MaXXXine.

Review #2227: MaXXXine.

Cast: 

Mia Goth (Maxine Minx), Elizabeth Debicki (Elizabeth Bender), Moses Sumney (Leon), Michelle Monaghan (Det. Williams), Bobby Cannavale (Det. Torres), Halsey (Tabby Martin), Lily Collins (Molly Bennett), Giancarlo Esposito (Teddy Knight, Esq.), Kevin Bacon (John Labat), and Simon Prast (Ernest Miller) Written and Directed by Ti West (#1893 - Pearl and #2133 - X)

Review: 

"My goal is to put you in the era and to put you in the aesthetics of that, so that way it feels end-to-end created."

X (2022) was a neat time for those who like films with a touch of familiar sleaze to go with their horror movies, one that was a "ballad of sex and violence". Pearl (2022) was, well, delightful in its bloody charm that I seem to mention either too much or not enough in charming horror features that included a teaser for "MaXXXine". As with the last two, West serves as both editor, co-producer and director/writer. The film (if you didn't already know) is set in 1985 around the time of The Night Stalker murders, who had a spree of murders and offenses in the state of Calfornia prior to his capture on August 31, 1985. Evidently, MaXXXine may not be the capstone of an "X trilogy" but instead just the third wheel of a well-oiled pastiche machine, which actually seems to be a compliment when it comes to worthwhile slasher fun that looks around at just how people get influenced by cinema (such as perhaps the kind of folks that can recite Hollywood Boulevard [1976] or The Day of the Locust [1975] when thinking about slime in the belly of the filmmaking beast). Or at least a film in the journey of self-actualization with an ending that happens to be a bit different than expected.

Sure, it is a glossy pastiche that is a notch below the last two films. But the enjoyment of the film for me makes it pretty easy because it seems pretty evident that when it comes to genres of film, horror is the easiest to spotlight and defend at the same time. B-movies and slasher films, when entertaining, still manage to get crap from people who either think horror is supposed to be "dignified" or wouldn't know entertainment if it bit them in the ass. People like to get spooked just as much as they like to absorb a film trying to play familiar dress up. This is a delightfully vapid and occasionally gruesome movie that I enjoyed most of the time that really does show just how cheap thrills really do provide worthwhile intervention when executed well enough. The driven nature of the main character was pretty unnerving in each of the previous two films, and while it may not be as prominent this time around, there are flashes of just how craven one really can be when driven to get the life they believe they deserve, even if it means stomping away (literally) at would-be saboteurs. Goth manages to maintain that strange sense of unnerving confidence that is alluring in all of its weird charm that straddles the craven line that comes in someone that really could be called an antihero in the best of ways. There are a few scenes that could stand as a highlight, but I think the one where she finds herself stuck in a chair with makeup all over spooks me the most (well, a stomping one might be spooky for others too, but staging terror is a matter of pride when it comes to horror). Being wrapped up in a murder mystery while others try to play A-values into a B-movie production makes for a few chuckles with Debicki or with Sumney (playing the other side of movie-connected folks, a man of the video store), but it is pretty evident that Bacon steals the show with such smarmy confidence befitting of his natural energy that comes out (accent and all). Monaghan and Cannavale provide familiar procedural chuckles that roll right in for my tastes because, well, familiarity always wins the day if it is committed. Eventually one sees where Esposito and Prast make for homely touches of where the film really will go within gruesome truths, particularly with the latter. The eventual reveal is probably not hard to see coming after a certain amount of time, but I appreciate the circular logic that comes in wanting to make a statement about the nature of Hollywood by making a film themselves. In the end, the intervention that arises for its climax (if you haven't seen it, it sounds like a dumb joke, but...) serves the film enough as a hodgepodge of gloss and blood for an engaging time that will surely make West's next idea a worthwhile one to look forward to.

Overall, I give it 8 out of 10 stars.

X (2022).

Review #2133: X.

