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Movie Review: Pearl

Mike Tyrkus

Writer/director Ti West returns to the macabre universe he created in X (2022) with the follow-up/origin story, Pearl starring Mia Goth as the sublimely surreal and, well, psychotic titular character.

Longing to escape the confines of the family farm where she is forced to care for her invalid father (Matthew Sunderland) by an oppressive mother (Tandi Wright), young Pearl dreams of leaving home to pursue a dream of movie stardom. Unfortunately, her own inclinations and predilections lead her down a path best left less travelled. 

Director West, working from a script by himself and star Goth, revels in the little quirky details that make Pearl’s character so unnerving and horrific, yet simultaneously sympathetic and likable. Likewise, Goth somehow manages to make Pearl somewhat sympathetic before springing her burgeoning psychosis on the audience, making it even more effective and disconcerting. 

Mia Goth in “Pearl.”

Playing the grounding projectionist that ostensibly opens the outside world for Pearl, David Corenswet proves to be a more likable misogynist than such a character deserves to be treated. But that may come about because it feels as though Pearl is using him far more effectively than he thinks he is using her. 

Working as his own editor, West does a fine job keeping the film moving from scene to scene, even employing some stylistic nods to classics of the genre like Psycho (1960) to create a rich mosaic of repression and burgeoning madness that makes everything that plays out in the film frighteningly inevitable. An effective and tense score courtesy of Tyler Bates and Tim Williams manages to serve up moments in the film as both shocking and disturbingly entertaining. 

While Pearl may ultimately not be lauded as being as effective as its predecessor, it succeeds in delivering an entertaining look at the origin of an intriguing character courtesy of a wonderful performance by Mia Goth as the titular character.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com
An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

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