rampant porn industry, a serial-killer (which is, however, just a backdrop, like in the famous S.O.S by Spike Lee) at large, the notorious Night-Stalker (I highly recommend it).

He again collaborates with the extraordinary Mia Goth and scores a hat-trick, or rather, closes (?) the trilogy after X: A Sexy Horror Story (nice) and the prequel Pearl (stunning). Yes, because the past of X returns, with Maxxxine as the sole survivor of old Pearl's massacre and someone who knows, and now blackmails her…

Maxxxine is over 30, almost old for the porn market, she is a hard actress; those who have seen X already know, but she wants to be a serious actress, or rather, she wants to become a star, and as Bette Davis said: "if you want to become a star, you have to become a monster".

Ti West does not miss (and does not let us miss) anything in this film. A very interesting and definitely successful aspect is that not only is the eighties setting devilishly convincing, but the film is structured, due to the subject matter, as if it had been thought and conceived 40 years ago… Even the original soundtrack is set to the sounds of that era and is another strong point, nothing to say.

What else will you find in Maxxxine? The demonic Hollywood, VHS, cocaine, murders, blood, the right dose of splatter, several remarkable ideas, and a luxury supporting actor, one of the most underrated actors ever: the magnificent Kevin Bacon, here as a private investigator, rotten, filthy, and ruthless. In all fairness, it's more of a thriller than a horror, there's even a murder very reminiscent of the style of the master Dario Argento, but only the most die-hard film buffs will understand that the citation is borrowed directly from the master's master: Mario Bava and his Blood and Black Lace…

And like every good thriller demands, there will be a textbook plot twist, in the sense that you find it in the thriller/horror manual, but it fits…

Yet, although masterfully directed - Ti West has grown even more, I said it from the start - it did not fully convince me… it didn’t capture me like the damn Pearl, personal opinion. I don’t know, it’s too contrived, clichéd, more or less cunning, the resolution (or rather the underlying moral) has a déjà vu feel…

Now, as always, I will go online to read the reviews and then say, as always, darn it could I have written this?