phancy.com - horror reviews - MOH 2022

Pearl



IMDb Info

Release Year: 2022
Runtime: 1h 43m
Country: USA, Canada
Language: English, German
Genre Tags: Horror
Plot Summary: Backstory on how Pearl became the person she was.

Poster - Title Card


phancy.com rating:

phancy.com notes: What if The Wizard Of Oz was a horror movie? Similar to X, which this is a prequel to, Ti West is simultaneously using and subverting Technicolor movie tropes to create something new. Pearl never gets a tornado to take her Oz, not matter how much the film's familiar language seems to hint at it. True, she may not be right in the head, but the fear of being trapped in a life you have no choice or control over is real the horror in this story. Mia Goth gives a bravura performance which includes a riveting, uncut third act monologue and a pitch perfect ending.


Outside Reviews:

Nick Allen
2.5 out of 4 stars - rogerebert.com

There are just too many moments in which the sincerity of "Pearl" is questionable. Yes, it gives Goth a compelling chance to nurture a fascinating character, to show a performer's heart and needs, for us to clock her emotional reactions like the steps of a slasher. But the execution of "Pearl" is shakier in what it wants us to take from her delusions, her violent outbursts, her yearning for love. "Pearl" gets a little too close to letting you simply laugh at her. We know she wouldn't like that.


Phil Pirrello
Grade: A- - Ti West's Pearl is a welcome (and bloody) addition to the X Cinematic Universe

Much of Pearl's greatness rests on Goth's talented shoulders. She is fiercely committed to every frame of Pearl's movie-like fantasy world, which makes her performance all the more haunting and haunted as that fantasy unravels. The broken pieces of the movie in her head prove fatal for those in her path in increasingly over-the-top ways. But there's no one in the audience who can't relate to having a dream go unfulfilled, and by making Pearl relatable West and Goth ground Pearl's inevitable spiral with emotional honesty. The demented set pieces will satisfy genre fans, but they also resonate more deeply due to Pearl's underlying motivations.