It was around this time last year that Ti West’s X arrived in UK cinemas. Set in the seventies, the film served as a wonderful homage to the likes of The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. What no one knew then was that at the same time as filming X, West, and his leading lady, Mia Goth, had been secretly creating and filming a prequel – Pearl. Set in 1918, during the influenza pandemic, Pearl fills in the history of the old woman that stalked the frames of X.
There’s little new to add to the discourse around Mia Goth and her performance as Pearl. She is simply superb, a true savant at acting. As Pearl, Goth is perfect. It’s not just any actor that can make the viewer feel sympathy for the devil, and yet that is exactly what she achieves with her character. Those that have seen X will know what Pearl becomes, but there’s something about Goth’s performance that makes her so human. Pearl, like many of society, is a victim of her circumstance. Her days are spent nursing her sickly father and helping her strict mother tend to their farm. She’s stuck in a dull life due to the war that rages on, and dreams of her husband’s return so that they can flee together. Pearl yearns to be a star and through a spot of chance, an opportunity presents itself; the fallout though is especially wicked.
Pearl follows the fairy-tale formula – a downtrodden hero with lofty aspirations suddenly given their dream shot – but rather than give Pearl her happy ending, it is cruelly wrenched away from her. The belief that someone will acknowledge her worth is all that has kept Pearl’s fragile mental health in check. Once her dreams lie in tatters, the poor young woman finally snaps and a thirst for cathartic vengeance consumes her. Right from the first moment, when Pearl is more restrained, Goth has the audience in the palm of her hand. Somehow though the audience falls further under Pearl’s spell once her true self is unleashed. There’s a strong sensation of glee as the viewer watches Pearl begin to massacre those around her and try to claim the life she believes she is owed. West and Goth both make the audience feel like Pearl’s co-conspirator and their enjoyment matches, if not suprasses, the elation that the farmhand gets from axing someone else from her list.
Although set over one hundred years ago, Pearl feels strangely modern. Having been made during our own pandemic surely helps flesh out emotions around the one in which Pearl exists. But it is Pearl’s motivations and ambitions to be famous that perhaps align most closely to modern sensibilities. The desire to become a star is an overwhelmingly popular career path in our modern age. People all over the world are setting up their own YouTube channels, blogs etc., with the hopes of reaching influencer status and enjoying life in the spotlight. Were Pearl to be transplanted to our time period it would be a tale of a desperate content creator trying to build up her following. The parallels between now and Pearl’s then are eerily similar and help to soften the blow for those adverse to films set in the past, whilst highlighting how little mankind has pushed forward.
If X’s visual style was borrowed from The Texas Chain Saw, Pearl’s is ripped from The Wizard of Oz. It’s a bold swirl of technicolour that serves to try and distract Pearl from her mundane routine. The colour palette can be read as a manifestation of Pearl’s dreams of stardom, having made herself the lead in her narrative. Every second of Pearl looks impeccable. The Wizard of Oz theme continues through Pearl’s costume, every outfit screaming Dorothy Gale; in terms of set design (and narrative), there’s even a scarecrow.
The standout scene, both technically and in performance, is set over dinner. For almost eight minutes, as Pearl, Mia Goth speaks continuously. The monologue forms part of the climatic moments of the film, but it’s played intimately. There are just seventeen shots over the course of Pearl’s speech, with the final five and a half minutes just one single-shoot. It is the scene that demonstrates a great confidence from West, and also the one that proves why Goth deserved to have been a contender on this year’s awards circuit. This is the type of scene that will be studied by aspiring actors for years to come, which means that even without big name awards, Goth will ultimately triumph.
The only issue with Pearl is that it has taken far too long to arrive in the UK. Audiences in America had access to the film all the way back in September last year, which was an eternity ago. Due to the onset of the digital age, anyone with a good VPN or multi-region Blu-Ray player has been able to semi-legitimately purchase and watch Pearl already. This means that the box-office will be severely impaired and likely cause some distributors to negatively rethink genre acquisitions. This is of course the wrong move. Reduce the windows between territories, rethink those release strategies, and let the devout genre fan prove their love in cinemas rather than via VPN. One can only hope that the last in West’s X trilogy – Maxxxine – gets to UK shores much faster.
Pearl
Summary
Genre cinema performed at the top of its game, Pearl is a masterclass in just about everything. If you’re one of the few that hasn’t yet sought out Pearl by other means, your patience is about to be very richly rewarded.
Pearl is released in UK cinemas now.
