Reflections on ... Pearl (2022)

Recently watched: Pearl (2022). Spare a thought for teenage newlywed Pearl (Mia Goth). It’s 1918, the US is plagued by a Spanish influenza epidemic and her husband Howard is away fighting in Europe in World War I, leaving her toiling on the isolated rural farm of her austere German immigrant parents, disabled father (Matthew Sunderland) and sternly disapproving mother (Tandi Wright). Pearl aspires to be a dancer and her sole consolation is going to the cinema. But she also displays hints of madness and a capacity for violence. On the farm, pitchforks and axes are readily available. How can someone so outwardly cherubic be so frightening? 

Pearl lovingly recreates the lush orchestral score and gorgeous faux retro Technicolour (with - inevitably - a focus on the colour red) synonymous with Old Hollywood. Director Ti West stylishly evokes The Wizard of Oz, Psycho and hagsploitation classics What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and What’s the Matter with Helen? (Pearl is a prequel to West’s excellent earlier film X (2022), but you don’t have to have already watched X to appreciate Pearl. In fact, it might be interesting to watch Pearl before watching X!). 

And boy does Pearl cement angel-faced Mia Goth as a megastar. I venerate her as the Barbara Steele de nos jours. (Or as The Guardian’s savvy critic Peter Bradshaw declares, “Goth is now the Judy Garland of horror”). She also possesses the gawky, pop-eyed charm of Shelley Duvall in films like Thieves Like Us (1974) and The Shining (1980). Her performance here equals Toni Collette’s in Hereditary (2018). (And like Collette's you'll wonder how this didn't get Oscar nominated). Goth has two particularly remarkable moments (these aren’t spoilers!). When Pearl’s well-intentioned sister-in-law Mitsy (Emma Jenkins-Purro) unwisely encourages Pearl to unburden herself and tell her what she’d confide to Howard if she could, it unleashes a torrential soliloquy of pain, self-loathing and alienation – which gradually becomes a serial killer’s lament. Later, in extreme close-up Goth maintains a deranged frozen rictus grin until her eyes well with tears, her lips quiver and a vein in her temple visibly throbs. The concluding macabre feast of suckling pig will haunt you forever. Pearl is a modern horror masterpiece!

/ Mia Goth snapped at the premiere of Pearl at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival /