In a music video from the playful pop album “Brat,” Charli XCX surrounds herself with a specific breed of hot girl. Julia Fox. Rachel Sennott. Chloe Cherry of “Euphoria” fame. They all have that special something, an almost wild feeling of self-realization and sex appeal that is known by Extremely Online as the very essence of Brat Girl Summer.
“It’s definitely a I don’t know what kind of situation,” the singer-songwriter explains to her pussy companion in the “360” music video.
“I would say it’s about being really hot in a scary way,” agrees one of the featured kids before another chimes in to say, “You must be knownbut at the same time unknowable.”
Brattiness as an aesthetic has invaded music, memes, and fashion in recent weeks in a flood of bleached eyebrows, neon green nail polish, and tube tops emblazoned with curse words. The micromovement has become visual proof that many attractive, successful young women no longer care about being universally liked or understood by the patriarchal masses. For some, sisterhood is a personal philosophy or an act of political protest. For others, bratification is simply a matter of style and taste.
With Ti West’s visceral and brooding “MaXXXine,” this ultra-modern trend crystallized as a pointed but garish deconstruction of so-called female empowerment — arriving in theaters just in time for your cute little summer. Mia Goth, A24’s Reigning Scream Queen, Makes It Fashionable and, Yes, Distinctly bratty return as Maxine Minx in this gruesome and vital final chapter of the “X” trilogy. At the very least, the dazzling finale feels like a hyperviolent ’80s play tailor-made for girls. It delivers some of the series’ most extreme killings as well as its best uses of glittery costumes, bloody testicles, and feminist subversion for a whirlwind ride that doubles as a societal castigation.
Far from the site of what is now known to the universe as the Texas Porn Star Massacre (that’s the cheeky name West gave to the five-person farmhouse massacre that Maxine survived at the hands of Pearl and Howard in 1979), our former “X” heroine now lives in Los Angeles circa 1985. Bright and confident as ever, Maxine appears to be at full strength but she’s got pain behind her eyes and demons to keep at bay. Never far from her sexy and scary roots, the former adult film actress works nights as a stripper at a bar near LAX while continuing her career. THE LIFE SHE DESERVES on the big screen during the day.
“You can all go home, because I’m coming damn, i did that” shouts Maxine (gleefully unlikable but also awesome?) as she walks out of an audition for something called “The Puritan II.” At least she’s right. She succeeded. Even though Maxine is haunted by violent flashbacks of the elderly couple who tried to kill her, she lets fear fuel her rising star – and she gets the role.
Set in the sordid underbelly of Hollywood both literal and metaphorical, “MaXXXine” anchors its action and its namesake in a film within a film. Once again, West plays on slasher tropes to explore the fetishistic quest for fame through the lens of objectification. This time, however, his storyline quickly acknowledges the tricks we’ve seen him and Goth pull off before in franchise companions “X” and “Pearl.” A few minutes into the film, Maxine looks directly into the camera in a brief but brilliant homage to the famous single monologue that ended West’s last film. Goth then performs Maxine’s entire emotional audition for “The Puritan II” – with a slate that sees her crying like a faucet and sets the stage for Goth’s multi-dimensional performance that is close to a career best.
In the midst of her big break, Maxine is expected to find her biggest enemies in badass director Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki, elegant and cold) or her ambitious co-star Molly Bennett (Lily Collins, smiling and superficial). Instead, it seems our slippery heroine has escaped Hell only to find herself searching for happiness in a landscape filled with even more dangers and unseen enemies determined to revive her past.
A horror release that, in terms of genre, might be better classified as a psychosexual crime thriller, “MaXXXine” shifts from a glory-seeking fantasy to a frenzied whodunnit when a mysterious character wearing leather gloves undertakes a ‘catch our last girl. Private investigator John Labat (creepy, gold-toothed Kevin Bacon) first approaches Maxine about his shadowy client. Soon after, two LAPD detectives (Bobby Canavale and Michelle Monaghan, well matched) darken his door to ask questions about the Night Stalker and a series of corpses. Maxine has a vicious entertainment lawyer (Giancarlo Esposito, doing his best Winston Wolf impersonation) and other allies on her side. But who needs to call a friend when you have a gun in your purse and the house keys between your fingers?
“MaXXXine” is Goth’s most accomplished performance to date, blending elements of her hypnotic “X” characters with the modern villainy she brought to Brandon Cronenberg’s “Infinity Pool” for a singular genre role. Giving the chameleon actress more scene partners and settings to meet than ever before in the City of Angels, West uses the latter part of Maxine’s story to imagine how one final girl’s trauma might turn into a vitriolic revenge throw (wildly entertaining). The result is an outrageous display of toxicity with a bubbly appeal that could very well inspire a Charli XCX song all on its own.
Last summer, the public was reminded that even Barbies can’t be all things to all people. Here, West challenges his fans to consider the death of women’s dreams from a different perspective – as the inevitable peril of being at the top weighs heavily on horror’s favorite aspiring A-lister. Standing at the end of a multi-generational Möbius strip for female empowerment, “MaXXXine” concludes its saga by wondering why anyone would punish a kid for surviving in style.
Grade: A-
An A24 release, “MaXXXine” is in theaters on July 5.