Zachary Mooren Archives

Review: ‘MaXXXine,’ starring Mia Goth, Elizabeth Debicki, Moses Sumney, Michelle Monaghan, Bobby Cannavale, Halsey, Lily Collins, Giancarlo Esposito and Kevin Bacon

July 5, 2024

by Carla Hay

Mia Goth in “MaXXXine” (Photo by Justin Lubin/A24)

Directed by Ti West

Culture Representation: Taking place in Los Angeles in 1985, the horror film “MaXXXine” (a sequel to 2022’s “X”) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some black people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Maxine Minx aims to transition from porn films to her first starring role in a mainstream horror film, but she is being stalked by someone who threatens to reveal scandalous murder secrets from her past.

Culture Audience: “MaXXXine” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners, the “X” movie series and horror movies that don’t do anything groundbreaking but deliver suspense with good acting.

Mia Goth and Halsey in “MaXXXine” (Photo by Justin Lubin/A24)

As a sequel, “MaXXXine” doesn’t quite live up to expectations and has a very clumsily staged showdown ending. But the movie has a mostly skillful blend of horror and suspense, with Mia Goth giving another memorable performance. Some of the characters in the movie, although interesting, border on being caricatures. And it’s very easy to figure out who the mystery stalker is in the story, if viewers know how 2022’s “X” movie ended.

Ti West is the director and writer of the “X” slasher horror movie series, which began with 2022’s “X” and continued with the 2022 prequel “Pearl” and 2024’s “MaXXXine.” Goth is the star of all three films and is a co-writer of “Pearl.” “X” (which took place in Texas in 1979) shows what happened when the filming of a porn movie called “The Farmer’s Daughter” at a remote farm turned into a massacre when the disapproving farm owners found out that their property was being used to film pornography.

Spoiler alert for people who haven’t seen the “X” movie: Maxine Minx (played by Goth), the star of “The Farmer’s Daughter,” was the sole survivor of this massacre, which was instigated by the farm’s two owners: an elderly couple named Howard (played by Stephen Ure), nicknamed Howie, and his wife Pearl (also played by Goth). At the end of the massacre, Maxine left the property without telling anyone what happened. Maxine is originally from Texas and still talks with a thick Texas twang. The movie “Pearl” showed how Pearl became a serial killer while she was in her late teens and when she living with her parents on that same farm.

“MaXXXine,” which takes place in 1985 in Los Angeles, shows how 33-year-old Maxine gets her first starring role in a mainstream movie, but she is being stalked by a mystery man, who knows she was involved in the 1979 massacre at that Texas farm. This mystery man has hired a sleazy private detective named John Labat (played by Kevin Bacon), who has traveled from New Orleans to track down Maxine in Los Angeles. John has been tasked with informing Maxine that the person who hired him wants Maxine to be punished and possibly murdered.

Maxine has some of the same personality traits that she had in the “X” movie: She is still a cocaine-snorting and arrogant actress who believes she has what it takes to be a superstar. However, Maxine (considering what she’s experienced) is much more cynical and calculating than she was in the beginning of “X.”

An early scene in “MaXXXine” shows Maxine walking confidently into a warehouse-like soundstage to audition for the starring role in a horror sequel called “The Puritan 2.” The director of “The Puritan 2” is the coldly ambitious Elizabeth Bender (played by Elizabeth Debicki), who wants to be considered a film auteur, not just a horror filmmaking hack. Later in the movie, Elizabeth and Maxine have a conversation where they both understand that they are similarly cold-blooded and obsessed with their ambitions.

Maxine is auditioning for the role of Veronica Rutland and has to read an emotionally vulnerable monologue to Elizabeth and two other people on a judging panel. Maxine’s audition is also a screen test because it’s being filmed. Elizabeth tells Maxine that in this audition scene, Maxine has to show how the character of Veronica “confronts her pain.”

