Pearl

‘X’ when I arrived in cinemas in 2022 made quite a splash with its mixture of blood, guts and sex that was firmly set in grindhouse and porn cinema of the 70’s. There was a certain sense of authenticity about that lifted it above the level of homage. And it introduced Pearl that almost immediately tiggered a prequel.

It’s odd that early on there was some talk of straight to digital release and it has taken some time for the film to arrive in the UK. Nevertheless it’s here and audiences should be very thankful that it has a theatrical release.

Set during 1918 young wife Pearl (Mia Goth) is living on her parent’s farm doing her chores and helping her mother Tandi Wright) with her father (Matthew Sunderland) who has had a stroke and incapable of doing anything for himself.

Already married Pearl’s husband is in Europe as the World War I drags to an end, leaving her alone to think about her ambitions that are driven by the films of the era that she loves. She befriends (and has a fling with) the projectionist (David Corenswet) who introduces her to the ‘stag films’ of the time.

At home her mother grows stricter banning her from the cinema as well as auditions for a dance troupe. The stifling atmosphere of the home created by her father and mother begin to tell on Pearl feeding her imagination and her anger.

This is no straightforward film from Ti West, co-written with Mia Goth as they carefully lay the foundations of Pearl’s condition, which the viewer is given a clear idea of when she pitchforks a goose and feeds it to an alligator in the adjacent lake. Already somewhat disturbed the effects of her mother’s oppression, the demands of her father’s illness and her crushing personal disappointments - that are compounded by her vivid imagination – just drive her over the edge.

Mia Goth is astonishing as she battles to keep control of her mind from a beautiful sunny disposition to something much, much darker. The brilliance of the performance is that for all the horror, Goth elicits huge sympathy for the character culminating in powerful monologue to her sister-in-law Mitsy (Emma Jenkins-Purro) towards the end of the film.

The Technicolor is outstanding giving the film a rich vivid appearance that is actually more in tune with the 1940’s and 50’s, when taken with the wiping opening credits, that homage that period’s sense of post World War II optimism in the US, at least. Those images should be incongruous within the actual context and setting of the film that has the US coming out of a war, into prohibition, organised crime to be followed by the great depression, yet it works perfectly.