MaXXXine
A24 | Release Date: July 5, 2024 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
64
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 50 Critic Reviews
Positive:
31
Mixed:
17
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Original-CinThom ErnstJul 5, 2024
Set, script, performances, and direction - it all works. Read full review
91
IndieWireAlison ForemanJun 26, 2024
If nothing else, the dazzling finale feels like a hyperviolent ‘80s period piece tailor-made For the Girls. It delivers some of the series’ most extreme kills as well as its best uses of glittery costumes, bloody testicles, and feminist subversion for a whirlwind joy ride that doubles as a societal lambasting. Read full review
90
The New York TimesJeannette CatsoulisJul 5, 2024
Darker, moodier and altogether nastier than its predecessors — “X” (2022) and, later that same year, “Pearl” — this hyperconfident feature is also funny, occasionally wistful and deeply empathetic toward its damaged, driven heroine. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterDavid RooneyJun 26, 2024
A glorious paean to the lurid sensuality and gory excess of 1980s sexploitation and horror, MaXXXine completes Ti West’s trilogy of star showcases for his fearless muse Mia Goth on a delectable note. Read full review
89
Austin ChronicleRichard WhittakerJul 3, 2024
The pleasures are in watching Maxine navigate through the bloodshed to the denouement she deserves, and watching West cut into the seductive allure of cinema. Read full review
88
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperJul 2, 2024
So yes, “MaXXXine” is sometimes more style than substance. Still, amid all the clever inside jokes and Easter eggs, writer-director-producer-editor West delivers a masterfully paced horror film set against the dichotomy between actor-turned-politician Ronald Reagan’s “Morning in America” and the reality of 1985 Hollywood and its grimy, exploitative, misogynist underbelly. Read full review
85
SlashfilmBJ ColangeloJun 26, 2024
The result is an erotic cataclysm of gnarly kills, an aesthetic to die for, and another powerhouse performance from Mia Goth. Read full review
80
The Daily BeastColeman SpildeJul 22, 2024
MaXXXine may be less intimate to its detriment, but it does such interesting things with its scale that the lack of closeness doesn’t matter. It’s small compared to most movies, but massive compared to West’s first two installments. Read full review
80
Film ThreatBenjamin FranzJul 12, 2024
If you’re in the market for a great slasher film or even just a movie about how people used to make movies, seek out MaXXXine. It’s absolutely a great two hours at the theater. Read full review
80
NMEPaul BradshawJul 5, 2024
Three films into Ti West’s extraordinary trilogy, Goth proves yet again what a force she is to be reckoned with – and West proves that funny, dark, smart schlock horror still has a lot to say. Read full review
80
LooperMatthew JacksonJun 27, 2024
It's a great time at the movies for slasher fans, '80s pop culture fans, and Mia Goth fans alike, and even with a few stumbles in mind, it manages to stand as one of the summer's must-see films. Read full review
80
Time OutLou ThomasJun 26, 2024
With MaXXXine, writer-director Ti West concludes his Mia Goth horror trilogy (following X and Pearl) with a thrilling slasher that’s both fond neon tribute to the genre’s ’80s gory heyday and a brisk, smart look at the role of women and power in Hollywood. Read full review
80
EmpireKim NewmanJun 26, 2024
Capping an unusual trilogy, MaXXXine is an intense woman-fights-back thriller. Mia Goth’s Maxine is what you’d get if the Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster of Taxi Driver were fused in the telepod from The Fly. Read full review
80
Screen RantTatiana HullenderJun 26, 2024
MaXXXine may have taken a little longer to hit theaters, but fans of horror can be assured that it is well worth the wait. The best part is that newcomers can enjoy it as a standalone, but watching X and Pearl beforehand exponentially enhances the experience, creating a nearly perfect sequel. Read full review
80
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyJun 26, 2024
This film is nasty, funny, and cogent about the era it’s set in. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawJun 26, 2024
West mulches up a thick impasto of pulp, gore, filth and fear and gets away with some colossally self-aware scenes. Read full review