The decision makers all know about Maxine’s porn history. She assures them that she’s no longer doing porn movies, and she’s got the talent to do mainstream films. Still, even after doing a very convincing monologue, Maxine is asked to take off her top so the filmmakers can look at her breasts, because the Veronica Rutland role requires nudity. After this audition, Maxine struts outside and shouts to the line of actresses waiting to be called next about how she thinks her audition went: “You might as well go home because I fucking nailed that!”

Until she gets her big break in mainstream movies, Maxine is still doing sex work. Maxine works as a performer at a peep show joint called Show World. Unbeknownst to Maxine, she has a stalker who becomes one of her Show World customers one night. Until his identity is revealed, the stalker (who likes to wear all black leather) is seen only from the back. Maxine is friendly with one of her Show World co-workers named Tabby Martin (played by Halsey), who seems to be doing some street prostitution.

Maxine hasn’t completely removed herself from the porn film industry. After she auditions for “The Puritan 2,” she’s seen visiting a porn set and having a conversation in the dressing room with one of the porn movie’s actresses named Amber James (played by Chloe Farnworth), who is one Maxine’s few friends. Amber listens with some skepticism when Maxine brags that Maxine will soon make the transition into mainstream films.

Maxine’s best friend is Leon (played by Moses Sumney), a movie enthusiast who works at a local video store. Leon, who is openly gay, is the closest thing that Maxine has to a family member. Maxine and Leon also spend time hanging out at his cluttered apartment.

Some of the movie’s dark comedic moments are when Maxine interacts with her agent/attorney Teddy Night (played by Giancarlo Esposito), a fast-talking wheeler dealer who wants Maxine to break into mainstream films. Teddy has shady connections and doesn’t hesitate to get involved in doing some dirty work. When Teddy tells Maxine the news that she got the role in “The Puritan 2,” they are both elated. During the first day of filming the movie, Maxine meets her British co-star Molly Bennett (played by Lily Collins), who plays one of the nuns in “Puritan 2.”

As shown repeatedly in “MaXXXine,” Maxine is living in Los Angeles during a time when the serial killer nicknamed the Night Stalker (later identified in real life as devil worshipper Richard Ramirez) was causing terror around the Los Angeles area by breaking into people’s homes and viciously murdering them. Some of the murders that happen in the movie could be blamed on the Night Stalker or could be blamed on the real killer. The murders in “MaXXXine” are inevitably bloody and gruesome.

Maxine’s friends warn her not to go in unsafe places alone at night. But one night, she does exactly that and gets trapped in a dark alley with a Buster Keaton impersonator (played by Zachary Mooren), who wants to rob her with a knife. It’s enough to say that this would-be robber finds out quickly that you don’t mess with Maxine and her stiletto heels.

Two homicide investigators named Detective Williams (played by Michelle Monaghan) and Detective Torres (played by Bobby Cannavale) first come into contact with Maxine when they question her as a possible witness for a double homicide. Some of the movie’s comedic moments (which are hit-and-miss) are in the partner dynamics of Detective Williams (who plays the “good cop” in interrogations) and Detective Torres (who plays the “bad cop” in interrogations). Detective Torres, who reveals to one of the witnesses that he’s a failed actor, often irritates Detective Williams, who thinks Detective Torres is too aggressive during interrogations, and therefore he alienates witnesses.

“MaXXXine” makes great use of its 1980s soundtrack music to enhance some of the scenes. ZZ Top’s “Gimme All Your Lovin'” is the song playing when Maxine struts into her audition for “The Puritan 2.” In a somewhat unnecessary but still visually compelling scene, Maxine goes to a nightclub and dances among a group of people to an extended mix of Frankie Goes to Hollywood’s “Welcome to the Pleasure Dome.” It may be too “on the nose,” but in a movie taking place in 1985 and has a stalker, it should come as no surprise that Animotion’s “Obsession” is part of the soundtrack. And during the movie’s end credits, Kim Carnes’ “Bette Davis Eyes” is a perfect choice that captures the mood of the very last scene.

“Maxine” also excels with its production design and locations. There are some very memorable scenes filmed on what’s supposed to be the Universal Studios lot, with some of the action taking place in or near the famous Norman Bates house used in the 1960 horror classic “Psycho.” “MaXXXine” also convincingly reacreates the tone and energy of what Hollywood Boulevard and Sunset Boulevard were like in the mid-1980s. The costume design, hair and makeup are also very accurate.

The movie’s plot somewhat wanders in preference of showing moods and atmospheres. Maxine, who wants to appear fearless and self-assured, feels increasing terror as she finds out that she has a stalker and starts to understand that her stalker wants to kill her. One of the more striking scenes is when Maxine is getting a mold of her face done for “The Puritan 2,” and she has a panic attack flashback when she remembers what happened during the 1979 massacre in Texas. But since viewers know that Maxine wants to be a superstar more than anything else, she’s determined not to let anything to get in the way of her big break in “The Puritan 2.”

As Maxine, Goth gives the type of riveting performance that is the main reason to watch “MaXXXine,” which is a film that makes pointed commentary about the horror that can result from obsessive ambition. The supporting characters in “MaXXXine” just aren’t as well-developed as the supporting characters in “X” and “Pearl.” The Molly Bennett character in “MaXXXine” gets such little screen time and has such little bearing on the overall story, she might as well have not been in the movie.

Detective Williams and Detective Torres eventually become parodies because it seems like almost a joke for viewers to believe that the Los Angeles Police Department only has two cops working on all the homicides that occur in such a short period of time. There’s also a very unrealistic scene where a murder victim is carried out on a gurney on a street into a waiting ambulance while bystanders are watching, and Detective Williams dramatically flings off the bloody sheet that’s covering the victim’s mutilated body, just so Maxine (one of the bystanders) can see who the murder victim is.

“The Puritan 2” director Elizabeth seems like she wants to be Maxine’s mentor, but not enough of that relationship is explored in “MaXXXine.” In fact, Maxine’s actual work on “The Puritan 2” is rushed into the last third of “MaXXXine,” almost like an afterthought. But the weakest link in “MaXXXine” is the ridiculous-looking showdown, which cheapens the quality of the story. After all the buildup over Maxine’s quest for stardom, the results are overly contrived and anti-climactic, like a porn performer faking an orgasm in the type of porn movie that Maxine used to make.

A24 released “MaXXXine” in U.S. cinemas on July 5, 2024. Sneak previews of the movie took place in U.S. cinema on July 1 and July 3, 2024.

Review: ‘9 Bullets,’ starring Lena Headey and Sam Worthington

May 11, 2022

by Carla Hay

“9 Bullets”

Directed by Gigi Gaston

Culture Representation: Taking place in various parts of the West Coast and Midwest of the United States, the dramatic film “9 Bullets” features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some black people, Latinos, Asians and multiracial people) representing the working-class, middle-class and criminal underground.

Culture Clash: A former burlesque dancer goes on the run with an orphaned 11-year-old boy, whose family was killed by gangsters.

Culture Audience: “9 Bullets” will appeal primarily to people who don’t mind watching poorly made and implausible crime dramas.

Sam Worthington in “9 Bullets” (Photo courtesy of Screen Media Films)

Fans of the 1980 crime drama “Gloria” (starring Gena Rowlands in the title role) might be repulsed if they have the misfortune of wasting time watching “9 Bullets,” which is a sloppy and pathetic imitation of that classic movie. It’s not an official remake of “Gloria,” but “9 Bullets” copies so many things about “Gloria,” it’s essentially a rehash of the same story, with names and locations changed. It’s truly unfortunate that “9 Bullets” star Lena Headey has gone from the glory of starring in the Emmy-winning “Game of Thrones” series to diminishing her talent by starring in bottom-of-the-barrel trash such as “9 Bullets.”

Written and directed by Gigi Gaston, “9 Bullets” rips off “Gloria” by having this concept: A “tough woman” with a shady past goes on the run with an orphaned boy, whose family was killed by gangsters because his father betrayed the gang. “Gloria” (written and directed by John Cassavetes) takes place on the East Coast of the U.S., mostly in New York City and briefly in Pittsburgh. “9 Bullets” takes place in the Midwest and West Coast regions of the U.S., with a road trip that goes from California to Utah, Montana and North Dakota. The woman on the run in each movie keeps repeating how much she doesn’t like kids, which is supposed to be the irony when she inevitably develops maternal feelings for the boy who unexpectedly ends up in her care.

In “9 Bullets” (which was formerly titled “Gypsy Moon”), Headey portrays a very jaded and abrasive dancer-turned-author named Gypsy (no explanation is given if that’s her real name or an alias), who lives in Santa Clarita, California. She’s a soon-to-be-retired burlesque dancer because she’s gotten a book deal to write her memoir, tentatively titled “Another Dance.” Throughout the movie, while she’s running for her life, Gypsy keeps her laptop computer with her so she can work on her memoir in between dodging bullets.

The movie’s opening scene shows Gypsy on her house’s front porch while she’s reading the book publishing contract that she’s received in the mail. She looks up at the sky and says, “I promise not to fuck it up this time.” It’s at this point in the movie that you know a loved one in Gypsy’s life has passed away, and she feels a lot of guilt when it comes to that person.

Because “9 Bullets” also tries to make Gypsy look sexy, the movie has her doing “one last performance” at the seedy bar where she works. The movie’s depiction of Gypsy’s burlesque dancing is showing some slow-motion shots of a woman’s barely clad rear end (it could have been a body double) and Headey doing some lackluster walking on a stage in a tacky-looking, tight-fitting outfit. Gypsy thinks that after this last performance, she’ll be leaving behind her life of working in sleazy bars and dealing with criminal losers, so that she can start a new life as a successful author who goes on vacation cruises. But there would be no “9 Bullets” movie if that happened.

On the night of this last performance, Gypsy gets a call from a friend named Ralph Stein (played by Zachary Mooren), who at the moment is frantically speeding down a street in his car, with his widowed mother (played by Marlene Forte) and young adult daughter Caroline (played by Stephanie Arcila) as passengers. Ralph is terrified because he has stolen money from a vengeful gangster named Jack (played by Sam Worthington), who has sent some of his goons to kill Ralph and Ralph’s family. Someone who’s not in the car is Ralph’s 11-year-old son Sam (played by Dean Scott Vazquez), who minutes earlier, got a call from Ralph to start doing the emergency plan that they talked about, in case they need to run for their lives.

Ralph tells Gypsy over the phone that he “messed up” with Jack, and he begs Gypsy to protect Sam if anything happens to the family. As Ralph and his family race to their house to pick up Sam, who is home alone, the car is stopped on a residential street by Jack’s thugs, who shoot and kill everyone in the car. Sam is hiding outside nearby with the family’s pet dog Moses (a Chihuahua mixed breed), so Sam witnesses his family being murdered.

Jack’s murderous henchman are looking for a computer tablet, but they can only find a laptop in the car, so they steal it before driving away. A terrified and sobbing Sam goes back to his house, where Gypsy finds him. Sam tells her what he saw, and they go on the run, with the dog coming along for the ride. (In “Gloria,” the murdered family had a pet cat, but the orphaned boys in both movies have a physical resemblance with dark, curly hair. In “Gloria,” John Adames played the role of the orphaned boy, who was named Phil.)

At first, Gypsy wants nothing to do with taking care of this kid. Sam has a clergyman uncle in North Dakota named Rabbi Stein (played by John Ales), who is resistant to take custody of Sam, because the rabbi says he’s overwhelmed with the responsibility of taking care of his own kids. And then there’s the fact that the gang is looking to kill Sam too. Rabbi Stein reluctantly agrees to take custody of Sam, but the rabbi says he needs more time to prepare for Sam’s arrival.

It’s just an excuse for this movie to have a prolonged road trip. Gypsy lies to Sam and says that his uncle wants Sam to live with him, but Sam senses that she’s being dishonest. Sam then proceeds to cry, whine and pout for much of the road trip. Gypsy does hardly anything to comfort him because, as she tells Sam repeatedly, she’s not good with kids. But when Sam mentions that he’s a cryptocurrency whiz, suddenly Gypsy finds that this kid can be useful.

