Mia Goth Ascends to the Highest Level of Scream Queen in MaXXXine

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Civil War’ on HBO Max, a Thorny, Provocative and Action-Packed Slice of Speculative Fiction That Offers No Easy Answers

Johnny Knoxville Admits He Became “Addicted” To Doing Stunts On ‘Jackass’: “I’m Still Dealing With That”

Is ‘The Killer’s Game’ Streaming on Netflix or Prime Video?Gay porno

‘Rebel Ridge’ Ending Explained: Why Do the Cops Switch Sides in the New Netflix Movie?

Kevin Smith and Netflix Have the Newest Entries in the ‘Superbad’ Knockoff Sweepstakes

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Technoboys’ on Netflix, a Tonedeaf Boy Band Satire from Mexico

Will Ferrell Regrets Dressing In Drag For Laughs On ‘SNL’: “That’s Something I Wouldn’t Choose To Do Now”

Here’s What ‘Sex And The City’ Got Wrong About New York City

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘LEGO Pixar: BrickToons’ On Disney+, Cartoon Shorts Where Classic Pixar Characters Are LEGO-ized

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Inside Out 2’ on VOD, a Worthy Sequel to a Pixar Classic

‘Inside Out 2’ Comes to Digital, But When Will ‘Inside Out 2’ Be Streaming on Disney+?

Is ‘Ryan’s World The Movie’ Streaming on Netflix or YouTube?

Emmy Winners 2024: The 76th Primetime Emmys Winners [Complete List]

R.I.P. Chad McQueen: ‘Karate Kid’ Actor Dead At 63

‘The Penguin’ Review: Cristin Milioti Steals HBO’s New Batman Show As Sofia Falcone 

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Boxer’ on Netflix, a Polish Pugilism Film That Throws a Lot of Predictable Punches

Martha Stewart Calls Out “Laziness” Of Netflix’s ‘Martha’ Documentary

Cyndi Lauper Had A “Fight” With The ‘Girls Just Want To Have Fun’ Movie Producer: “I Didn’t Want Him To Take My Image And Make Some Bullsh*t Story”

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Disappearance of Shere Hite’ on Hulu, a documentary about an underappreciated feminist icon

Icon Patti LuPone Refuses To Apologize To Madonna On ‘Hot Ones’ After Calling Her A “Movie Killer” — And Shades Kim Kardashian, Too

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Girl You Know It’s True’ on VOD, A Biopic Treatment Of The Rise And Fall Of Milli Vanilli, With A Sensitive Side 

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Are You Sure?!’ on Disney+, A Hangout Reality Show Featuring Jimin And Jung Kook of BTS

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Dirty Pop: The Boy Band Scam’ on Netflix, A Docuseries Delving Into The Financial Scheming of The Backstreet Boys and NSYNC’s “Big Poppa”

Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Bob Marley: One Love’ on Prime Video, A Biopic of a Music Legend and International Inspiration

Will There Be a ‘Perfect Couple’ Season 2 on Netflix?

7 Shows Like ‘The Perfect Couple’ If You Loved The Netflix Mystery Series

‘The Perfect Couple’ Episode 6 Recap: “That Feels Better”

‘The Perfect Couple’ Episode 5 Recap: “Never Gonna Give You Up”

‘Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives’ Star Taylor Frankie Paul Wants To Be There For Whitney Leavitt: “She’s Getting Torn To Shreds On The Internet”

Joy Behar Makes Taylor Frankie Paul Cringe With Suggestion About “Mormon Swinging” On ‘The View’

How to Watch ‘The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives’ Free on Hulu—Catch Up Now

‘Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives’ Star Mayci Neely Says She’s “Really Irritated” That Whitney Leavitt Exposed Their Text Chain On TikTok: “It’s A Trust Thing”

‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Season 2 Episode 5 Recap: Mithril Blue Persuasion

Who is Valandil in ‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’? How This Heroic Side Character is Connected to Aragorn

‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’ Season 2 Episode 4 Recap: Tom FREAKING Bombadil

‘The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Powers’ Season 2’s Best New Character is Nia Towle’s Beguiling Estrid

