I have yet to see “X,” for which “Pearl” is the prequel, so I’m going into it blind. Ti West movie, produced by A24, so I have high hopes. I’m putting the bar up -here- (indicates with hands). It begins all kinds of retro, Wizard of Ozzy (not a Black Sabbath album title, btw) typeface in the credits, orchestral 1940’s movie soundtrack in the background, a farm girl sings to the animals that one day her prince will come and so forth, could mistake this for a Disney movie, if I didn’t know better. Gonna love it when things turn dark.
FYI, that turn comes in, like, seven minutes’ time. I’m not spoiling anything. You already knew this movie was going to be a messed-up adventure.
It’s 1918, Midwestern farm girl with dreams of movie starlet grandeur lives with her strict German mother and invalid German father, spoonfeeding Dad and wearing Mom’s dresses when she’s not looking. Just kinda dances around by herself and waits for her husband(?) to get back from the war. In the meantime, goes to the movies and tries not to catch Influenza. Yep, movie made just barely post-‘rona, and so we’re going to be using this timely historical backdrop.
Also there’s narcotics in Dad’s cough medicine, so we’ll be drinking THIS at the movies. It was the best of times, it was the… wait where am I right now? How did I get here? And who’s clothes am I wearing?
On the way back from the movies, she finds a flattened crop circle in a field of corn, with a creepy scarecrow in the center. Naturally, she does what anyone else would normally do in this situation, she goes on a romantic date with the scarecrow. Then she takes his hat and wears it to the big dance competition on Saturday. It’s at the church! She’ll certainly be discovered there! Lookout stardom, here she comes!
Stardom, incidentally, is dancing with five other women on a five-minute silent movie reel. Anything more ambitious would be a sin. Could you imagine… seven whole minutes? Seven and a HALF?? Might as well just go ahead and fuck a Satanic scarecrow while you’re at it! Scandalous!
She sneaks out after dinner, watches some French porn, gets some bad advice from a man who sleeps at the movie theater, and goes home to get her “crazy” started.
Pearl is the story of the mischievous, scarecrow-fucking farm girl with delusions of magnificence, who hates her family and hates her life and, when things don’t turn her way, she goes completely gorilla-dick! Now I guess I should watch “X.”