80
ColliderEmma KielyJun 26, 2024
Sure, the story isn’t groundbreaking, but it makes up for it in its tribute to why we love cinema, specifically horror, so much. Even though it wasn’t needed, MaXXXine secures Ti West’s trilogy as one of the best in horror history. Read full review
78
TheWrapWilliam BibbianiJun 26, 2024
Another star-making performance by Mia Goth — surely she’s a star now, right? How many star-making performances does it take? — and a trip back to the seedier side of a decade that’s been sanitized within an inch of its life by condescending corporate exploitation. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleG. Allen JohnsonJul 3, 2024
MaXXXine, clearly boasting a higher budget, stands as a bloody valentine to Hollywood. It’s a cesspool, all right, but it’s our cesspool, he seems to say, and guess what? Every once in a while true art comes out of it. Read full review
70
CNNBrian LowryJul 5, 2024
West mixes some wit in with the gore here, even if the payoff, alas, doesn’t rise to the level of the buildup. By then, though, “MaXXXine” has delivered enough nostalgia regarding its genre to merit a walk down its alleys, and not incidentally, the showcase and sendoff that Goth’s character deserves. Read full review
70
Rolling StoneDavid FearJul 5, 2024
While there’s nothing on the level of Pearl‘s climactic monologue or credit-roll close-up, Goth still turns this revenge-of-the-final-girl parable into superior flashback pulp. Read full review
70
VarietyOwen GleibermanJun 26, 2024
Ti West is a good filmmaker, but it may be time for him to stop reconfiguring trash. He needs to try embedding A ideas in an A-movie. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)Alison WillmoreJun 26, 2024
As the crowning touch on West’s horror-movie mille-feuille, MaXXXine demonstrates that the trilogy never really had all that much going on, depth-wise, despite its sprawl. But Goth does her own synthesis of the characters she’s played across the titles, and the result is alternately disturbing, touching, and downright triumphant. Read full review
67
The PlaylistGregory EllwoodJun 26, 2024
It’s all fun and murder games (until it’s not), but something is missing. “Maxxxine” feels a bit emptier than the first two installments. Goth is quite good at reprising the role, but Maxine is sort of already a fully-baked character. Read full review
67
The Film StageAlistair RyderJun 26, 2024
Despite being a considerable step down from the Scorsese-approved psychodrama Pearl, there’s an awful lot of fun to be had, from the gruesome kills to the delightfully over-the-top performances. Read full review
65
The AtlanticDavid SimsAug 1, 2024
MaXXXine has a bitchin’ soundtrack; lots of sultry, De Palma–inspired long shots; and a very engaging and salty performance from Goth at its center. It’s fun, but it’s unavoidably a bit of a style exercise, albeit a very good one. Read full review
64
PolygonTasha RobinsonJul 12, 2024
The film doesn’t come across as ironic, satirical, or like a thoughtful analysis or commentary. It’s the first of the three that could actually be considered a new entry in the genre it’s referencing. Read full review
63
ObserverDylan RothJul 8, 2024
Though it’s a neat throwback that features a few memorable performances, MaXXXine imitates its period setting a little too well, prioritizing style and adding little substance to the series. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliJul 3, 2024
Maxxxine is the weakest of the three members of the X Trilogy. It’s as if West and Goth were too enamored with the character to let her fade away, so they contrived a scattershot and ultimately unsatisfying way to return her to the screen. Read full review
63
The Associated PressLindsey BahrJul 3, 2024
Goth is compelling again as Maxine, especially in a killer audition scene, but her character feels underwritten. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineRyan ColemanJun 30, 2024
First with X, then with Pearl, and definitively with MaXXXine, West has buried his unique style and forward-thinking vision under an astroturfed surface of compulsory cinematic references and cliché cultural signifiers. Read full review
60
The Observer (UK)Wendy IdeJul 11, 2024
Gore addicts will be sated – the prosthetics and makeup are robustly grisly – but the story feels rather too glib and predictable to be fully satisfying. Read full review
60
The Irish TimesTara BradyJul 5, 2024