This poorly written movie has an odd detour where Gypsy goes to Jack’s mansion, with the intention of seducing him to back off from killing Sam. Gypsy leaves Sam behind in a motel, but she illogically takes Moses the dog with her on this visit. She wants to convince Jack that she doesn’t know where Sam is. This “seduction” is just a thinly veiled reason for “9 Bullets” to have a not-very-sexy sex scene, where Gypsy has nudity, but Jack doesn’t. Typical sexist double standard in a trashy movie.

Jack and Gypsy were in a relationship years ago, but she dumped him because he constantly cheated on Gypsy and was too possessive of her. Jack now tells Gypsy that he wants to get back together with her, but she refuses. It makes absolutely no sense for Gypsy to have the dog with her during this visit. The dog is only there so the movie can have a heinous scene where Jack threatens to steal the dog and kill it after Gypsy rejects him.

Jack is a stereotypical American gang boss in a movie, but Worthington (who’s Australian in real life) struggles with having a convincing American accent. Jack lounges around his house, barks orders at his underlings, and he has at least one female lover who’s willing to do whatever he wants her to do. Her name is Lisa (played by Emma Holzer), who helps take care of Jack’s horses. Later in the story, Lisa has one of the worst-delivered lines in the movie, when she smirks, “Never send a man to do a woman’s job,” after she commits a violent act.

Jack has three main goons doing the dirty work for this assassination. Mike (played by Chris Mullinax), the bossiest one, can be as ruthless as Jack. Tommy (played by Cam Gigandet) is dimwitted and cruel. Eddie (played by Martin Sensmeier) is loyal and has the most compassion out of all the thugs. There’s a scene in the movie where Eddie could’ve easily murdered someone, but he doesn’t. Eventually, Jack goes on the road with his thugs to look for Gypsy and Sam too, because Jack suddenly shows up in a few scenes where he’s with his henchmen in chasing after these two targets.

La La Anthony has an embarrassing and idiotic role in the movie, and her questionable acting skills don’t do much to help. She plays a sassy stripper named Tasmin, who was taking a nap in the back seat of a Porsche SUV when it gets stolen by Gypsy, who foolishly did not see Tasmin when Gypsy stole the car. Tasmin eventually figures out that Gypsy and Sam are in deadly trouble, but Tasmin acts as if it’s completely normal to tag along with these two strangers who have assassins looking for them.

Barbara Hershey has a thankless role as a former Princeton University professor named Lacey, who offers her Utah home as a place for Gypsy and Sam to temporarily hide. How does Gypsy know Lacey? Years ago, Gypsy was a Princeton student until she dropped out for reasons explained when bitter and emotionally damaged Gypsy ends up telling Sam her sob story.

Of course, in a silly movie like “9 Bullets,” Lacey is not quite the mild-mannered retired professor that she first appears to be. Headey and Hershey are accomplished actresses who deserve much better than this dreck, which is filled with plot holes, nonsensical scenes (including one where Jack and his thugs easily let Gypsy get away), horrendous editing, and acting that ranges from mediocre to truly unwatchable. Headey seems to be doing her best to commit to her role as Gypsy, but it’s a lost cause because of the movie’s low-quality screenplay and direction.

And why is this movie called “9 Bullets?” There’s a scene where Sam lectures Gypsy, by saying: “You better let someone love you before it’s too late.” Gypsy replies, “I’m a cat with nine lives. I’ll be fine.” Sam asks, “What does that mean?” Gypsy replies, “It takes nine bullets to kill me.” At 91 minutes long, it takes “9 Bullets” this amount of time to kill any hope of being entertained by a movie that amounts to nothing more than awful and pointless garbage.

Screen Media Films released “9 Bullets” in select U.S. cinemas, on digital and VOD on April 22, 2022. The movie is set for release on Blu-ray and DVD on June 7, 2022.