2 out of 5

Directed by: Ti West

With X, the film that proceeded Pearl, but essentially acts as its sequel, I felt that Ti West had finally found a good balance for his genre homages and purposeful stylistic limitations, juggling referential visuals and his typical slowburn pacing with a good sense of humor and participatory cast; it was a flick where the look and feel actually served the content, as opposed to his usual reverse, where the latter is just a prop to support the former.

With Pearl, it’s back to business as usual.

The homage this time is to homespun studio pics, a la Wizard of Oz era, done up in wondrous overblown colors and shot with some truly gorgeous panache with cinematographer ___. It’s a fun era for West to insert his titular character into, playing with our anticipations for when this put-upon youngster, again played by Mia Goth – with her emotionally abusive mother (Tandi Wright) and invalid father (Matthew Sunderland) – will turn and become the killer we knew from X.

Of course, there’s not much playing around with that, showing Pearl as “off” early and often, and that lack of depth unfortunately carries over to the setting, where, once again – one of my criticism of X – West has some interesting conceptual swerves, or potential social commentary, and it’s just not followed up on. The setting itself only gets well juxtaposed with the horror in a pretty masterful final section; prior to that, these are just pretty pictures.

Perhaps the main flaw with the movie, though, is that I’m not sure it’s written to stand on its own. It’s not unfun, and the bright and varied visuals carry us through a snoozy pace, but I kept realizing: there’s hardly a story here. It follows a general revenge template that’s easy to follow, but West is only able to push the tone the way he does – stretching out scenes, playing with our wonder as to when Pearl will break – under the assumption that we know the character. If you weren’t aware of what Pearl will become, there’s hardly any reason to watch it; pretty scenes aside, it’s standard, slow stuff.

…Well, except: Goth. Goth, cowriting, creates this character, her mousey voice ready to turn into menacing bellows on a dime; demure looks morph into fury. Amidst the more obvious stuff, there are some really fascinating beats in the story and Goth plays those beats so engagingly; she elevates all the other actors, who also bring some great performances. The actors – but Goth especially – are certainly what prevent this from being a drag, and carry us through to a powerful, darkly funny ending that’s deserving of a much stronger and more consistent preceding 80 minutes.