West, in "Maxxxine," applies his genre-movie scholasticism to a form that seems, on the face of it, to be the definition of disreputable: the '80s sexploitation thriller — the kind of badly lit grindhouse product, featuring women in heavy-metal lingerie and psycho stalkers who are like leering stand-ins for the men in the audience, that no one ever pretended was any good. De Palma drew on some of these films too, but "Maxxxine" is less a contempo De Palma film then a knowing nod to the movies you used to see stacked up in VHS bargain bins in convenience stores.
