Following a near-death car accident, four friends on their way to a Halloween wedding, venture to a secluded farm for help. Little do they know however, they will soon disturb an ancient evil with far more ghastly plans in store for them…
Ethan Hawke in Ti West’s ‘In a Valley of Violence’. Photo: Blumhouse Productions.
The story of a drifter named Paul (Ethan Hawke) who arrives in a small town seeking revenge on the thugs who murdered his friend. Sisters Mary Anne (Taissa Farmiga) and Ellen (Karen Gillan), who run the town’s hotel, help Paul in his quest for vengeance.
Trapped on her family’s isolated farm, Pearl (Mia Goth) must tend to her ailing father under the bitter and overbearing watch of her devout mother. Lusting for a glamorous life like she’s seen in the movies, Pearl’s ambitions, temptations, and repressions collide.
Sara Paxton in Ti West’s ‘The Innkeepers’. Photo: Magnet Releasing.
During the final days at the Yankee Pedlar Inn, two employees (Sara Paxton and Pat Healy) determined to reveal the hotel’s haunted past begin to experience disturbing events as old guests check in for a stay.
In 1979, a group of young filmmakers set out to make an adult film in rural Texas, but when their reclusive, elderly hosts catch them in the act, the cast find themselves fighting for their lives.
Ti West’s ‘The Sacrament’. Photo: Magnolia Pictures.
Cab driver Max (Jamie Foxx) picks up a man (Tom Cruise) who offers him $600 to drive him around. But the promise of easy money sours when Max realizes his fare is an assassin.
Mia Goth in ‘Maxxxine’. Photo: Starmaker Studios LLC.
In 1980s Hollywood, adult film star and aspiring actress Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) finally gets her big break. But as a mysterious killer stalks the starlets of Hollywood, a trail of blood threatens to reveal her sinister past.
Tom Noonan in Ti West’s ‘The House of the Devil’. Photo: MPI Media Group.
A young college student (Jocelin Donahue) who’s struggling financially takes a strange babysitting job which coincides with a full lunar eclipse. She slowly realizes her clients harbor a terrifying secret, putting her life in mortal danger.
Mia Goth in ‘Maxxxine’. Photo: Starmaker Studios LLC.
Ti West is nothing if not ambitious. The indie horror auteur has followed up 2022’s ‘X’ (set in the ‘70s) and ‘Pearl’ (set in 1918) with ‘MaXXXine,’ the conclusion to what has turned into a wide-ranging horror trilogy spanning three seminal decades in American history and popular culture. Now ‘MaXXXine’ fast-forwards to the 1980s, when the indie horror of the ‘70s was seeping into Hollywood and changing the way the genre was portrayed and films were made, while at the same time the porn industry was migrating to home video.
The epicenter of it all is Hollywood, the connection point between sleaze and cinema, and at the very center of West’s movie is Maxine Minx (Mia Goth), the sole survivor of ‘X’ and now an established adult film star looking to make it big in mainstream movies. Goth, who also played an elderly Pearl in ‘X’ and a younger version in ‘Pearl,’ plays Maxine to the hilt this time around, her drive for success just as relentless as her determination to let nothing stand in her way.
‘MaXXXine’ is largely driven by Goth’s magnetic performance, which is just as much the centerpiece here as it was in the previous films. And this time she and West are working on a bigger canvas, with a larger, star-studded cast, and an expansive narrative. But while the first two-thirds of the movie are fun, the last act strangely lets down both Maxine herself and the world West is building.
Story and Direction
Director Ti West on the set of ‘Maxxxine’. Photo: Starmaker Studios LLC.
Several years after the farmhouse massacre that ended ‘X,’ sole survivor and top porn star Maxine Minx yearns to make the leap to mainstream movies. She gets the chance via ‘The Puritan II,’ a sequel to a slasher hit that’s being directed by Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki), who sees tremendous potential in Maxine but perhaps overestimates that of her own movie. Just as filming begins, people around Maxine – including her porn actor friend Tabby (Halsey) and others – begin to die, killed gruesomely in a series of attacks (shot Dario Argento-style) that resemble those being perpetrated by the Night Stalker (a real-life serial killer who terrorized L.A. in 1984 and 1985).
