Pearl
"Pearl" is a slow burn with an awesome heel turn.
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Co-writer/producer/editor/director Ti West has already made a prequel to his 1970s-set porno horror (Porror? Horno?) movie “X” despite the fact it only came out six months ago. It’s “Pearl” (now in theaters), which not only shows how our titular character became a mass murderer … it’s West’s demented take on a Douglas Sirk-style domestic drama.
It’s 1920 and Pearl (played once again by Mia Goth sans old age makeup) is none too pleased with her life. The 1918 influenza pandemic has ravaged the country and left her father (Matthew Sunderland) an invalid. Her husband Howard (played here by Alistair Sewell and in “X” by Stephen Ure) has gone off to Europe to fight in the Great War. She’s stuck on the same Texas farm seen in the first flick with her disabled Dad and stern German immigrant mother Ruth (Tandi Wright) despite having dreams of becoming a chorus line girl in the pictures.
Pearl’s only reprieve from these doldrums are visits to her local cinema when she bicycles into town to procure her father’s medicine. It’s here that she befriends freewheeling projectionist John (David Corenswet), himself a veteran of the Great War. Further hope arrives when Pearl’s sister-in-law Misty (Emma Jenkins-Purro) informs her of dance auditions for a traveling troupe. Whether it’s through the company or through John, Pearl is longing to find a way off of the farm.
“Pearl” is a gag that both West and Goth (who also serves as co-writer and executive producer this time out) are almost entirely dedicated to until she gives one helluva bravura monologue during the film’s final act. However good Goth was pulling double duty in “X,” she’s even better here. Her performance is fearless, funny and hella scary. Goth is the movie and her work alone warrants the price of admission. The proceedings are further elevated by Eliot Rockett’s nightmarishly candy-colored and Technicolor-evoking cinematography and West’s playfully sinister editing.
With “X” West gave us the year’s best sex scene (it’s the gross one – not the sexy one) and with “Pearl” he gifts us the year’s best title card and closing credits. I can’t wait to see what this busy filmmaker has up his sleeve for the 1980s-set and Goth-starring “X” sequel “MaXXXine,” which is teased following the conclusion of “Pearl.”
At the end of the day “Pearl” is a slow burn with an awesome heel turn.