Cast: 

Mia Goth (Maxine / Pearl), Jenna Ortega (Lorraine Day), Brittany Snow (Bobby-Lynne Parker), Scott Mescudi (Jackson Hole), Martin Henderson (Wayne Gilroy), Owen Campbell (RJ Nichols), Stephen Ure (Howard), Simon Prast (the televangelist), and James Gaylyn (Sheriff Dentler) Written and Directed by Ti West (#1893 - Pearl)

Review: 

It's the damndest thing. I found myself not having enough time to pick out this film when it came out in the month of March in 2022, but when it came to Pearl, billed as "An X-traordinary Origin Story" (as filmed on the same sets in New Zealand as this film) released in the latter days of September of that same year, I had all of the curiosity necessary to use it as a good way to start a month of horror. So, here I am basically trying to quantify my blunder in not just watching this film when it was new and wondering just how dumb I was in not picking it earlier. If you didn't already know, West had made a name for himself with a steady collection of horror features that started with The Roost (2005). This is his eighth feature film and just like the rest of them, he also wrote and edited the film himself. Sometime in the near future will be a sequel called MaXXXine, as already mentioned for those who were lucky enough to have seen Pearl, which will feature West and Goth again as one would hope makes a proper horror trilogy. 

Spoiler: well, I'm an idiot, I should've watched X back then. What better way to touch upon both a look into the world of X-ratedness that comes in porn and horror than a film like this? Sure, you might find something a bit familiar here with, say, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974). Both were at a crossroads as the 1970s were about to end, and the advent of video (with stuff such as Debbie Does Dallas, released in 1978) was a big reason for that, because now one could find a market interest in something that wanted to see flesh in their own homes. In other words, one could get away with doing something for themselves for others without having to go with Hollywood or through those proper channels, which could be places such as say, a farm in Houston. It has an amusing pace to it beyond the grisly elements that come in both the bloodshed along with the cries for being past one's youth that make for a really enjoyable time. It is craftsmanship of the best kind when it comes to the fear that comes in both delusional visitors and in becoming old, complete with prosthetics used to make a film that isn't just riding on CG-mush. When it comes to showcase, it goes doubly for Goth, who plays two roles that work in the view of people who desire a life for themselves filled with what they look like on the inside and out (whether that is a cocaine-sniffing actress or someone who obviously saw plenty in the 1920s when it comes to youth). This desperation makes for some curious scenes, such as their first scene together (after one is seen watching the other skinny-dipping in a pool that narrowly misses an alligator, anyway) that is uncomfortable in dreary enjoyment for one looking upon a younger one. The filming of the nudie scenes is particularly interesting when it comes to trying to construct something both pleasing and fitting to what looks and sounds right for both cameraman and cast undergoing it all that works for Parker and Mescudi (best known as Kid Cudi) for timing in performances. Henderson makes a worthy minor note in would-be film huckster, which compares pretty well when you think about Campbell and Ortega reacting to the idea of being involved more than just behind the camera (consider that reaction from the former in the aftermath carefully). It is the dynamic of Ure and Goth, however, that drives the film to where it must go, because even love must go hand in hand with sadism when it comes to helping others realize their desires, which is probably more unsettling than anything, at least when compared to the blood and gore (or the televangelist that occasionally appears on television, for those who don't care to hear of hucksters of the religious kind). One could actually feel bad for this character in the basic sense of aging, because, well, no one can be as young and free as they want to be forever, no matter what they may pretend to think (whether with others or by themselves, although the lonely usually die faster anyway). I especially like the ending for the subversion of the usual final person tropes when it comes to just wanting what they want, an ideal representation of "F you, got mine" if there ever was one. As a ballad of sex and violence with lingering degrees of uncomfortable styling, it makes for a highly interesting start to a horror series I really did not see coming (X and Pearl may actually be neck-and-neck with each other when it comes to how each do their own pastiche of a certain genre). Far from just a tribute or just an excuse to show skin and gore, this is the kind of film fit for its era when it comes to delivering unsettling entertainment with little to no false notes detected in the best of ways possible.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

I hope you folks have enjoyed this procession of October in Horror films (with one exception) in this historic month. I wanted to do a month packed with a handful of the usual names you might expect from horror, whether that meant a Vincent Price film or a John Carpenter effort and put them all together. There were plenty of films considered that didn't make the cut that I'm sure could be covered next October...or with Halloween The Week After, Year Five.

