Pearl (2022).

Review #1893: Pearl.

Cast: 

Mia Goth (Pearl), David Corenswet (The Projectionist), Tandi Wright (Ruth), Matthew Sunderland (Pearl's Father), Emma Jenkins-Purro (Mitsy), and Alistair Sewell (Howard) Directed by Ti West.

Review: 

“If ‘X’ is about the way this auteurist era of independent filmmaking is affecting people, ‘Pearl’ is sort of about the old Hollywood way that affected people. The way in which they enrich each other is all a part of the craft of the filmmaking. I wanted to do something where all of the crafts of the movie were their very apparent charms.”

I'm sure you are familiar with X (2022). Well, if you are not, that is okay, because that was one of the films that slipped by my radar. It was a slasher film directed, written, co-produced, and co-edited by Ti West that apparently had homages to slasher films of the 1970s such as The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), with Mia Goth as the star. After the production had wrapped, West started work on utilizing the script idea he and Goth had developed together, with the inspiration coming from his eagerness to direct movies during the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, with A24 being the production company for both ventures; had A24 not been interested in the idea as it was in terms of being made right after X (such as with budget), it would have been done in black-and-white, so one gets a movie with a color scheme meant to evoke Technicolor. Pearl takes inspiration from the works of Douglas Sirk while being shot as if was Mary Poppins meeting Texas Chain Saw Massacre. This is the ninth film from West, who started doing his own films in 2005, for which he has written all of them alongside serving as editor and producer on most of them.

I really dug this film, which is interesting consider the fact that this is a "prequel" to a film released in the same year. It makes me want to look at what X did with how film affects certain people in certain ways, and it makes me wonder how the film teased at the end (titled MaXXXine) will go, because now I have great interest in what West and company want to do. It isn't often that one sees a movie that has both an enthusiasm about making a horror feature and the proper execution to actually go where it wants to go without relying on becoming a mockery or copy in nostalgia. It manages to be unnerving and charming at the same time with its musings on what desires and wants can do to a person. The unraveling of one's grip on reality becomes part of the horror itself, you might say (since there isn't that many speaking parts in the film, one expects a good balance there, which is proven correct). It has its sympathies for the devil without dwelling on cheap tricks; hell, don't take my word for it, Martin Scorsese thought it was quite disturbing. 

Goth had gotten her start in films with Nymphomaniac (2013), but X was her first starring role. She pulls off such a wonderful performance, one that any actor would love to invest their time with. This is a role that requires someone to put all of their emotion into it, one where you can see the heart on their sleeve in sensitivity, one that we are firmly invested in their journey regardless of how much you know about X or whatever you think you know about the endgame. She can make antics with a scarecrow completely believable and fitting to what is needed in that particular scene just as well as when she delivers a monologue near the ending about her fractured self-identity, which she handles like a champ. Awards season (led by neutered folks, no doubt) probably won't give Goth consideration for recognition, but viewers of quality horror certainly will, and I think that might be just enough to make this a really useful recommendation. The other actors do just fine with what is required in their presentation of reality as seen by our focus that is either on crushing parental guidance or others. Wright was actually the intimacy coordinator on X, and she does well in dream-crushing steeliness while Sunderland doesn't have any audible words and has to succeed on expression. The self-absorbed outsiders that round out the cast also do well in matching with Goth with what is needed in self-expression, such as trying to show a dirty movie or trying to make nice after a failed audition. As a whole, the 102 minutes go off without many hitches, building its cheery macabre nature with the right touch of execution and a wonderful performance by Goth that makes a solid origin story of a crack-turned-chasm killer that could make a case as one of the best times to spend watching a horror movie this year. It might not be perfect, but it may be perfect for re-watch nights over the next couple of years, so that might be just enough for some.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.

SURPRISE! A double-header to start off a new October of Horror enjoyment. You will see plenty of features throughout the month that go from the 1910s to the 2020s from October 1 to November 7 (yes, another Halloween - The Week After is coming). Enjoy the show, folks.