Maxine also gets a visit from a seedy private detective named John Labat (Kevin Bacon), who’s up from New Orleans to find Maxine on behalf of a mysterious client. The client may have knowledge of Maxine’s involvement in the farmhouse murders – and may also have a connection to the killings that are closing in around her now as well.
‘MaXXXine’ both pays homage to and satirizes the Hollywood culture of the time, the slasher genre that was prevalent that decade, and the efforts to which women have to go to make it in the business (particularly in the ‘80s). West, cinematographer Eliot Rockett, and production designer Jason Kisvardy get the aesthetic of the period almost absolutely perfect: scenes are either brightly lit or awash in inky darkness, while the buildings, interiors, cars, and props immediately immerse the viewer in both the gaudiness and tackiness of the decade (they’re equally matched by the wardrobe, makeup, and hair, courtesy of Mari-An Ceo, Sarah Rubano, and Jaime Leigh McIntosh, respectively).
(L to R) Mia Goth and Sophie Thatcher in ‘Maxxxine’. Photo: Starmaker Studios LLC.
All this is in service of a story that is wildly offbeat and a bit unstructured for its first two-thirds, as Maxine pursues her dream even as the grisly killings continue around her (and they are gruesome, in that delightfully bloody ‘80s way). In addition to Labat, she’s also under the scrutiny of two cops played by Michelle Monaghan and Bobby Cannavale, the latter out to nail Maxine for the crimes while the former responds to her as a fellow woman struggling in a male-dominated business.
When it all comes to a head in the final third, however, ‘MaXXXine’ loses both steam and coherence. There are simply too many plot strands and characters for West to juggle effectively, and a few crucial points get lost in the shuffle. Curiously, Maxine also loses a great deal of her agency in the latter half of the film, acting almost as a passive bystander as events happen to and around her. While she reasserts herself at the very end, Maxine doesn’t quite push the confluence of events forward, robbing her arc of some of its potency.
The Cast
(L to R) Mia Goth and Elizabeth Debicki in ‘Maxxxine’. Photo: Starmaker Studios LLC.
While ‘X’ had the benefit of including an always watchable Brittany Snow and a pre-‘Wednesday’ Jenna Ortega in its cast, and ‘Pearl’ gave us a look at David Corenswet before he donned Superman’s cape, ‘MaXXXine’ clearly has the most stacked ensemble of the three films.
Of course, it all revolves around Goth, whose mix of hard-bitten cynicism, sultriness, self-confidence, and arrogance are just as bracing here as her work in the previous two films (although her astounding performance in ‘Pearl’ may be hard to top). Between the ‘X’ trilogy and last year’s ‘Infinity Pool,’ Goth may very well have positioned herself as the reigning queen of indie horror, capable of fearless, nuanced work in roles that seem tailor-made for her slightly otherworldly presence.
This time out, however, she’s more than ably supported by the chewy antics of Kevin Bacon (doing a sweaty, Cajun-flavored Hank Quinlan in the clothes of Jake Gittes), and the magnificent Giancarlo Esposito, who plays Maxine’s agent with a mix of fatherly protectiveness and ‘done it all’ world-weariness. Halsey and Lily Collins’ appearances are too brief to really register (although Collins has a funny bit), and the detectives essayed by Cannavale and Monaghan are instantly fun to watch even if they don’t get a lot of time to develop. Elizabeth Debicki is always a welcome presence as well, although her scenes as the ambitious ‘Puritan II’ director are somewhat repetitive as she constantly reminds Maxine how important their movie is.
Final Thoughts
Mia Goth in ‘Maxxxine’. Photo: Starmaker Studios LLC.
Overall, the ‘X’ trilogy (which could apparently expand to a fourth film, according to recent comments from West) has been a blast to watch, with the writer-director paying tribute to several different movie genres at once and getting the look and style right in all three films (while populating all three with some good old-fashioned gore and sex as well). And in Maxine herself, West and Goth have created an indelible new combination of genre femme fatale and scream queen.