Pearl (2022).

Review #1893: Pearl.

Cast: 

Mia Goth (Pearl), David Corenswet (The Projectionist), Tandi Wright (Ruth), Matthew Sunderland (Pearl's Father), Emma Jenkins-Purro (Mitsy), and Alistair Sewell (Howard) Directed by Ti West.

Review: 

“If ‘X’ is about the way this auteurist era of independent filmmaking is affecting people, ‘Pearl’ is sort of about the old Hollywood way that affected people. The way in which they enrich each other is all a part of the craft of the filmmaking. I wanted to do something where all of the crafts of the movie were their very apparent charms.”

I'm sure you are familiar with X (2022). Well, if you are not, that is okay, because that was one of the films that slipped by my radar. It was a slasher film directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by Ti West that apparently had homages to slasher films of the 1970s such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), with Mia Goth as the star. After the production had wrapped, West started work on utilizing the script idea he and Goth had developed together, with the inspiration coming from his eagerness to direct movies during the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, with A24 being the production company for both ventures; had A24 not been interested in the idea as it was in terms of being made right after X (such as with budget), it would have been done in black-and-white, so one gets a movie with a color scheme meant to evoke Technicolor. Pearl takes inspiration from the works of Douglas Sirk while being shot as if was Mary Poppins meeting Texas Chain Saw Massacre. This is the ninth film from West, who started doing his own films in 2005, for which he has written all of them alongside serving as editor and producer on most of them.

I really dug this film, which is interesting consider the fact that this is a "prequel" to a film released in the same year. It makes me want to look at what X did with how film affects certain people in certain ways, and it makes me wonder how the film teased at the end (titled MaXXXine) will go, because now I have great interest in what West and company want to do. It isn't often that one sees a movie that has both an enthusiasm about making a horror feature and the proper execution to actually go where it wants to go without relying on becoming a mockery or copy in nostalgia. It manages to be unnerving and charming at the same time with its musings on what desires and wants can do to a person. The unraveling of one's grip on reality becomes part of the horror itself, you might say (since there isn't that many speaking parts in the film, one expects a good balance there, which is proven correct). It has its sympathies for the devil without dwelling on cheap tricks; hell, don't take my word for it, Martin Scorsese thought it was quite disturbing. 

Goth had gotten her start in films with Nymphomaniac (2013), but X was her first starring role. She pulls off such a wonderful performance, one that any actor would love to invest their time with. This is a role that requires someone to put all of their emotion into it, one where you can see the heart on their sleeve in sensitivity, one that we are firmly invested in their journey regardless of how much you know about X or whatever you think you know about the endgame. She can make antics with a scarecrow completely believable and fitting to what is needed in that particular scene just as well as when she delivers a monologue near the ending about her fractured self-identity, which she handles like a champ. Awards season (led by neutered folks, no doubt) probably won't give Goth consideration for recognition, but viewers of quality horror certainly will, and I think that might be just enough to make this a really useful recommendation. The other actors do just fine with what is required in their presentation of reality as seen by our focus that is either on crushing parental guidance or others. Wright was actually the intimacy coordinator on X, and she does well in dream-crushing steeliness while Sunderland doesn't have any audible words and has to succeed on expression. The self-absorbed outsiders that round out the cast also do well in matching with Goth with what is needed in self-expression, such as trying to show a dirty movie or trying to make nice after a failed audition. As a whole, the 102 minutes go off without many hitches, building its cheery macabre nature with the right touch of execution and a wonderful performance by Goth that makes a solid origin story of a crack-turned-chasm killer that could make a case as one of the best times to spend watching a horror movie this year. It might not be perfect, but it may be perfect for re-watch nights over the next couple of years, so that might be just enough for some.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

SURPRISE! A double-header to start off a new October of Horror enjoyment. You will see plenty of features throughout the month that go from the 1910s to the 2020s from October 1 to November 7 (yes, another Halloween - The Week After is coming). Enjoy the show, folks.