Ti West’s X, released last year, was a Seventies-set slasher about pornographers working on the sly in a remote Texan farmhouse. It was a pleasingly nasty work, if limited by its questionable reliance on treating the ageing body as a source of repulsion. Pearl is its (far superior) prequel, a film written in two weeks by director Ti West and his star Mia Goth, shot in total secrecy and scrawled in bloodied guts and impotent rage. It is a wholly different beast – a tragicomic portrait of a woman so unable to process the falsity of her daydreams that it drives her to murder and mayhem.
In X, Goth played a wannabe pornstar named Maxine and, under layers of prosthetics, an elderly woman named Pearl who craved and resented Maxine’s youth. This film, set in 1918, sees the young Pearl living on the same farmstead featured in X. She is the daughter of immigrant parents,...
In X, Goth played a wannabe pornstar named Maxine and, under layers of prosthetics, an elderly woman named Pearl who craved and resented Maxine’s youth. This film, set in 1918, sees the young Pearl living on the same farmstead featured in X. She is the daughter of immigrant parents,...
- 3/16/2023
- by Clarisse Loughrey
- The Independent - Film
This article contains major spoilers for "Pearl."
The distinction of the greatest cinematic one-two punch of the year has to go to director Ti West. Not only did "X" reign as one of the best horror flicks of the year so far, but less than six months later, West had the colorful nightmare prequel known as "Pearl" ready for a theatrical release. Time will tell if it gains traction over its predecessor, but as it stands, "Pearl" is an absolute blast.
Where "X" was a tremendously entertaining ode to its '70s exploitation roots, "Pearl," on the other hand, is an unhinged beast all its own, emulating a bloody concoction of "Psycho," "Cinderella," and "The Wizard of Oz." Mia Goth is a ferocious presence who eats up the screen at every available opportunity. While we've already become acquainted with her "X" character, the much younger Pearl is a whole different experience.
The distinction of the greatest cinematic one-two punch of the year has to go to director Ti West. Not only did "X" reign as one of the best horror flicks of the year so far, but less than six months later, West had the colorful nightmare prequel known as "Pearl" ready for a theatrical release. Time will tell if it gains traction over its predecessor, but as it stands, "Pearl" is an absolute blast.
Where "X" was a tremendously entertaining ode to its '70s exploitation roots, "Pearl," on the other hand, is an unhinged beast all its own, emulating a bloody concoction of "Psycho," "Cinderella," and "The Wizard of Oz." Mia Goth is a ferocious presence who eats up the screen at every available opportunity. While we've already become acquainted with her "X" character, the much younger Pearl is a whole different experience.
- 9/19/2022
- by Matthew Bilodeau
- Slash Film
Plot: The twisted prequel to Ti West’s X explores the early years of Pearl, a young woman obsessed with fame. So much so that she’d commit any act of violence to get what she desired.
Review: In March this year, filmmaker Ti West brought us the wildly entertaining slice of genre goodness, X (read our review Here). The film featured Mia Goth as a young woman named Maxine looking to be a porn star. And it also featured Ms. Goth as the older woman living in the location where the horrors occur. Recently, however, fans of the film discovered that a sequel/prequel was coming to theatres. That film is about Mia’s character, Pearl. Once again, Mia takes on the role of Pearl, but this time in her younger years. Not only did we, as audience members, collectively discover that X had a prequel shot directly after,...
Review: In March this year, filmmaker Ti West brought us the wildly entertaining slice of genre goodness, X (read our review Here). The film featured Mia Goth as a young woman named Maxine looking to be a porn star. And it also featured Ms. Goth as the older woman living in the location where the horrors occur. Recently, however, fans of the film discovered that a sequel/prequel was coming to theatres. That film is about Mia’s character, Pearl. Once again, Mia takes on the role of Pearl, but this time in her younger years. Not only did we, as audience members, collectively discover that X had a prequel shot directly after,...
- 9/16/2022
- by JimmyO
- JoBlo.com
One of the core tenets of American mythology is the "rags to riches" story, the idea that any anonymous individual can, through sheer ambition and force of will, achieve lasting success in life. Nowhere is this myth best utilized than in the numerous stories about people making it big in show business. Most films about this topic throw enough hardship at their protagonists to keep things feeling realistic, but they make sure to perpetuate the myth: most of these stories have a happy ending worthy of a fairy tale.
"Pearl" is a different kind of fairy tale, and its emotionally harrowing finale subversively looks like a Technicolor happy ending while being anything but. This shouldn't come as much surprise to those who saw "X," which was co-writer and director Ti West's initial installment in what we now know is a trilogy of films. In "X," star Mia Goth portrayed both that film's nubile lead,...
"Pearl" is a different kind of fairy tale, and its emotionally harrowing finale subversively looks like a Technicolor happy ending while being anything but. This shouldn't come as much surprise to those who saw "X," which was co-writer and director Ti West's initial installment in what we now know is a trilogy of films. In "X," star Mia Goth portrayed both that film's nubile lead,...
