I'm ashamed to say that I was a johnny-come-lately when it came to viewing writer/director/producer Ti West's X and Pearl, but when I did get around to them, man, was I ever enamored.
X occurs in 1979, detailing an amateur, porno film being shot at a Texas farm. The elderly owners have approved the filming to make a buck, but one of them, a woman named Pearl, played by Mia (Suspiria 2018) Goth, turns out to be psychotic, and from there, death spreads, with Goth's other character, Maxine Minx (Miller), averting such by the skin of her teeth.
Pearl is X's 1918-placed prequel, in which Goth plays the titular character in her (obvious) younger years. The story depicts her passion for cinema, including blue movies. She also aspires to be a legitimate, Hollywood star, but her murderous inclinations get in the way, with plenty of dark humor bleeding through the cracks.
For MaXXXine, West swings back to Goth's youthful character of the first movie, who's since made a name for herself in the adult-movie business, as well as participating in part-time, peep shows in L.A., during the frightful reign of Richard Ramirez, aka the Night Stalker.
She lands the chance to costar in a folk-horror movie entitled The Puritan II (in a setup that references Marilyn Chambers' transition to Rabid and Traci Lords' to Not of This Earth). Unfortunately, the rural slaughter still hounds Maxine, and she's accrued followers and sleazy "mercenaries" due to that specific notoriety, including a Louisiana P.I. named John Labat, played with marked smarm by Kevin Bacon, who's dressed to invoke Jack Nicholson's Jake Gittes of Chinatown. (For another cinematic tie-in, Maxine visits the Psycho motel-set and spots Norma Bates gazing from the window of its infamous house, perhaps just to remind us where the slasher trend began.)
Along with the ubiquitous Labat, Maxine encounters other accosters, even allowing for a graphic, Ms. 45 homage at one point, and concluding with a mysterious man who invites her to his sequestered estate for a Satan-denouncing documentary (the sardonic flipside of the Puritan sequel). The visit connects to her past (and a recurring reference in X), but to reveal the catch would ruin the picture. Nevertheless, it's suffice to say that the segment works as the movie's intense pinnacle.
As with the in-release Longlegs, MaXXXine cuts through its clues and splatter-soaked interludes to induce suspense, but the film finds its prime pulse in the deft and gorgeous Goth, though her costars render characters who are just as ensnaring.
In addition to Bacon, the supporting cast consists of Simon (The Gulf) Prast's Ernest Miller (Maxine's evangelist father); Elizabeth (Guardians of the Galaxy 3) Debiki's Elizabeth Bender (Puritan II's director); Moses Sumney's Leon (a video-store clerk who's also Maxine's good bud); Lily (Mirror Mirror) Collins' Molly Bennett (the lead of The Puritan movies); Chole Farnsworth's Amber James (an amiable, porn star); Halsey's Tabby Martin (another amiable, porn star); Bobby (Boardwalk Empire) Cannavale's Det. Torres (a once-aspiring actor, who uses thespian techniques for interrogation); Michelle (Source Code) Monaghan's Det. Williams (determined to cease the city's carnage); Ned Vaughn's news-breaking anchor; Giancarlo (Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul) Esposito's Teddy Knight (Maxine's vigilant agent/attorney); Sophie Thatcher's plaster-casting, makeup artist; and (for flashback purpose), Charlie Rowan McCain as little Maxine.
The tale's ambiance is fortified by Taylor Bates' industrial-noir orchestrations and cinematographer Eliot Rockett's smoky, neon-hued layout, the combination of which suits the cocaine-lined, Miami Vice/Crimes of Passion/Don't Answer the Phone!/To Live and Die in L.A. period to a pastel tee. (There are also segments featuring horror-movie protestors that reflect the decade's puritanical outrage over ultra-gore effects.)
As with X and Pearl, MaXXXine is saturated with seedy scares and the necessary, forbidden fruit that prompts them, which permits its searing remnants to leave indelible scars; still, in the moralistic corridors of carnal horror, that's not a bad thing.
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