If I’d had one extra day with my best friend, we could’ve capped off the trilogy with Maxxxine… but alas, we were only able to watch Pearl after X. At least we have a pick for next time!
Pearl, the prequel to X, provides the origin of the terrifyingly effed-up antagonist. With disturbing sexuality, axes and pillowcases and pots of boiling water, we explore the contained, violent world of young Pearl. Her husband is overseas, her father is infirm, and her mother is determined to keep her on the farm. Pearl’s search for control in small ways – torturing her father, killing geese – builds to a breaking point as she searches for a way to follow her dream.
Mia Goth is absolutely stupendous. Pearl features several long, uncut shots in which Goth carries her scenes with deep emotion and trembling poise, hooking the audience into her desperation and grief and breaking with stunning skill. As with X, the cinematography is strikingly gorgeous, but the color palette goes above and beyond. It’s all through Pearl’s eyes, with the saturation increasing during her happier moments and fading throughout the rest.
Throughout the movie, I was deathly curious as to how Pearl ended up where she did in X. Her initial aspiration was to leave her family’s farm and become a dancer. While I could see her killing her parents and escaping, I couldn’t visualize what would drive her back home. In the last quarter of the movie, though, we are given our answer. With the death of her dream, Pearl tries desperately to redefine her longings. She doesn’t want to be famous, she wants to be loved and admired. And if Howard can give her that, then isn’t that enough? Can’t she be satisfied with her farm life?
(As we know from X, she can – but not for long! And all it takes is a couple of triggers for her to snap all over again!)
Early on, Pearl’s projector beau shows her a French pornographic film. He tells her that these kinds of movies will revolutionize the business, fascinating Pearl. However, we know that Pearl will never gain the fame she desires – not even in a porno. And so, her hatred for the actors in X is recontextualized. She calls them whores, but they’re doing what she never did! They’re young, beautiful, and more successful than she ever was. And so her hatred of them is strengthened.
That penultimate scene – Pearl’s last on-screen murder – is tense and terrifying, but it has layers to its strength. Spoilers below!
*open for spoilers*
I don’t think Mitsy got the part in the dance troupe. The way she initially denied it sounded genuine, and Pearl’s insistence seemed to frighten her into a false confession. Pearl demanded that Mitsy not lie to her, and in response, Mitsy lied. Did Pearl kill Mitsy because she lied, or did she need Mitsy to lie as a reason to kill her? In the end, though, the brilliance of this scene is that it doesn’t matter. Did Mitsy get the part or didn’t she? Who knows – Pearl sure doesn’t! But this murder spurs a hatred of blondes in Pearl that lasts another 60 years, as learned in X!
The largest missing part of this movie – and my only real disappointment – comes from the massive exclusion of Howard, Pearl’s overseas husband. In this movie, she doesn’t think much about him, his absence driving her to loneliness. It’s only in her final monologue to Mitsy that Pearl confides her feelings for Howard: the love mingled with bitterness and hatred. Mitsy tells Pearl that Howard loves her deeply, but this is all we get from his side of things. His first true appearance at the movie’s end feels unfinished given what we know about him from X.
*spoilers within*
In X, Howard was deeply committed to Pearl and willing to do anything for her. He killed, kidnapped, and chained a sex slave in the basement to keep her feeling young. While Pearl was the true psychopath, Howard was all too ready to follow her down that path. So where was this side of him? Given his shocked reaction to the corpses of Pearl’s parents at the dining room table, how did he come to accept and love this part of his wife? Pearl always snapped whenever people seemed afraid of her, as seen with her parents, her projectionist, and Mitsy. We know Howard did more than simply tolerate Pearl – they were married for 60 years! – so not learning the depths of his feelings for her or his coping strategies with her psychopathy is a huge missed opportunity.
It’s hard to tell if X or Pearl wins the title of “most disturbing.” I’m tempted to give it to X, but Pearl heightens every messed-up scene from the former. It’s not easy to make a comparison, so it’s better to just make a tense double-feature and hide beneath a blanket! And plan for some cute YouTube videos afterward because, whoo, you’ll need them!
Oh, I can’t wait to take on Maxxxine.
