Review - Pearl
Directed by: Ti West
Written by: Ti West, Mia Goth
Starring: Mia Goth, David Corenswet, Tandi Wright, Matthew Sunderland, Emma Jenkins-Purro
Running Time: 102 minutes
Rating: 4/5
“It’s not about doing whatever I want. It’s about making the most out of what I have.”
Horror master, Ti West returns with his latest; a twisted take on The Wizard of Oz with Psycho underpinnings drenched in blood. Complete with super-saturated technicolor visuals (and wipe transitions) that pays a twisted homage to Hollywood’s golden age. Ti West is known for drawing on very specific horror niches if you look back at his entire filmography and Pearl is still on brand for him. While I very much enjoyed X, I always thought that his riff on The Texas Chainsaw Masscare / 70’s explotation felt like it didn’t manage to find it’s own voice and that it too much like the films he was trying to pay homage to. Pearl is not like this, it is a coherent vision and unique voice by both Ti West and Mia Goth (who co-wrote the script)
“Pearl” takes places in the 1918’s towards the end of World War 1 during the Spanish Flu pandemic. So everyone is staying at home and wearing masks to protect themselves from infection (Too soon?). Mia Goth plays the titular character, a young woman who’s husband is serving overseas while she stays at home with her controlling mother (Tandi Wright) and immobilized father (Matthew Sunderland). Pearl’s aspirations towards stardom are in direct conflict with her mother’s idea of responsibility; but both women share the common belief that they are being tied down by events out of their control. She escapes her life of mundanity by going to the theater and eventually meeting a handsome young man only known as “The Projectionist” (David Corenswet). He puts into her ear that she can make it into show business and that begins her slow decent into madness. As Pearl waits for her husband to return home, her patience with everyone around her starts to grow thin and that’s when the bloodletting starts and nothing will get in the way of her “making it.”
“Mia Goth gives a career-defining performance in Ti West’s prequel to “X” carrying an entire film on her back. Instead of sharing the spotlight with the ensemble of “X” she’s front and center in Pearl.”
Mia Goth gives a career-defining performance in Ti West’s prequel to “X” carrying an entire film on her back. Instead of sharing the spotlight with the ensemble of “X” she’s front and center in Pearl. This film has one of the great one-take horror monologues in recent memory and this alone showed me that Mia Goth will hopefully be getting more roles in Hollywood. The Oscar’s snubbed Toni Collette in the modern horror masterpiece Hereditary and they’ll do it again with Mia Goth.
What makes “Pearl” great is that it retroactively makes “X” even better even though tonally they are not the same at all. The two films play off each other well with their variations on the same themes. Two Ti West films in the same year is incredible and now I can’t wait for the third film, MaXXXine; which would make it A24’s first trilogy. You had me at Ti West, but a continuation of this incredible universe he has created with Mia Goth? I’m 100% on board. Fuck me up, Ti and Mia.