But ‘X’ and ‘Pearl’ were far more focused that ‘MaXXXine,’ which tries to tie together so many elements – the rise of the slasher film genre, the moral panic over said movies by cultural watchdogs, the real-life panic over the Night Stalker and other “Satanic” murders, the battle of women to get recognition and respect in an exploitative industry – that it never quite achieves the grand finale it’s clearly aiming for. But in a funny way, that’s almost how it should be as well – we all know that the third movie in a trilogy never quite sticks the landing.
‘MaXXXine’ receives 7 out of 10 stars.
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What is the plot of ‘MaXXXine’?
As adult film star Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) reaches for stardom in 1980s Hollywood with a role in a slasher film, a series of mysterious killings with possible connections to her past threaten her life and the lives of those around her. Maxine must confront the ghosts of her past and the forces conspiring against her if she wants to finally grasp what she’s desired for so long.
Mia Goth as Pearl in director Ti West’s ‘X’ prequel, ‘Pearl.’
It’s a good time to be Mia Goth right now. The actor, previously known for movies such as ‘A Cure for Wellness’, the remake of ‘Suspiria’ and ‘Everest’, has broken big in the last year thanks to her role as the murderous Pearl/Maxine in Ti West’s horror movies ‘X’, ‘Pearl’ and ‘MaXXXine’, the latter of which has just started shooting.
She’s also did great work encouraging/terrifying Alexander Skarsgård in Brandon Cronenberg’s ‘Infinity Pool’. So it stands to reason that she might have hit the radar of Marvel Studios and now, according to Deadline, she’s signed a deal to co-star in ‘Blade’.
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Mahershala Ali is starring as the title character, who already popped up for a voice-only cameo in one of the ‘Eternals’ post-credit scenes interacting with Kit Harington’s Dane Whitman. And, as is usual for Marvel, there is no indication as to what role Goth will play.
Blade from Marvel Comics. Photo courtesy of Marvel.com.
What’s the background for ‘Blade’?
Originally crafted by Gene Colan and Marv Wolfman as a human who was immune to vampire bites, he was later changed to Eric Cross Brooks, whose mother is murdered by the bloodsucker Deacon Frost as she gives birth. The attack passes on vampire enzymes to her child, who becomes a Dhampir – a mix of both human and vampire.
Gifted with speed, strength, and the ability to walk in the daylight (hence his other name, the Daywalker), his mission is to hunt down and destroy vampires. In his time, he’s crossed paths with many notable Marvel characters in the comics, including Spider-Man and the Avengers. He’s also battled living vampire Morbius, who appeared in a less-than-enthusiastically received movie last year via Sony’s Spider-universe, starring Jared Leto.
But the character is probably best known thanks to the trilogy of ‘Blade’ movies that starred Wesley Snipes, released by New Line in 1998, 2002 and 2004.
Marvel’s take on ‘Blade’ was originally announced to ear-splitting audience reaction as a surprise at the company’s San Diego Comic-Con panel in 2019. Ali was brought out wearing a cap bearing the Blade logo.
All seemed to be moving forward properly, with ‘Mogul Mowgli’ director Bassam Tariq boarding the movie roughly a year later, and Stacy Osei-Kuffour writing the script. But it hit a major roadblock in September last year when Tariq left the movie.
“Due to continued shifts in our production schedule, Bassam is no longer moving forward as director of ‘Blade’ but will remain an executive producer on the film. We appreciate Bassam’s talent and all the work he’s done getting ‘Blade’ to where it is.”
There was talk of problems with the script and Marvel hit the pause button. Things appear to be back on track now, as ’71’ and ‘Lovecraft Country’ director Yann Demange is overseeing the movie, while Michael Starrbury, who earned an Emmy nomination for an episode of Ava DuVernay’s drama ‘When They See Us’, is on board to overhaul the screenplay. The tone is reportedly headed in a darker, grittier direction.
