Director, producer Ti West continues year of success
The sequel to “X,” “Pearl” provides viewers with a balance of horror and homage. PHOTO CREDIT: IMBD
Following up his A24-backed hit “X” (2022), writer and director Ti West came back swinging with “Pearl,” the latest installment in his franchise.
Operating as a prequel to the original film, the movie takes place in 1918 and focuses on the titular character, Pearl, who was the primary antagonist in “X.” Unlike “X”, a classic slasher-style horror flick, “Pearl” is a bloody character study working to answer the questions left from its predecessor.
“Pearl” takes us back sixty-one years from where we last left off. As a young woman who dreams of a life starring in motion pictures in the big city, Pearl must instead contend with the bland and routine-filled farm life with her struggling German family. Her mother is commanding and her father is bound to a wheelchair, unable to even eat of his own will. With her husband overseas fighting in the First World War and the Spanish Flu tearing apart her small town, Pearl finds herself isolated – spending much of her time dancing and singing for the animals kept at her family’s farm.
The film, with visuals reminiscent of “The Wizard of Oz” with its bright technicolor glow and painted sets, will surely delight those who can appreciate an homage to earlier times. Much like its clean-cut photography, the film also finds itself at home as a skewed coming-of-age story, leaving viewers feeling comfortable until something just a bit off happens.
The cast is well put together. Leading lady Mia Goth, who co-wrote the film with West and starred in “X” as Maxine, reprises her role as Pearl. While the story itself revolves around Pearl, each character serves their own unique purpose in the story, from the well-intentioned Projectionist (David Corenswet) to Pearl’s strict, German-immigrant mother, Ruth (Tandi Wright).
But as expected, it’s the star of the film that steals the show, flexing her acting chops in a several-minute long monologue in the latter section of the film, wherein she begs one last time to be forgiven for the role she played in all of the movie’s madness.
Pearl can’t help but walk the line between what is familiar and what is not. Each of us can empathize with big dreams, and the frustrations of feeling stuck somewhere we don’t want to be. But in “Pearl” we find a violent, murderous person, hiding who they truly are – something of which I hope that very few of us feel as though we can relate to.
I would recommend “Pearl” so long as you don’t mind a little blood and guts. Beneath it all is a well told story and a masterfully directed film. And please, if you haven’t, watch “X”. You’ll be glad you did, especially when its highly anticipated sequel, “Maxxxine” comes out later on this year.