Pearl (2022)

United States of America

Horror, Drama

A24, Little Lamb Productions

Mia Goth, Tandi Wright, David Corenswet, Emma Jenkins-Purro, Matthew Sunderland, Alistair Sewell

Ti West

Ti West, Mia Goth

Taglines: An X-traordinary origin story.

farm, pornography, dance performance, world war i, confession, texas, alligator, barn, prequel, murder, serial killer, slasher, corpse, murderer, lust, religious fundamentalism, audition, mental illness, projectionist, isolated farmhouse, pandemic, 1910s, mother daughter relationship, origin story, aspiring actress

Trapped on her family’s isolated farm, Pearl must tend to her ailing father under the bitter and overbearing watch of her devout mother. Lusting for a glamorous life like she’s seen in the movies, Pearl’s ambitions, temptations, and repressions collide.

Reviews:

Author: Geronimo1967
Despite quite a characterful effort from Mia Goth as the title character here, I wasn't really very impressed with this film. She lives on a farm whilst her young husband is off fighting on the Somme. She shares her life with her Germanic, rather authoritarian, mother "Ruth" (Tandi Wright) and her profoundly disabled father who cannot speak and who is entirely dependent on these two women. "Pearl" longs to escape. On one of her occasional visits to town to collect her father's laudanum, she encounters the local projectionist (David Corenswet) who shows her a (quite racy) film and suggests that maybe a new life could be her's. Meantime, her life at the farm is becoming unbearable and her options for escape lead her to realise that drastic action may be needed - a plan that is accidentally put into play after an altercation with her mother. It's perfectly watchable, this, but it's also perfectly forgettable. The story is weak and thin, and though the photography is attractive, the whole thing just doesn't catch fire for me. There's no menace. It's not an horror film - it's a film about a mentally ill girl that offers us a few mildly entertaining scenarios that peter out as quickly as the plot does before an ending that screams sequel loudly and defiantly. It certainly does not need to be seen on a cinema screen.