Assuming it all goes well, the movie should be in theaters on September 6th, 2024.
The new erotic-horror-thriller stars Alexander Skarsgård (‘The Northman’) as James Foster, a troubled author enjoying a vacation at a tropical resort with his estranged wife Em (Cleopatra Coleman). Eventually they meet the mysterious Gabi (‘Pearl’s Mia Goth), and her husband Alban (‘Tell No One’s Jalil Lespert), who invite them on a day trip to a private beach outside the resort, which is forbidden by the local government for guests to visit.
After an unfortunate accident leaves James facing a zero tolerance policy for his crime, he discovers an expensive loophole that allows foreign criminals to live as long as they are first cloned, and then witness their own clone’s execution. This leads James to question his own mortality, as well as his marriage, as he experiences violence, hedonism and untold horror with Gabi, Alban, and their wealthy friends.
The result is a truly crazy movie experience that explores themes of mortality and sexuality, while grounding it in the horror genre. Cronenberg’s direction is impressive, but the screenplay falls apart in the third act, and while Alexander Skarsgård gives a strong performance, it is Mia Goth that truly shines and steals the film.
Mia Goth as Gabi in Brandon Cronenberg’s ‘Infinity Pool.’
It’s very hard to know exactly what type of movie ‘Infinity Pool’ is going to be from the first 20 minutes. It starts off very “normal,” never hinting at the sci-fi or horror elements yet to come. In the beginning, it almost seems like a noir film, or that it will turn out to be about an affair, and ultimately a ‘Fatal Attraction’ type thriller. But once the idea of cloning is introduced as an actual thing, you realize that all bets are off as the movie gets stranger and stranger (in a good way) and ultimately is more like an updated ‘Eyes Wide Shut.’
I should have known that the film would go in that direction, and while Brandon Cronenberg introduces elements and themes similar to his father’s movies, the two directors are quite different. I was very impressed with Brandon Cronenberg’s direction, and the unique camera angles and composition of shots that he and his cinematographer, Karim Hussain, crafted. In fact, the film opens on an eerie shot of the resort’s pool and then quickly inverts the landscape. The filmmaker uses this technique throughout the film and it adds to the mood and tone of the movie.
Cronenberg uses other interesting camera and editing techniques during the party scenes where the characters are using hallucinating drugs. Along with the actors performances, this technique really relates the feeling of being under the influence of these drugs and the out-of-control state of mind of the characters for the audience.
In addition to being an erotic thriller and eventually dipping its toes in both the sci-fi and horror genres, the movie also addresses the themes of class and privilege. Other than the film’s more salacious or outrageous moments, this is where the movie’s message works best, when James begins to examine his own privilege and that of the wealthy people he is associating with.
But the film also deals with the idea of, who are we? As its never quite clear if the real James still exists, or if the James we meet at the beginning of the movie was secretly replaced with his own clone each time the “clone” was supposedly killed. Cronenberg navigates this well, never truly giving us an answer, but leaving the clues for the audience to decide themselves. The movie also explores the question of mortality, and what it does to James to repeatedly watch “himself” die.
Cleopatra Coleman as Em in Brandon Cronenberg’s ‘Infinity Pool.’
Cleopatra Coleman is fine in her role as Em, but is not given much to do other than warn and then watch James on his downward spiral. French actor Jalil Lespert is very entertaining as Gabi’s husband, who is an outgoing and funny character. Rounding out the supporting cast is German actor Thomas Kretschmann (‘Avengers: Age of Ultron’) as Detective Thresh, the policeman that arrests James and offers him the cloning deal. The actor completely sells the cloning concept, even though it takes a certain amount of suspended disbelief from the audience to accept in the movie which is otherwise grounded in reality.
Alexander Skarsgård, who is coming off an absolutely excellent performance in last year’s ‘The Northman,’ gives another strong performance in ‘Infinity Pool,’ and helps anchor the film’s believability. The actor, who often plays heroic or “cool” characters marvelously transformed himself into a much meeker man, someone that could easily fall into Gabi’s mental traps. James is having a breakdown, not only in his marriage, but also in his own understanding of who he is as a human being, and it’s fun watching Skarsgård portray that in the movie.