Goth remains fiercely committed to the bit. West, a talented, ideas-driven film-maker, makes merry with contemporaneous tropes, yet falls well short of the substance or sleaze that defined Cruising, Hardcore, or the other films referenced throughout. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicMeredith G. WhiteJul 3, 2024
MaXXXine isn't a bad movie by any means, but compared to "X," it just feels like another failed horror movie sequel. Read full review
60
ScreenCrushMatt SingerJul 2, 2024
West does so much winking at the audience that he doesn’t leave much time to gaze into the darkness the way a truly scary horror movie does; MaXXXine’s moments of shock are surprisingly few and far between. As a result MaXXXine is rarely as disturbing or as effective as the earlier films in this series. Read full review
60
Total FilmJames MottramJun 26, 2024
The final act loses its way, but in the main West wraps his slasher trilogy in satisfying style, putting a blood-soaked, Hollywood-branded bow on his eras-spanning saga. Read full review
60
The TelegraphStaff (Not Credited)Jun 26, 2024
The style is impeccable. The substance, not so much. Read full review
52
Paste MagazineAlex LeiJul 3, 2024
MaXXXine is iterative to the point that it might be too repetitive of previous entries, but at least it has a good time getting to the point. Read full review
50
LarsenOnFilmJosh LarsenJul 10, 2024
MaXXXine gestures toward themes that have been explored throughout the trilogy—namely the lengths one will go to for fame, as well as religious hysteria—but without much conviction. Take away the endless Hollywood references and 1980s signposts (yes, there’s a New Coke gag) and there’s not much else going on here. Read full review
50
Washington PostTy BurrJul 5, 2024
The problem with making homages to junky genre movies is that sometimes you just end up with a junky genre movie. Read full review
50
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireJul 5, 2024
The style remains firmly in place – this time, it’s a lurid look at Los Angeles in the mid-1980s – but there’s nothing underneath it. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesKatie WalshJul 5, 2024
Goth holds MaXXXine together through the sheer force of her charisma, despite the bumpy plot, an underwritten character and the plodding, perfunctory kills that arrive like clockwork. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Sarah-Tai BlackJul 2, 2024
As compared to both X and Pearl, West’s bag of cinema tricks in MaXXXine reaches a level of engagement that feels both compulsive and abridged. Read full review
50
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonJul 2, 2024
MaXXXine can’t decide whether to be a showbiz parody or a giallo sendup or a cute ’80s throwback, and it stumbles when it tries to be all of the above. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubKatie RifeJun 28, 2024
For all these films’ paeans to grime and sleaze, they’re controlled imitations rather than the uninhibited real thing. Read full review
50
Screen DailyTim GriersonJun 26, 2024
Despite some initial swagger, this 1980s-set picture lacks the ingenuity of the previous two chapters – a disappointment made worse by West’s wan attempts to satirise the film industry’s shallowness. Read full review
50
IGNSiddhant AdlakhaJun 26, 2024
Mia Goth shines as usual, and Ti West's third slasher entry feels more visually polished than its predecessors, but it's also more dramatically sterile, thanks to a story that quickly falls apart and mounting references that add up to very little (if anything at all). Read full review
40
Little White LiesDavid JenkinsJul 2, 2024
MaXXXine is the weakest chapter in this throwback horror saga as West just cannot seem to decide what film it is he’s making. And by the time he does, he sadly opts for the most boring and narratively underwhelming one. Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreJul 12, 2024
The shock has worn off and the transition to slasher porn to “thriller” proves to be a bit of a stretch for West. But maybe, now that all this “Pearl,” “Maxine” period piece business is out of his system, he’ll try something fresh. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsJul 5, 2024
While there’s some payoff in the many visual callbacks to ’80s-and-earlier genre movies, at some point the filmmaker lost sight of how to best serve Goth a third time. Read full review
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