Showing posts with label Mia Goth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mia Goth. Show all posts

Saturday, 6 July 2024

Maxxxine (4½ Stars)


"Maxxxine" is the third film in the X trilogy. Sort of. "X" took place in 1979 and introduced the young woman Maxine Minx who wanted to become a big star. Mia Goth played two roles, Maxine and the old woman Pearl. The second film, "Pearl", took place in 1918, a prequel about the previous life of Pearl herself. "Maxxxine" takes place in 1985 and continues Maxine's story, so it's really the second film.

I've been waiting anxiously for "Maxxxine" all year. "Pearl" was the best film of 2023 – argue if you like, but I won't change my mind – so I expected "Maxxxine" to be the best film of 2024. I'm disappointed to say that it doesn't live up to my expectations. Almost, but not quite. It doesn't have the subtlety of "Pearl", but I can see it was never the intention. "Pearl" takes place on a remote farm in Texas, whereas "Maxxxine" takes place in the big, brash city of Hollywood.

In the last six years Maxine Minx has found success in the porn industry. Naturally, that isn't enough for her. She wants the whole world to know her name, but porn stars are only known by a select few. Even people who watch porn films don't know the names of the naked bodies rolling around the screen. And don't forget, the year is 1985. The videotape porn industry was still in its early years. Maxine needs to go to Hollywood.

She's hired for the leading role in a horror film. Admittedly, very few horror films get worldwide attention, but it's a start on her ladder to stardom. She's thrown into a myriad of problems. People are being killed by Richard Ramirez, nicknamed the Night Stalker. Someone is killing Maxine's friends. There are mass protests against horror films (presumably started by the video-nasty-phobia) outside the studios. And to round it all off, a private detective is stalking her who knows about the farmhouse massacre in "X".

There are a lot of flashbacks to "X". Would they confuse anyone who hasn't seen the first film? I don't know.

I intend to watch "Maxxxine" again next week. I might revise my rating.

Sunday, 19 May 2024

X (5 Stars)


Maxine. Everyone will know her name, especially after the next film about her arrives in the cinemas later this year. She's a preacher's daughter, she's a porn star, she's a murderer.

"X" takes place in 1979. The sequel will take place in 1985.

Success Rate:  + 13.1

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Friday, 26 April 2024

Pearl (5 Stars)


Pearl. She was a German farm girl who wanted more from life. She wanted to be a star on the big screen. She wanted the whole world to know her name.

In my opinion, this was the best film of 2023. It's a sin that Mia Goth was ignored by the Oscars. Here are a few photos.











Success Rate:  + 8.1

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Tuesday, 19 September 2023

X (5 Stars)


It all starts as a simple idea. An aspiring film director travels with five friends to make a pornographic film on a farm in a remote Texas village. It's 1979, the early days of home video. The cameraman thinks he can create a work of art. "It's possible to make a good dirty movie". The director just wants to make a film that will sexually excite the viewers. That's not a contradiction. Both of them want to make money.

The problem is that the director doesn't tell the farmer what he's doing. He could hardly tell a God-fearing farmer, "We want to film a porno in your barn". The reaction isn't quite what we would expect. The farmer thinks that the film crew are evil and should be destroyed, but his wife Pearl is jealous of the women's beauty and wants to be in the film with them.


What might not be immediately obvious is that the farmer's wife and the director's girlfriend Maxine are both played by the same actress, Mia Goth. In "X" it seems like a random casting choice, but when we watch the prequel "Pearl" it becomes obvious why. The two women are destined to walk the same path. In "Pearl" the title character speaks the same words that Maxine speaks in "X". They both want to be big stars, they both want their names to be known throughout the world. And yet Maxine yells at Pearl, "I'm nothing like you".

"X" is a terrifying horror film. It made me shiver while I watched it. It's ugly but fascinating at the same time, carried by the performance of Mia Goth. A sequel called "Maxine" should be released later this year. I can hardly wait.

Success Rate:  + 13.1

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Sunday, 4 June 2023

Pearl (5 Stars)


I saw "Pearl" at the Stuttgart Nights Festival two months ago, but I couldn't resist the opportunity to see it again. It was the best film of the festival, and the best film of the year so far.