Alexander Skarsgård as James Foster in Brandon Cronenberg’s ‘Infinity Pool.’
But its Mia Goth’s performance as Gabi, that really shines and makes the film worth watching. The actress made a real name for herself last year starring in both of director Ti West’s horror movies ‘X’ and ‘Pearl.’ Again here, Goth gives another performance as a troubled and mysterious woman in what could be considered a horror movie, but her role is so much more complex than that.
She must beguile both James and the audience from her first scene, convincing us to trust her innocent character. Goth’s pleasant demeanor and kind attitude is more than enough to mask her character’s true intentions and the massive threat that she presents. Goth gives a sweet and innocent performance at first, but can more than handle the sudden flip in her character, once Gabi’s true intentions are revealed and she “goes nuclear.”
In the end, ‘Infinity Pool’ is an interesting and thought-provoking film that works on several different levels, but never really pulls it all together. Brandon Cronenberg is an impressive director to keep an eye on, and Alexander Skarsgård gives a performance unlike anything we’ve seen from him before, but it is Mia Goth who makes the movie truly worth watching.
(L to R) Mia Goth and Alexander Skarsgård star in Brandon Cronenberg’s ‘Infinity Pool.’
Those who have yet to see Ti West’s latest horror movie, ‘X’, which hacked its way into theaters back in March might want to skip reading anything much about the new prequel movie ‘Pearl’. Just for the sake of avoiding spoilers.
But if you’ve seen and become a fan of West’s 1970s-set horror thriller, you’ll no doubt be happy to see the director revisit that story but explore it from an angle set years before.
And yes, in case you were wondering, West shot ‘Pearl’ almost concurrently with ‘X’, which explains why he’s been able to get this movie to theaters so quickly.
‘X’, of course, was set in the 1970s, and saw a group of filmmakers and actors traveling to an isolated farm to shoot a cheap porno movie. It’s there that the likes of producer Wayne (Martin Henderson, girlfriend and aspiring starlet Maxine Minx (Mia Goth), writer/director R.J. (Owen Campbell), his girlfriend and sound operator Lorraine (Jenna Ortega), and actors/couple Bobby-Lynne (Brittany Snow) and Jackson (Scott Mescudi) have rented the place from owner Howard (Stephen Ure).
Howard, though, seems none too pleased to have the crew on his property, yet the filmmakers are able to start work. The real problem comes from Howard’s wife, Pearl (Goth in a second, prosthetics-heavy role), who tries to seduce several of the crew, but slaughters them when they rebuff her. The movie opens and closes with the police arriving and discovering the bloody carnage that has gone down.
‘Pearl’ – which actually got a first teaser during the credits of ‘X’ – naturally digs into Goth’s character’s younger life.
Set in 1918, the movie follows Pearl who, trapped on her family’s isolated farm, must tend to her ailing father under the bitter and overbearing watch of her devout mother. Lusting for a glamorous life like she’s seen in the movies, Pearl’s ambitions, temptations, and repressions all collide in a murderous spree.
“Part of the idea of this movie that’s cool to me is that there is a bigger thing to it all,” West told Bloody Disgusting earlier this year. What I can tell you about ‘Pearl’, because we’ve already made it and it’s done, is it is very much a story about Pearl. So you will learn more about her. It is stylistically very different from ‘X’. You do not need one without the other, but they enrich each other in a specific way. In the way that ‘X’ is affected, let’s say by 1970s horror independent filmmaking and Americana cinema, ‘Pearl’ is influenced by a very different era of filmmaking. If we do the third one, it will be affected by a different type of cinema.”
Yes, a third is at least in development, though West isn’t saying what it might entail. We do know that Maxine is revealed to be the daughter of a preacher who has been hunting for her, but we’ll wait and see whether that ties in.
‘Pearl’ will be in theaters from September 16th.
Mia Goth as Pearl in director Ti West’s ‘X’ prequel, ‘Pearl.’
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