“X” movie review: Mia Goth stars in this silly retro slasher film
Written and directed by Ti West (“Cabin Fever 2: Spring Fever”), the 1979-set ″X” follows the unlucky fates of the solid and crew of an extremely low-budget grownup movie referred to as “The Farmer’s Daughter.” Set on a rural Texas farm and following the predictable contours of many a unclean joke centering on the inventory character — make that caricature — of a sexually rapacious younger girl and a fortunate male traveler, the film-within-a-film is a sequence of nudges and winks hinting at bygone tropes and stereotypes. Some are extra offensive than others: An afroed Scott Mescudi, a.ok.a. Child Cudi, performs the sexually prolific traveler, who will get to make on-camera whoopee with not solely his blond girlfriend (Brittany Snow), however the girlfriend (Mia Goth) of the movie’s producer (Martin Henderson) and the girlfriend (Jenna Ortega) of its director (Owen Campbell). Campbell, whose character is a aspiring cinéaste who references the French New Wave, will get the nudgiest, winkiest dialogue. “It’s attainable to make a very good soiled film,” he says to his sweetheart, Lorraine, who initially disapproves of all this hardcore carnality — till she, for implausible causes, decides to affix in.
It actually is feasible to make such a film, however I’m undecided “X” is essentially the most compelling argument.
Nonetheless, it has sure je ne sais quoi, if graphic nudity, self-referential humor and serial homicide — neck stabbing, eye gouging, alligator munching and shotgun blasting — are your factor. The victims, as in lots of films of this ilk, are younger individuals who take pleasure in intercourse. And the villains are the aged proprietor of the distant farm the place the crew has arrange store (Stephen Ure) and his equally aged spouse. Oddly, they’re the villains not as a result of they don’t take pleasure in intercourse, however as a result of they do. The spouse, Pearl, who appears to be like likes she’s about 150 however nonetheless enjoys a roll within the hay, is resentful that her superannuated husband is unable to carry out due to a weak coronary heart, so she takes out her sexual frustration on the youngsters. The truth that she’s performed by Goth, doing double obligation in pretty convincing if cartoonish old-age make-up, is troubling. It means that senior residents are inherently scary or one thing to chuckle at — and ones who’re randy are scarier, and extra laughable, nonetheless.
Maybe to this movie’s younger goal demographic — arguably, individuals who weren’t even born but within the 12 months wherein it’s set — there may be nothing extra terrifying than an previous girl who nonetheless feels sexual need. To anybody sufficiently old to have lived by means of 1979 — and to harbor no nostalgia for the inartfulness of DIY porn and VHS slasher films, “X” is much less of a deal with.
However, who knew {that a} silly film — half massacre, half pores and skin flick — would supply the viewer not solely a lot to consider, however a lot to stay up for? A prequel has already been shot, starring Goth because the youthful Pearl.
R. At space theaters. Incorporates bloody violence and gore, robust sexual materials, graphic nudity, drug use and crude language. 105 minutes.