The film takes place in 1918, but it seems relevant today. America is caught in a pandemic, the Spanish Flu. It isn't compulsory to wear masks, but many people wear them in the street. Some people are scared of becoming ill, while others are carefree.

Pearl is a young woman who lives on a farm with her German parents. She's married, but her husband is in France fighting the Germans. Is there a certain irony in that? Nevertheless, the locals don't trust Pearl's family.

Pearl has been unhappy all her life. She never liked the hard work on the farm. She married Howard to take her away from it all, but instead of that he decided to become a farmer. Now Pearl has to look after her father who's paralysed. She has to feed him, dress him and change his clothes when he soils himself. The only good thing that happened to her (and these are her words, not mine) is that when she was pregnant she had a miscarriage. A baby would have trapped her in the farm even more tightly.

Pearl's dream is to become famous. She wants to dance on the stage and in films. She wants the whole world to love her.

That sounds like a moving story. We can almost sympathise with Pearl, until she picks up an axe and starts to chop up anyone who's holding her back.

The film takes a long time to build up to its climax, but that makes it better. The atmosphere shifts slowly from a small town family drama to intense terror before the viewer notices. Mia Goth is a splendid actress. She effortlessly bursts into tears when she holds a long monologue about the troubles in her life. I've seen her in a few films already, but this is the peak of her career so far. She can only get better.

Saturday, 29 April 2023

Infinity Pool (4 Stars)


I wanted to see "Infinity Pool" on Wednesday, but when I arrived at the cinema they told me it had been cancelled at short notice. It couldn't be shown because they didn't have a key for the film. They used the English word "key", not "Schlüssel", so I assume it's a technical term. They rattled off a list of alternative films I could watch. No, I didn't want to watch "The Whale", "Empire of Light" or "Tehran Taboo". I'm not someone who goes to the cinema to watch a random film. It's not my style.

So I returned today. They've found the key.

James Foster and his wife Em are on holiday in a resort on the island country Li Tolqa. He's a novellist whose only book was a success, but after six years he's lacked the inspiration to write another book. He's hoping that the holiday will give him the ideas he needs for a new novel, but the resort is dull and generic.

They meet a Swiss couple, Alban and Gabi Bauer. Gabi says that she loves his book. The next day they leave the holiday resort and drive to the beach. Alban is too drunk to drive back, so James drives. Due to faulty headlights he doesn't see a man crossing the road. He runs him over and kills him. He wants to call the police, but Gabi warns him that Li Tolqa's police are corrupt and won't treat him fairly. He drives back to the resort, but there must have been witnesses, because he's arrested the next day.

James is taken to the police station. He's told that the penalty for killing someone is death at the hands of the dead person's oldest son. He'll be killed the next day. The only alternative is an offer for tourists. For a large sum of money, the accused person can be cloned, and the clone will be executed in his place while he watches. It's a perfect clone, identical in body and memories, so James' clone will think he really is James.

The next day James is led into a room to watch the execution. His clone is tied to a post. The dead man's 13-year-old son stabs him to death. He's not an experienced killer. He has to stab James' clone 33 times in the stomach before he's dead.

Em wants to leave the island as quickly as possible, but James decides to remain to get ideas for his next novel. He pretends that he's lost his passport, so Em leaves without him. Gabi and Alban invite him to meet three of their friends. They were all sentenced to death in previous years, but they were so fascinated by watching themselves die that they return every year and deliberately commit crimes. They want James to join their exclusive club.

No, that long description wasn't spoilers. It's only an introduction to the film's premise. Now the real story begins. It's a psychedelic kaleidoscope of sex and horror. "Infinity Pool" is an unsettling film. I can't guarantee that you'll like it, but you'll never be able to forget it.

Sunday, 23 April 2023

Pearl (5 Stars)


This is the 16th film in the Stuttgart Nights Festival.

"Pearl" hit the festival like a bomb. It's like nothing else at the festival this year. It's nothing like I expected. I thought it would be like the film "X", made by the same director, Ti West, which was shown at last year's Nights Festival. No. "Pearl" is a much more subtle film. There are violent scenes, eventually, but there's a slow build up. I wouldn't have minded if there hadn't been any violence, because the atmosphere in the first half of the film drew me in. I've seen Mia Goth in a few films already, but I never realised she's such a good actress.

