Just the Ticket #168: Pearl

Article by Sean Wilkinson,

a.k.a. the Ticketmaster

In light of February being the month of Valentine's Day, I thought long and hard about what I should review movie-wise, and I settled on psychological horror, starting with a film series (so far, it's a trilogy, so I tacked on The Substance because I really wanted to see it, too) about a psychotically romantic farm girl who wants to be an adult film star...I think. I've only seen Pearl at this point, and I haven't spoiled anything for myself, so if you're a fan of Ti West's trilogy, don't at me in the comments if I'm wrong, because I'd like to have a pure experience with it.

Also, please remember to Become A Ticketholder if you haven't already, leave a comment at the bottom of this post, help out my ad revenue so I don't have to sneak into movie theaters and seduce the projectionist to watch what I want, follow me on BlueSky, Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest follies of news on my content, and look forward to me coming to Instagram later this year.

I failed to mention this in my double-feature review of the House Of Wax movies, but there was a time when the stars of a movie were given more importance than the production itself, when the quality was determined first and foremost by who made it and who starred in it. As such, older movies (like the 1953 House Of Wax) front-loaded their credits, often sequencing them before even the title, and simply fading out with a flourished "The End" when the film was over (in stark contrast to the modern model of having a cursory opening credits sequence and extending viewership time with the promise of a mid- or post-credits teaser at the end of the movie).

Being set in 1918, Pearl (in the hands of The Innkeepers director Ti West) is strongly influenced by Golden Age cinema in terms of style and tone (cited inspirations include Douglas Sirk, The Wizard Of Oz, Mary Poppins, and classic Disney animated films).

Mia Goth (the 2018 Suspiria remake) stars as the titular Pearl, a Texas farm girl with a strict German mother (which is like the 1918 version of being the daughter of a Muslim farmer in Texas in the early 2000s, though this war-based xenophobia is only ever spoken of by the mother once in passing, as it is irrelevant to the story at large, and she is played by Black Sheep's Tandi Wright - that's the one with the zombie sheep, not David Spade and Chris Farley) and a paralyzed father (Matthew Sunderland, Bloody Hell, as well as having roles in the Hercules/Xena TV universe and Power Rangers: SPD alongside Wright) to take care of. Despite her responsibilities, Pearl dreams of something more, and would kill (is it a pun if it's literal?) to achieve her dreams. She's basically Dorothy if she had summoned the tornado herself to destroy the farm (and her little dog, too...and fucked a scarecrow on the set of Children Of the Corn), Snow White if she tortured, killed, and butchered the Bluebird Of Happiness, Peter Pan if he tried to feed a crippled man to a crocodile (oh, wait...). On her trips to town to buy her father a bottle of liquid morphine (because you could legally do that in the early 1900s, apparently), Pearl develops a short-lived, passionate relationship with a projectionist at the local theater (this year's Superman himself, David Corenswet) who introduces her to stag films.

Also slightly important to the story is Pearl's high-society best friend, Mitsy (Emma Jenkins-Purro), who accompanies her to a dance audition that...goes poorly for them both. Slowly and with an impressive variety of methods and tonal intensity, the body count rises among people and animals alike (the latter happening offscreen or just out of frame for obvious ethical, legal, and sociopolitical reasons), and Pearl's sanity (aside from the aforementioned homicidal tendencies) is called into question throughout the film by way of cursory mentions of, and correspondence with, her drafted husband, Howard. Is Howard real? Is Pearl really killing her friends, family, and love interest and tossing them in her basement to rot? Is anyone in Pearl's life real? Pearl is a fantastically unsettling character, Pearl is a stylistically compelling piece of vintage art in motion, the answer is yes, and the only reason I haven't watched the other movies yet is that I wanted to get this review written first.

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Please remember to Become A Ticketholder if you haven't already, leave a comment at the bottom of this post, help out my ad revenue so I don't have to sneak into movie theaters and seduce the projectionist to watch what I want, be kind to the animals (and most of your fellow humans), follow me on BlueSky, Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest follies of news on my content, and look forward to me coming to Instagram later this year.

Ticketmaster,

Out of dance moves.