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MaXXXine-2024

Director Ti West

Starring Mia Goth

Scott’s Review 1,463

Reviewed February 4, 2025

Grade: B+

MaXXXine (2024) is a slasher horror film lover’s dream. With its 1980s-style filming, peroxide hairdos, and video cassette recorders (remember them?), it’s a sheer delight for genre fans.

Adding tight-washed blue jeans, a 1985 musical soundtrack, and the sunny setting of Los Angeles, California, you’ve got a throwback 80’s film in the best ways.

It is the third installment in Ti West’s X film series and a direct sequel to X (2022). The first chapter was called Pearl (2022). Although seeing the others before seeing MaXXXine is unnecessary, it is also fun.

West writes, produces, directs, and edits the vehicle, so the project is his creation. His muse, Mia Goth, who has starred in all three films, makes a return appearance and is co-producing.

Rumor has it there may be a fourth.

In the film, Maxine sets out for fame and success in 1980s Hollywood and is targeted by a mysterious killer, who is assumed to be the aptly nicknamed real-life Night Stalker.

But is this a red herring? Maxine’s friends are systematically eliminated, leaving the poor girl and the detectives to wonder if she could be the next target.

Could it be someone from her past? Or is someone jealous of her impending film success?

The film gets off to an intriguing start when a videotape shows a young Maxine dancing for her father, who appears to be coaching her and determinedly telling her never to settle.

Adult Maxine brilliantly auditions for a new horror film called Puritan II despite her only credits being in adult films. She shows she has raw talent and emotion and is unafraid to prance around topless.

She speeds away in her sports car with vanity plates reading ‘MaXXXine’.

We quickly learn that Maxine is not to be messed with. When she is accosted at knifepoint, she channels her inner Aileen Wuornos and pulls a gun on her attacker, makes him strip, puts the gun in his mouth, and forces him to perform fellatio on it before stomping on and crushing his testicles with her boot.

She snickers and walks away.

West wants MaXXXine to be entertaining, and he largely succeeds. It’s a fun film not to be taken seriously, but the female-empowering message impressed me.

The Puritan II’s director, wonderfully played by Elizabeth Debicki (The Crown’s Princess Diana), warns Maxine of the sharks and predators in La La Land, and an early quote by legendary actress Bette Davis states, ‘You’re not a star until you’re viewed as a monster.’

In MaXXXine, one is allowed to be a badass bitch and take no prisoners.

The final act is uneven, with a hokey explanation for the killer’s motivations for wanting Maxine dead amid the palatial Hollywood hills. The showdown is a generic extravaganza where the killer’s circle of henchmen is taken down conveniently to let him and Maxine square off.

Earlier, there are real-life clips of Christian wackos accusing heavy metal artists of devil worship and protesters foolishly carrying around signs objecting to the Puritan II, which is a significant clue to the whodunit.

Bobby Cannavale and Michelle Monaghan play detectives who lack great dialogue and are the film’s comic relief, and Kevin Bacon goes over the top as a private investigator.

However, a delightful cameo by Lily Collins (TV’s Emily in Paris) is a big win.

I suppose one could approach MaXXXine (2024) as dissecting the artificiality of Hollywood or the overindulgence of the 1980s excess (cocaine use is prevalent in the film). Still, I took the film as celebrating 1980s horror magnificently.

And I was a happy participant.

When Love Comes-1998

Director Garth Maxwell

Starring Rena Owen, Dean O’Gorman, Simon Prast

Scott’s Review #1,340

Reviewed February 3, 2023

Grade: B+

When Love Comes (1998) is a New Zealand film, spoken in English, by filmmaker Garth Maxwell.

It starts slowly and muddled, but quietly captures me with its thoughtful, humanistic tones of emotion, conflict, and sexuality.

There are no subtitles, which makes the dialogue hard to follow, given the accents, and may knock the film down a smidgen for me, but the main stories are enthralling with deep texture.

More or less an ensemble of six acquaintances, and three of the characters get the most screen time.

The main character is washed-up singer Katie Keen (Rena Owen), who struggles to create a new life for herself while coping with her absent admirer, Eddie, and living with her best friend, Stephen.

Stephen is in love with sexually confused ex-hustler Mark, while bandmates Fig and Sally, smitten with each other, yearn for success as they traipse around town and the beaches together.

The most interesting storyline is LGBTQ+ centered.

Given that the time was 1998, when gay films were starting to make their presence known, Stephen and Mark have the most depth.

Admittedly, a couple of story points are disjointed, like why the men have trouble admitting their feelings for each other and why Mark’s anger issues cause him to smash a window.

In the end, their story wraps up nicely, and Maxwell earns points for helping the audience appreciate the couple.

The lesbians get short shrift. Are they gay or bisexual? If bisexual, are they a couple, or what is their arrangement? Don’t get me wrong, they are fun to watch shred the guitar and beat mercilessly on the drums as they raucously perform, but little is known about their lives.

Even though When Love Comes is an ensemble, Katie is the lead character. I fell in love with her character because she is the most well-written. At one time, a big pop singer, her star faded, and she is at a crossroads.

As she whimsically gazes at the crashing waves, the expression on her face reveals the deep thoughts and regrets in her life.

Unfortunately, her love interest, Eddie, is heard from but does not appear in the flesh until pretty deep into the film. Therefore, there is not much rooting value for the couple, and we don’t know much about Eddie.

Surprisingly, despite this miss, I felt a connection to Katie and Eddie. Rena Owen is a terrific actress, revealing expressions and a veneer we deeply want to explore.

There is a decent amount of flesh in the sex scenes, which makes for some fun, but the wise move is to stick to the character motivations and watch them develop.

This can be said with only three of the characters, and I wished for more grit from Eddie, Fig, and Sally.

When Love Comes feels lopsided at times, but succeeds as a slow-build film. Nothing is done quickly or forcefully; instead, long scenes of dialogue are crafted, and the conversations have something to say rather than serving as filler or a bridge to more important scenes.

I respect the cinematography because it has a softer, independent-film look, which is, of course, what it is. A big budget is not needed for a film about people, and the Auckland sequences are wonderful.

Keeping the time frame in mind, I wish I had seen When Love Comes (1998) when it was released. It would have packed a harder punch than it does twenty-five years later, when plenty of similar-toned films have been made.