I'll briefly describe the plot, although I don't think I can do the film justice. It has to be seen to be believed.

The film takes place in 1918. Pearl is married, but her husband is fighting in the First World War, and she's living on her parents' farm because her father is disabled and needs care. She hasn't heard from her husband for months.

Pearl wants to get away. She sees herself as an international film star, dancing on the big screen. 

And that's all I'm going to tell you. What's she doing with an axe in the film poster? If you watch the film, you'll find out.

After "Sisu", this was the second film in the festival which the audience applauded.

Thursday, 7 April 2022

X (4 Stars)


This is the first film in the Stuttgart Fantasy Film Festival Nights.

Usually there's the main festival in September, plus two mini-festivals in January and April with two days each. Over the last two years the schedules have been hit by the Corona pandemic. This year the January festival was cancelled, so the April festival was lengthened to last four days.

"X" is a first class horror film to open this year's four-day festival. It's set in Texas in 1979. A team of six young people rent a small house on a farm to shoot their first film: a porno! VCRs are new on the market, so they think they can cash in on this new medium. By selling a porno to watch at home, instead of backstreet cinemas, it's a film that's not just for perverts. I don't see the logic in that, but the young film makers say a lot of things that are the product of enthusiasm rather than logical thinking.

The old farmer, probably in his eighties, has no idea what's happening. He's unaware that the film makers are sneaking into the cow shed to film sex scenes. It's all relevant, because their film is called "The Farmer's Daughter". There's a lot of tension in the film, because the young people have different opinions about whether they want to make smut or art. Two of the women are jealous about which one of them is the film's biggest star.

But tragedy strikes. The farmer's wife, who was a beautiful dancer before the First World War, sees what's happening. She wants to get sexually involved with the film cast. When they turn her down, she kills them, one by one. At first we think she's the only killer, but her husband joins in the killing spree.

This is a very good film. If all the other films in the festival are at least this good, it will be a fantastic four days.

Thursday, 19 November 2020

Suspiria [2018] (2 Stars)


When I saw this film in the cinema two years ago, I gave it the benefit of the doubt. I didn't completely understand what was happening, so I thought I would be able to judge it better after watching it again. Today I finally returned to the film, and I understand most of what happened. The after-credits scene still puzzles me. Now that I understand the film, I have to say that I don't like it. There are a lot of good ideas, but that's the problem: there are too many ideas thrown together. There's no reason to include the news reports of the Baader Meinhof Gang and the hijacked plane in Mogadishu. I'm old enough to remember these events, but they'll only confuse younger viewers. The tales of Nazi persecution are interesting, but unnecessary in this film. As for the Berlin Wall, why do we have to see it in the background of so many scenes? There are too many spurious details.

The original version of this film was simpler. The lack of complexity made it better. The remake is beautiful and stylistic, but it's a bloated failure.

And what's the point in having Tilda Swinton play three different roles?

Success Rate:  - 2.6

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Wednesday, 5 December 2018

Suspiria [2018] (3 Stars)


I often say that when a film is remade it has to offer something knew while being based on the same story. The screenwriter for this film took that advice to heart, but he's pushed it too far. Yes, it has the same premise as the classic 1977 horror film. Yes, the characters have the same names. It's the same mystery that the young American woman encounters in a German dance school, but that's where the similarities end. When the mystery is finally solved at the end of the film the hidden secrets are totally different. I can't help thinking that the screenwriter, in collaboration with the director, wrote the film for fans of the original film. He wanted to shock these fans by giving them the opposite of what they expected.

It's been more than eight years since I last watched the original version of "Suspiria", but I still remember it well enough to be one of the people who was shocked.

It's not an easy film to understand. I'm not alone in that opinion. After the film I spoke briefly with the four people sitting next to me, and the consensus was "I don't get it". If anything, the final scenes and the after-credits scene – make sure you don't miss it! – made the film even more confusing. These scenes seemed from their style to be wrapping up the story, but I couldn't see how they were relevant.


