In a music video for the mischievous pop album “Brat,” Charli XCX surrounds herself with an express breed of girls. Julia Fox. Rachel Sennott. Chloe Cherry of “Euphoria” fame. They all have that something special, an almost wild sense of self-actualization and sex appeal that is known through Extremely Online as the essence of Brat Girl Summer.
“It’s a stage of the je ne sais quoi genre,” the singer-songwriter explains to her colleagues in the video “360”.
With Ti West’s visceral and moody “MaXXXine,” this ultra-modern trend crystallized as a sharp yet eye-catching deconstruction of what’s known as female empowerment, hitting theaters just in time for its cute little summer. A24’s reigning scream queen, Mia Goth, makes her elegant and, yes, clearly spoiled return as Maxine Minx in this gruesome and major final breakdown of the “X” trilogy. At the very least, the dazzling finale feels like a hyper-violent ’80s piece designed for girls. It gives something of the show’s excessive peak kills, as well as its productive peak uses of shiny costumes, bloody testicles, and feminist subversion for a whirlwind ride that also doubles as a social punishment.
“Everyone can come home, because I just made it,” screams Maxine (happily unfriendly but also awesome?) as she leaves an audition for something called “The Puritan II. “At least he’s right. She succeeded. Although Maxine is haunted by violent flashbacks of the elderly couple who tried to kill her, we should be concerned about fueling her rising star, and she gets the part.
Set in Hollywood’s seedy underbelly, which is literal and metaphorical, “MaXXXine” anchors its action and namesake in a film within a film. Once again, West plays with slasher tropes to explore the fetishistic pursuit of fame through the lens of objectification. This time, however, his story temporarily acknowledges the tricks he and Goth have already noticed before in franchise partners “X” and “Pearl. “Minutes into the film, Maxine looks directly into the camera in a brief but brilliant homage to the standout single monologue that ended West’s last film. Goth then performs Maxine’s entire emotional audition for “The Puritan II,” with a chalkboard that sees her cry like a faucet and sets the bar for Goth’s multi-dimensional functionality that is close to a professional high.
A horror release that, in terms of genre, could best be classified as a psychosexual crime mystery, “MaXXXine” transitions from a fame-seeking fantasy to a frantic mystery as a mysterious character dressed in leather gloves sets out to catch our last daughter. Private investigator John Labat (Kevin Bacon, creepy and gold-toothed) first approaches Maxine to tell his hard-to-understand client. Soon after, two Los Angeles police detectives (Bobthrough Canavale and Michelle Monaghan, very compatible) darken her door to ask her about Night Stalker. and a series of corpses. Maxine has a vicious entertainment advocate (Giancarlo Esposito, playing his most productive impersonation of Winston Wolf) and other allies by her side. But who wants to call a friend when you have a gun in your bag and your house keys?the space between your fingers?
Last summer, the public reminded us that even Barbies can’t be everything to everyone. Here, West demands that his enthusiasts look at the death of women’s dreams from another perspective, since the inevitable danger of being the most sensible weighs heavily on them. Horror’s favorite aspiring star. At the end of a multigenerational Möbius strip about women’s autonomy, “MaXXXine” concludes its saga by asking why it would punish a boy for surviving in style.
An A24 release, “MaXXXine,” will hit theaters on July 5.