Alas, all of that set-up amounts to a promise that West can\u2019t really deliver on. MaXXXine <\/em>is a crushing disappointment, a handsomely mounted and finely performed actualization of a paper-thin screenplay where, for the first time, all of the filmmaker\u2019s period touches and affectionate homages amount to little more than mere window dressing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s 1985, and the \u201cNight Stalker\u201d serial killer is terrorizing Los Angeles. But our heroine Maxine Minx (Mia Goth), now 33, has bigger things on her mind: a big star in the adult industry, she\u2019s auditioning for a \u201creal movie,\u201d a slasher sequel called The Puritan II. <\/em>\u201cI figure acting is acting,\u201d she explains to the filmmakers. \u201cI can do just as good a job as any of those other blondes out there.\u201d And with that she delivers a stunning direct-to-camera monologue (a sly wink to Goth\u2019s best scene in Pearl<\/em>), chases it with a chipper \u201cthank you!\u201d as she wipes her tears at its conclusion, and replies with a perfectly non-plussed \u201cYeah, sure\u201d when she is asked the final question of the session: \u201cDo you mind taking your top off so we can see your breasts?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n She gets the role, but over the course of the next several days, she\u2019s shaken up by the murders of several people close to her, all either by the Night Stalker or a particularly grisly imitator. Someone is certainly watching her; a videotape appears at her door with footage from the aborted film she was shooting six years earlier in X<\/em>, but who, and what, is a mystery\u2026 sort of. It must be said that when the reveal finally appears, it\u2019s not much, and by the time the picture has resorted to a standard-issue cops-and-killers shoot-out, it\u2019s quite clear that West has lost his way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It\u2019s not that MaXXXine<\/em> is bad, not precisely; devoid of comparison to its predecessors, perhaps its errors wouldn\u2019t seem so clear. West stages a couple of very good kills (including an early moment involving the spike of her high heels that will haunt the nightmares of most male audience members), and West\u2019s filmmaking is inspired, with its playful use of VHS aesthetics, its copious De Palma shout-outs (its primary stylistic inspiration seems to be the filmmaker\u2019s early-\u201880s thrillers, like Body Double<\/em> and Dressed to Kill<\/em>), and its close-up visual references to giallo and slasher iconography.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The performances are similarly in tune. Goth is again marvelous, even when the material fails her, now an old hand at playing the character\u2019s spiky mix of toughness, vulnerability, and sexuality. Kevin Bacon hams it up (so to speak) as an amoral private dick \u2014 his second such turn in a single week, a wise lane to pursue heading into retirement age. And Giancarlo Esposito is having a blast as Maxine\u2019s skeezy agent, who\u2019s willing to do just about anything to protect his client. But Michelle Monaghan and Bobby Cannavale (exciting actors both) are wasted, unable to transcend the tired cliches of their cop characters, and the Big Bad is as forgettable as he is obvious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n West has been working in the slow-boil mode since his breakthrough picture, the \u201980s-set (coincidentally enough) House of the Devil<\/em> 15 years ago, so viewers in the know are inclined to cut him some slack, waiting for his work to crackle and catch fire in the third act. This time, that moment never arrives; MaXXXine <\/em>ends feeling, for the first time, like West has run out of gas. The always-excellent Elizabeth Debicki, as Maxine\u2019s Puritan II<\/em> director, describes her film-within-the-film as \u201ca B movie with A ideas.\u201d That was an apt description of this series\u2014until now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “MaXXXine” is in theaters Friday.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/maxxxine2-1024x577.jpg\")
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