The film takes place in September to October 1977. Susie Bannon is a young woman from a strict Mennonite community in Ohio. From what we're told she loves her family, but the religious atmosphere stifled her creativity, so she wanted to get as far away as possible. She's travelled to West Berlin to apply for membership in the prestigious Markos dance school. It's a risk. If she's turned down she's gone halfway across the world for nothing. However, Susie is self-confident and is certain she'll be accepted. She impresses the school's choreographer, Madame Blanc, so much that within two weeks she's given the lead role in the next performance, the presentation of a 1946 piece called "Volk".

Susie could only get this role because the school's previous lead dancer, Patricia Hingle, has suddenly disappeared. The other students think that she's left to join a terrorist cell. The film shows that this isn't true. She visits a psychotherapist, Dr. Josef Klemperer, asking him for help. He diagnoses her with acute paranoia. After a single visit she leaves her diary with him. He reads that the dance school is controlled by a coven of witches, ruled over by three ancient witches who have lived for thousands of years. He becomes fascinated by this story. He doesn't believe it, but he investigates anyway.

That's as far as I'll go with the plot. It's not just that I don't want to give away spoilers; I don't understand everything that happened. That's my reason for the relatively low rating. When I go to watch a film I at least expect to understand it. There might be unclear details that necessitate watching the film a few times, but the major plot points need to be clear. I walked out of the cinema feeling somehow empty.

One of the film's amusing features is that Tilda Swinton appears in three different roles. She looks so different that it's impossible to recognise her as the same person.


Tilda Swinton as Madame Blanc. This is the Tilda Swinton that I know and love.


Tilda Swinton as Dr. Josef Kemperer. Holy Sex Change, Batman! I honestly don't know why she was used for the role. Couldn't they have found an old man to play the doctor? Tilda even wears a fake penis in a brief nude scene. Maybe there's some subtle intention in putting the same actress into the two main roles. Maybe it's just a joke. I don't know.

I haven't found a photo of Tilda Swinton's third character that I can use. All I'll say is that she looks different to both of the above characters.

I need to watch the original film again. I'll probably watch the new version again. It was made by Amazon Studios, so I expect it to appear on Amazon Prime before too long.

Wednesday, 22 March 2017

A Cure For Wellness (4 Stars)


This is a film that's been savaged by the critics, but friends of mine who saw the film in England last month highly recommended it, so I had a choice. Do I listen to highly devoted film fans or the narrow-minded critics? That's a rhetorical question. I arrived at the cinema with my money in my hand.

The film begins in New York, but after the introductory scenes it continues in Switzerland. Roland Pembroke, the CEO of a large finance company, has gone to spend a few weeks in a health spa in Switzerland. The board of directors waits patiently for him to return, but they receive a letter from him -- a hand-written letter, not an email -- that he intends to remain in the health spa indefinitely. That raises panic, because they need his signature to agree to a merger. The board decides to send a young executive, Mr. Lockhart (whose first name is never disclosed), to persuade him to return.

And so Lockhart heads to the Swiss Alps, where he finds the spa housed in a castle on a mountain. The suspicious villagers who lived at the foot of the mountain already gave me a clue about what was to come. On his arrival Lockhart is obstructed in his attempts to speak to Mr. Pembroke. He decides to stay overnight at a hotel in the village, but on the way his taxi collides with a deer. He wakes up in the health spa three days later with his leg in a plaster cast. The head of the spa, Dr. Vollmer, offers to let him stay until his leg has healed. Lockhart agrees, but as he gets to know the other residents at the health spa he becomes aware of one fact: nobody ever leaves.

The film is delightful in many ways. The first half of the film is a Kafkaesque nightmare. Lockhart is repeatedly told that he's a patient in the spa, not a prisoner, but whenever he attempts to leave there are obstructions. It's also a mystery, as Lockhart tries to unveil the reason why nobody wants to leave. Then there's a horror story about the Baron who lived in the castle 200 years ago, a mad scientist who performed experiments on living humans to cure his wife's infertility. All the different stories intertwine to form a whole.

A few small facts detract from the overall quality. There are some unnecessary subplots. The opening scene with Morris, another company executive, dying of a heart attack, is superfluous to the story, and is only briefly mentioned later on. Lockhart's mother's psychic abilities add nothing to the story. The illegal dealings of Lockhart's company are also irrelevant. "A Cure For Wellness" has a running time of 146 minutes, and I have nothing against long films in principle, but if the unnecessary scenes were cut it would shorten the film and make the story much tighter.