Did Yasmin Really Kill Her Father in ‘Industry’ Season 3 Episode 6? Marisa Abela, Myha’la, and Co-Showrunner Konrad Kay Break That Twisted Death Scene Down

‘Industry’ Season 3 Episode 5 Recap: Golden Showers Fill Your Eyes

‘Industry’ Star Harry Lawtey Calls This Week’s Episode a “Real Slap in the Face” For Robert Spearing: “He is Just a Pawn”

‘Industry’ Star Miriam Petche On How She Landed Her Breakout Role While Still Studying At University

‘Bad Monkey’ Episode 6 Recap: Show Us What’s Real

‘Bad Monkey’ Episode 5 Recap: Florida Man (And Woman)

‘Bad Monkey’ Episode 4 Recap: Killing Eve

‘Bad Monkey’ Episode 3 Recap: Bad Voodoo And Daddies

Whoopi Goldberg Scoffs Over A “Dumb Question” On ‘The View’

Joy Behar Says ‘The View’ Rejected Lauren Sanchez After She Auditioned To Be A Host Twice: “I Don’t Think You Needed That Job”

Ana Navarro Can’t Stop Calling Donald Trump A Racist On ‘The View’

Joy Behar Makes Taylor Frankie Paul Cringe With Suggestion About “Mormon Swinging” On ‘The View’

‘Tell Me Lies’ Season 2’s Steamiest Scenes, From A Jaw-Dropping Hard Launch To A Torrid Affair

Jackson White Unpacks Stephen And Lydia’s Mysterious ‘Tell Me Lies’ Engagement: “He’s So Messed Up”