- 9/16/2022
- by Bill Bria
- Slash Film
Pearl Review — Pearl (2022) Film Review, a movie directed by Ti West, written by Mia Goth and Ti West and starring Mia Goth, David Corenswet, Emma Jenkins-Purro, Alistair Sewell, Matthew Sunderland and Tandi Wright. Mia Goth takes campy acting to a new level in what could be called the definitive female American Psycho movie, [...]
Continue reading: Film Review: Pearl (2022): Mia Goth is Excellent in Prequel to X but the New Film is Much Different in Style...
Continue reading: Film Review: Pearl (2022): Mia Goth is Excellent in Prequel to X but the New Film is Much Different in Style...
- 9/16/2022
- by Thomas Duffy
- Film-Book
Stars: Mia Goth, David Corenswet, Tandi Wright, Matthew Sunderland, Emma Jenkins-Purro | Written by Ti West, Mia Goth | Directed by Ti West
Mia Goth reprises her role as Pearl in Ti West’s prequel to this year’s X, co-written with Goth while on lockdown during production, and shot on the same New Zealand locations. Combining a fabulous visual aesthetic with a delightfully unhinged central performance and some spectacular gore moments, this is an unabashed genre treat that’s full of surprises.
Pearl takes place in 1918, some 60 years before the events of X, in which the members of a porn shoot at a remote farmhouse were menaced by a horny old lady. As the rest of the world deals with the tail end of WWI and the global outbreak of Spanish Flu, 20-something Pearl (Goth) is forced to work on her family farm, where her duties include looking after her severely...
Mia Goth reprises her role as Pearl in Ti West’s prequel to this year’s X, co-written with Goth while on lockdown during production, and shot on the same New Zealand locations. Combining a fabulous visual aesthetic with a delightfully unhinged central performance and some spectacular gore moments, this is an unabashed genre treat that’s full of surprises.
Pearl takes place in 1918, some 60 years before the events of X, in which the members of a porn shoot at a remote farmhouse were menaced by a horny old lady. As the rest of the world deals with the tail end of WWI and the global outbreak of Spanish Flu, 20-something Pearl (Goth) is forced to work on her family farm, where her duties include looking after her severely...
- 9/5/2022
- by Matthew Turner
- Nerdly
Click here to read the full article.
Ti West’s wickedly entertaining X, released earlier this year, transplanted the small cast and crew of a low-rent 1970s Los Angeles porn production to Texas Chainsaw Massacre territory, then unleashed an unsuspected evil on them. Its film-within-a-film, bump-and-grindhouse gambit doubled the exploitation fun while subverting norms of female sexuality, upending the male gaze and resurrecting that most lurid throwback, the deranged nymphomaniacal hag. Rewinding six decades, Pearl stokes more dreams of stardom only to dismantle them pitilessly, meaning someone’s going to pay in blood.
If the resulting series of kills stints on imagination and lacks much of a genuine scare factor, the prequel’s retro stylings are a treat. The saturated colors of cinematographer Eliot Rockett’s visuals practically leap off the screen and the big surging sounds of Tyler Bates and Tim Williams’ old-school orchestral score signal high drama and danger from the start.
Ti West’s wickedly entertaining X, released earlier this year, transplanted the small cast and crew of a low-rent 1970s Los Angeles porn production to Texas Chainsaw Massacre territory, then unleashed an unsuspected evil on them. Its film-within-a-film, bump-and-grindhouse gambit doubled the exploitation fun while subverting norms of female sexuality, upending the male gaze and resurrecting that most lurid throwback, the deranged nymphomaniacal hag. Rewinding six decades, Pearl stokes more dreams of stardom only to dismantle them pitilessly, meaning someone’s going to pay in blood.
If the resulting series of kills stints on imagination and lacks much of a genuine scare factor, the prequel’s retro stylings are a treat. The saturated colors of cinematographer Eliot Rockett’s visuals practically leap off the screen and the big surging sounds of Tyler Bates and Tim Williams’ old-school orchestral score signal high drama and danger from the start.
- 9/3/2022
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
The Power of the Dog Review — The Power of the Dog (2021) Film Review, a movie directed by Jane Campion and starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Plemons, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Kenneth Radley, Sean Keenan, George Mason, Ramontay McConnell, Cohen Holloway, Alistair Sewell, Alice Englert, Jacque Drew, Frances Conroy and Thomasin McKenzie. Director Jane Campion [...]
Continue reading: Film Review: The Power Of The Dog (2021): Director Jane Campion’s Compelling Western Showcases Solid Lead Performances...
Continue reading: Film Review: The Power Of The Dog (2021): Director Jane Campion’s Compelling Western Showcases Solid Lead Performances...
- 11/18/2021
- by Thomas Duffy
- Film-Book
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