The critics are wrong. It isn't a bad film, but it could have been better.

Monday, 21 September 2015

Everest (4 Stars)


This film tells the story of the multiple expeditions to reach the top of Mount Everest in 1996. In the first few minutes we're told about the problems. In the past the mountain had been scaled by very few elite, highly skilled climbers. Now Everest had become commercialised. Different companies were offering tours to the top of Everest for people who may have been fit, by normal standards, but certainly weren't the elite climbers who should have been attempting such a dangerous ascent. At a price of $65,000 per customer it was good business.

The film focuses on the leaders of two tours, Rob Hall and Scott Fischer, who decide to pool their efforts and lead their teams together, despite their different styles. Rob is a hand-holder, whereas Scott demands that his customers do as much as they can themselves, otherwise they don't deserve to be on Everest. We briefly see other teams at the beginning of the film. Rob especially is shocked by the crowds at Everest's Base Camp and predicts that they will be getting in one another's way.

Five people died trying to get back down from the peak. Five people shown in the film, that is. On the same day another three people died in another team not shown in the film. Was it worth it? Was it worth taking commercial tours to the top of the most dangerous mountain on Earth? It could be asked whether it's worth climbing Everest at all, but there will always be adventurers who put their lives at risk to achieve extraordinary feats.

The film is spectacular. The actors themselves tend to fade into the background. The film's real star is the mountain itself. Some scenes were shot on location, at Everest's Base Camp (5335 metres) and Camp 2 (6400 metres). Those are presumably the highest locations on the mountain accessible to normal people. The higher scenes were filmed in Pinewood Studios, England. The end result is breathtaking. This is also one of the few films I've seen in recent years that profits from 3D.

Despite the big publicity that the 1996 "Mount Everest Disaster" received, it's been pointed out, somewhat cynically, that it was a good year. Only 3% of the climbers who ascended higher than Base Camp died, compared with the previous yearly average of 3.3%. Was eight deaths in a single day exceptional? Not at all. For instance, on April 18th 2014, while the film was being made, 16 sherpa guides setting up equipment for the climbing season were killed in an avalanche. This never made the news. They were only poor local people, not rich westerners.

Friday, 6 March 2015

Nymphomaniac (4 Stars)


Killing is the most natural thing in the world. We're created for it.

I bought "Nymphomaniac" on Blu-ray at the beginning of December. Now, after three months, I've finally got round to watching it. Why did I wait so long? The reason is that it's a long film, five and a half hours, and I wanted to wait until I had time to watch it in one sitting. As it was, I was interrupted today after three and a half hours by the verdict in the Jodi Arias murder trial. Maybe I should say non-verdict, since the jury failed to reach a unanimous decision, rendering the result a mistrial. The problem was that one of the jurors, Claudia Suchta, came into court in October 2014 with a pre-conceived notion about what she would decide, and was at no time willing to listen to the evidence or the opinions of the other jurors. Last week the other 11 jurors asked for her to be excluded from the deliberations, but the judge refused. The final result was the 11-1 hung jury that resulted today. After listening to the interviews and briefly taking part in the forums where trial watchers were venting their anger at Mrs. Suchta I returned to watch the last two hours of the film.


"Nymphomaniac" is divided into two parts, but the division is artificial, just as Quentin Tarantino's "Kill Bill" is only one film, artificially divided because it was thought too long for a single cinema visit. When I saw "Nymphomaniac" in the cinema last year both parts were shown back to back as part of a special event, but it was shortened to four hours. The official reason was that the film's sex scenes were too explicit to be shown legally, but I believe that the running time was also a factor. Of course, I refused to buy the theatrical version when it was released on Blu-ray, I waited for the full version, incorrectly called the "director's cut". However, watching it again today I couldn't spot the extra 90 minutes that were missing in the version I saw last year. It's possible that the do-it-yourself kitchen abortion scene was missing from the short version, but I'm not sure, and even if it were it would only make a time difference of about 10-15 minutes.