‘Tell Me Lies’ Season 2 Episode 3 Recap: Next Level Crazy

‘Tell Me Lies’ Cat Missal And Tom Ellis Praise Intimacy Coordinator’s Role In Steamy Bree And Oliver Scenes: “It Makes Intrinsically Uncomfortable Stuff Slightly More Comfortable” There’s a moment early in Ti West’s horror-trilogy finale MaXXXine where Maxine Minx (Mia Goth), a mid-level porn star pushing 35, nails the audition of her life. Asked to recite a short monologue for a horror movie called The Puritan II, Maxine abruptly switches from her Texan drawl to a quiet intensity, seemingly taking to heart the stage direction that the words be spoken straight to the camera and (wink, wink) “through her trauma.” Before and after, she has the bravado of a future star; “through her trauma,” she seems deceptively open and terrified. Goth isn’t the first star to pull this trick. The actress playing an actress whose on-a-dime emotional transformations feel both ironically technical and as if they could be using flawless technique to cover her own wounds was covered as recently as 2022, when Margot Robbie performed a similar routine in Babylon. That was also the year of X, the first installment in the trilogy that MaXXXine finishes, which introduced Maxine as an aspiring adult-film star, hungry for her big break and accepting that having sex on film would have to do. But despite the familiarity of the audition scene’s auto-critique of acting, practically its own cliché by this point, Goth’s scream-queen bona fides bring something extra Maxine’s switch. The usual dynamic has to do with the visible manipulation – the extra space before and after the big performance that we’re not supposed to see – and wondering whether this makes the subject’s talent brilliant, or vaguely sociopathic. Goth pushes that question further: Is Maxine the final girl because of her will to survive whatever horrors are thrown at her, or the final girl because she’s willing to kill anyone else still standing? Technically, Maxine’s body count isn’t that high – not slasher high, anyway. In the gruesomely satisfying finale of X, she dispatched the elderly couple – including Pearl, also played by Goth – who had just murdered her entire film crew. Pearl paused Maxine’s story to focus on the killer’s origin as a frustrated wannabe performer, with a pleading desperation emanating from those widened eyes. MaXXXine picks up six years after the events of X; Maxine has escaped her past, even managed to avoid any connection to what the press calls (wink, wink) the Texas Porn Star Massacre, and makes a living for herself in the porn industry. She still has her eyes on bigger prizes, though, and won’t let anything get in her way. West doesn’t push her into full-on Pearl-style mania, but she does react with raw instinct when she thinks her career might be on the line. Maxine doesn’t kill an anonymous creep who comes after her with a knife, for example, but what she does instead might be harder to explain to the papers. A genuine killer also appears to be stalking Maxine, with the help of a sleazy private detective (Kevin Bacon, chewing the neon scenery), just as she gets that big break. After nailing the aforementioned audition, she has her chance to work for imposing, exacting horror director Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki), who wants the Puritan sequel to be a “B-picture with ‘A’ ideas.” (Debicki’s dialogue is often regrettably on-the-nose; she’s also charged with pointing out that the Psycho motel on the Universal backlot is, in fact, the Psycho motel — or, specifically, the Psycho II motel.) If Maxine can just dodge the local police, the private detective, and whatever masked killer may or may not be roaming the streets of Los Angeles, maybe she can become a genuine ’80s scream queen. Goth, of course, is already there, albeit with a more arthouse edge. In addition to the X trilogy, she’s also appeared in A Cure for Wellness, the Suspiria remake, and Infinity Pool, cultivating the image of unhinged commitment and darkness worthy of her surname. Compared to Infinity Pool, her work in MaXXXine is downright subdued. The obvious choice might be to turn Maxine into a monster in the pursuit of stardom, All About Eve with keys strategically placed between her knuckles. West’s film is more elusive than that, even when it seems more thematically schematic than either X (which has a just-about perfect mixture of slasher-movie tribute and unexpected grace notes) or Pearl (which has moments that feel half-cocked, befitting a movie that was conceived, written, and hastily shot during quarantine). It’s almost as if he’s come to love Maxine, and Goth, too much to let her descend too far into hell. For all of the movie’s glorious splatter, red lighting, beautiful costuming, spiral-staircase De Palma homages, and VHS textures, it doesn’t feel truly sleazy or unhinged. There are guardrails, somehow. Within those constraints, Goth makes Maxine a strangely touching figure. She’s not as committed a movie buff as her video-store pal Leon (Moses Sumney), or, seemingly, as enraptured by cinema as her old nemesis Pearl; when she watches The Puritan on VHS, it’s like she’s trying to find the hidden portal that will transport her to the next level of fame. When she listens to Bender’s lectures, she goes meek and obedient as a child (at least when she’s not distracted by the haunting visage of the elderly woman whose head she ran over with a truck). In one of the movie’s most memorable sequences, Maxine submits to having a plaster cast taken of her head, and as she’s covered in goop, trapped in the darkness, she’s terrifyingly alone with her thoughts. A lack of introspection is not necessarily the easiest quality to play, and Goth – at one point seen furiously slashing a highlighter through her lines in a script – does a terrific job speaking “through” the trauma West jokingly refers to in that early scene. She conveys how Maxine experiences horror first and foremost as a series of personal obstacles. It seems entirely possible that Pearl haunts her not because of the violence of their encounter, but because of the mortality she brazenly displays. As much as West himself obviously loves movies – MaXXXine tours the Universal backlot with great enthusiasm, no homage too silly or out of place – his X trilogy seems most interested in how people see them as a means to an end, with the characters progressively searching for some greater power or permanence beyond making art. (It’s the semi-amateur pornographers of X who seem purest at heart, while MaXXXine’s ultimate villain has something of an if-you-can’t-beat-em-join-em philosophy.) Goth was celebrated for a climactic monologue in Pearl where she spills her guts about her character’s dreams and disappointments, but here she may be doing something harder: She coils up her trauma, forever saving up for her big break. Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) is a writer living in Brooklyn. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others. He podcasts at www.sportsalcohol.com, too.

This story has been shared 1,327 times.

1,327

This story has been shared 898 times.

898

This story has been shared 834 times.

834

This story has been shared 683 times.

683

This story has been shared 668 times.

668

This story has been shared 556 times.

556

This story has been shared 542 times.

542

This story has been shared 422 times.

422

This story has been shared 387 times.

387

This story has been shared 281 times.

281

This story has been shared 246 times.

246

This story has been shared 233 times.

233

This story has been shared 217 times.

217

This story has been shared 203 times.

203

This story has been shared 171 times.

171