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Canada, United States · 2022
1h 40m
Director Ti West
Starring Mia Goth, David Corenswet, Tandi Wright, Emma Jenkins-Purro
Genre Horror, Mystery, Thriller
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Pearl and her overbearing mother and ailing father are living on an isolated farm during the 1918 flu pandemic. She dreams of going to Hollywood to become a movie star, and goes to drastic measures to make her fantasy a reality.
The Hollywood Reporter by David Rooney
As a cleverly packaged pandemic production with narrative echoes of that global anxiety, it’s at the very least something fresh. A gruesome portrait of another young woman hungering for a life greater than the fate she’s been handed, it makes an amusing companion piece to X.
Flimsy logic notwithstanding, Pearl is the superior of the two heavily-stylized slashers, partly because it dedicates so much time to building the eponymous antiheroine from the ground up.
Clever, violent, and wicked, with a fabulously unhinged turn from Goth, West’s period psycho tale truly does have the X Factor.
It’s an impressive feat of filmmaking, but one that reveals nothing new, a major misstep for a film seemingly dedicated to doing just that.
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
The film itself is terrifically accomplished and horribly gripping, with golden-age movie pastiche and dashes of Psycho and The Wizard of Oz.
Its distinctive look and oddly appealing antihero (picture Norman Bates as Shelley Duvall might have played him) could actually make this the more popular of the two films.
The Telegraph by Robbie Collin
In her first outright lead role Goth is straightforwardly tremendous, and gets to move through the considerable breadth of her talent even within individual shots.
This new instalment stands on its own unsettlingly odd merits.
Pearl isn’t just great; it retroactively makes its predecessor great, too. It’s a handsome and sad horror drama, with scenes and shots and performances that will make you wonder if you’re supposed to laugh, cry or shriek. Until you realize that the best part of this film is that you are absolutely supposed to do all three. And you probably will.
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