X (2022) - Movie Review
The first time we see Mia Goth’s newly iconic character Maxine, she has snorted her breakfast and receives a sweet request to “slow down on that stuff” from her partner Wayne. He kisses her and then looks at her reflection in the mirror and says, “You’re special. There ain’t nobody else out there like you.” Martin Henderson delivers this line with such a likable sincerity that it is absolutely endearing. When he leaves, Maxine lingers long enough to look at herself as if trying to believe what Wayne has just pronounced and says defiantly, “You’re a fucking sex symbol.”
And in a little over four minutes, X has begun in earnest.
Ti West’s first film in a trilogy stars the aforementioned Goth and Henderson as well as a great cast of supporting characters including Jenna Ortega, Brittany Snow, Owen Campbell, and a surprisingly fantastic Kid Cudi. These characters are on their way to a farmhouse to film a porn movie in 1979 rural Texas. They are an enthusiastic and optimistic group of people gleefully heading for fame and fortune in the still pending home video porn market.
West makes sure there is a proper introduction of each of the characters so you can get to know them and like them more than you would otherwise. This is a constant theme in West’s other work (House of the Devil and Cabin Fever 2) and is on fine display here. This is a key ingredient for all stories, especially horror and suspense; you cannot be very effective if your audience doesn’t care about your victims.
A big plus for this movie is how gorgeous it looks. So much of this film just looks and feels right. The humor hits all the marks, and the scares hit just as hard, but the look of the film itself is breathtaking. There’s a scene where Maxine skinny dips off a little dock and is lazily pursued by an alligator. She of course exits the water completely fine, but the raw slow tension of this deliberate chase, shot from above is something I wish I had seen on a huge drive-in screen.
The sequence that follows the gator incident is the meeting of Maxine and Pearl, again both played by Mia Goth. It’s not a very long scene, but it is important as it is the first real interaction between the two characters, and I think the one that sets the rest of the movie into its dive into darkness. Pearl is old. Damn old in fact, and bears a very striking resemblance to Maxine. After the most awkward glass of lemonade in cinema history, Pearl gives a quick overview of when she was Maxine’s age (husband returning from World War 1 and 2, her aspirations as a dancer) and leads Maxine to look at herself in a mirror. “Such a special face,” Pearl says longingly as her elderly husband pulls up in his truck. “You should go,” Pearl says, “It’ll be our secret,” to which Maxine replies, “What will?”
X, image via IMDB
This sequence leads to Maxine running out of the house and smack into Wayne who tells her to get ready for her scene. This leads to Maxine doing another line of coke and declaring to her reflection, “I will not accept a life I do not deserve.”
There is Maxine’s scene in “The Farmer’s Daughter” that is observed by Pearl. She visualizes herself and not Maxine in the scene and goes back to Howard, hoping to have her own scene with her husband, who declines due to his poor health.
Also watching this is Lorraine (Ortega) the boom operator and the director RJ’s (Campbell) girlfriend. You can see longing and interest on her face, which leads to a frank discussion afterward with the crew. Bobby-Lynne and Maxine do an excellent job explaining to a confused Lorraine the difference between sex and love. All raise a beer in agreement including Lorraine and her boyfriend RJ.
Pearl tries to sleep while Bobby-Lynne (Snow) sings a very pretty version of “Landslide” intercut with Pearl trying to satisfy the urge that, for her, has never left and is now denied. The sad, sweet juxtaposition of these two scenes playing out is bookended by Lorraine asking if she could be in the movie.
The look on RJ’s face is priceless as he immediately says no. The soft argument that follows leads to RJ getting some air and a heart-to-heart with an incredibly wise Wayne outside before the scene is filmed. We are at the halfway point and a reminder that you are watching a horror movie is coming soon!
RJ cries in the shower while everyone else sleeps and decides he is done. He gets into the van and starts to drive away, nearly running over Pearl, who is standing like a deer in headlights. RJ hops out and opts to help take Pearl inside so her husband can care for her as she appears frail and confused.
She is anything but, as she stabs RJ in the neck. When he collapses, she sits on top of him and stabs him a lot more in a striking fountain of blood.
Now, it is a horror movie.
The remaining forty or so minutes of this charming, funny, and smart film that is about a lot of things all at once is solid tension as the death of RJ is the beginning of X picking up speed. This film could have really gone anywhere in any direction because it sets up so much more than we as an audience have come to expect. It could have continued to be a discussion about female agency, or the pain of growing old, or toxic masculinity but it addresses all of them—and more—with a body count!
I enjoyed how gleefully the actors dove into their parts, in particular, Kid Cudi as Jackson. He has an effortless charm that elevates the film, as does Ortega. This may not be her breakout role, but it sure is for Kudi.
The film churns towards a blood-soaked conclusion that you almost do not see coming (until you remember that a third movie is coming in July.) As the film watches the lone survivor drive away after witnessing gnarly bloodshed, the film catches up with the crime scene from the beginning of the film. It is a rare, satisfying conclusion in a film that manages to avoid cliches while revamping some in the process. (If you show an alligator in the first act, you better see it again in a meaningful way, for example.)
X is a slasher film that is very aware of what it is but is also unapologetically smart. There is something to be said about a fun, popcorn horror movie, but what a breath of fresh air when that same film is as smart and sexy as X.
The follow-up to X is a prequel called Pearl which will be covered in a few weeks and eventually to be bookended by the release of MaXXXine in July.
Article by Nelson Pyles
Nelson W. Pyles is an author, musician, podcast creator and voice actor living in Pittsburgh. He has written two novels and is currently working on his third. His second collection of short stories, essays and articles All These Steps Lead Down will be released in Summer 2024 from Cold War Radio Press. He is a member of the HWA. You can find Nelson at https://whatnelsonwrites.com/
Other Articles You May Enjoy…
Throughout the decades, slasher film villains have had their fair share of bizarre motivations for committing violence. In Jamie Langlands’s The R.I.P Man, killer Alden Pick gathers the teeth of his victims to put in his own toothless mouth in deference to an obscure medieval Italian clan of misfits.