The film begins and ends with darkness, two minutes at the beginning and one minute at the end. Within the film Seligman finds a woman injured in the alleyway outside his house and takes her home to clean her up. His name is symbolic. It means "holy man", and he does indeed live in a very bare room like a monk, even though he emphasises that he isn't religious. He doesn't have a television or a telephone in his house. The only evidence of modern technology is a cassette recorder, which he uses to listen to classical music, in particular Bach. The woman, who introduces herself as Joe, confesses to being a nymphomaniac, and she attempts to persuade Seligman that she is an evil person by telling him her life story in eight chapters.

  1. The Complete Angler
  2. Jerome
  3. Mrs. H
  4. Delirium
  5. The Little Organ School
  6. The Eastern and the Western Church
  7. The Mirror
  8. The Gun

Joe's whole life, ever since she was 12, has revolved around sex, and the film is appropriately explicit in the depiction of her life. It's difficult to think of her as evil, and Seligman too does all he can to defend her against her own accusations. The only thing I would really criticise her for is leaving her young child alone for hours when she went out to be beaten and whipped (chapter six). This was reprehensible, and she showed no remorse when her son almost died while left alone.


The film is set in England, as is obvious from the cars and the money used, but there are certain scenes that look foreign. The scenes have been called mistakes by some reviewers, but they are such obvious mistakes that I can't believe that the director Lars von Trier didn't know what he was doing. For instance, when Joe walks out of the hospital where her father is dying (chapter four) the sign over the door says "Opgang", the Dutch word for "Recovery". The word is written so large, stretching almost all the way across the screen, so it couldn't possibly be a blunder. Could it? The train in chapter one is a German train. Throughout the film the outdoor scenes seem very un-English. For instance, the house windows have external shutters (typical for Holland) and the streets seem very continental.

"Nymphomaniac" created a lot of controversy for its depictions of sex. We repeatedly see close-ups of erect penises, something usually reserved for hardcore pornography. And yet it isn't a pornographic film, far from it. It's a philosophical film, as are all films directed by Lars von Trier. If you watch it, when the film is over you won't be thinking about the sex scenes, you'll be thinking about God, the universe and the meaning of life.

I bought the Blu-ray from Germany, because it hasn't been released in England. Yet. The short version has been on sale since April last year, but the full version has been announced three times and cancelled each time. I suspect that there are classification arguments going on behind the scenes.

Sunday, 23 February 2014

Nymphomaniac (4 Stars)


If there's one thing Lars Von Trier likes to do, he likes to shock his audiences and critics. He has created a heavily stylised film about the life of a nymphomaniac, complete with explicit sex scenes. The film was shown today as a one-day-only event across the United Kingdom. The film was given a live introduction from the Curzon Theatre in London, and after the film several members of the cast answered questions posed by the live audience and sent via Twitter. Amusingly, everyone in the Curzon Theatre was given a brown paper bag to wear over their head for a photoshoot, in order to mock the bad conduct of the film's star Shia LaBeouf at the film's premiere in Berlin.

Seligman (Stellan Skarsgard) finds a woman called Joe (Charlotte Gainsbourg) lying injured near his home. She refuses to let him call an ambulance, so he takes her home to let her clean herself up. She then proceeds to tell him about her life, divided into eight chapters based on objects she sees in his room. When she was 12 she had her first orgasm while seeing a vision of Messalina (the wife of the Emperor Claudius) and the Whore of Babylon. At 15 she lost her virginity to a boy called Jerome (Shia LaBeouf). At 17 she competed with her best friend B (Sophie Kennedy Clark) to see who could have sex with the most men during a train journey. That was the beginning of her life as a nymphomaniac.

Seligman listens to her stories with great interest. He points out that her life has been governed by Fibonacci numbers. For instance, when she lost her virginity Jerome thrust into her three times, then turned over and thrust into her a further five times before orgasming. Together they listen to Bach, a man who used Fibonacci numbers to compose music.

Note: The first 10 Fibonacci numbers are 0, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34

I'm slightly disappointed, because I expected to see the uncut five and a half hour version of the film today. Instead of that a shortened four hour version was shown. Having said that, I can't imagine what's been cut out, because the film that I saw today was so complete. The main impression that the film has left with me is the brilliance of Stellan Skarsgard as an actor. I've been impressed by him ever since I first saw him in "Insomnia" (the original version), but in this film he's better than ever before.