Pearl

2022
R
1h 43m

IMDb RATING

7.0/10

124K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

Back story on how Pearl became the person she was.

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Coming-of-Age Period Drama Psychological Drama Psychological Horror Psychological Thriller Showbiz Drama Slasher Horror Drama Horror Thriller

In 1918, a young woman on the brink of madness pursues stardom in a desperate attempt to escape the drudgery, isolation, and lovelessness of life on her parents' farm.In 1918, a young woman on the brink of madness pursues stardom in a desperate attempt to escape the drudgery, isolation, and lovelessness of life on her parents' farm.In 1918, a young woman on the brink of madness pursues stardom in a desperate attempt to escape the drudgery, isolation, and lovelessness of life on her parents' farm.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

7.0/10

124K

YOUR RATING

POPULARITY

See production info at IMDbPro

Awards
- 19 wins & 63 nominations

Margaret
(as Amelia Reid-Meredith)

Gabe McDonnell

Woman

Lauren Stewart

Pianist
(as Lauren May Stewart)

Todd Rippon

Director

Grace Acheson

Ticket Taker

Shaman Theron

Crying Girl
(uncredited)

Director
- Ti West
Writers
- Ti West
- Mia Goth
All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Storyline

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Did you know

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Trivia
Ti West and Mia Goth collaborated on the script via FaceTime during a mandatory 2-week quarantine (due to the COVID-19 pandemic) in New Zealand prior to filming X (2022). They had only hoped A24 would agree to make the film. Fortunately, the project was green-lit before filming began on X.

Goofs
The movie "Palace Follies" that Pearl goes to see at the theater has accompanying sound and music. Given that "Pearl" is set in 1918, this is about eight years too early. Although experimental short films sound had been shown as early as 1894, there were no feature-length movies with synchronized sound before "Don Juan" was released in 1926. Of course, given Pearl's troubled mental state, she may have simply imagined the music.

Quotes
Pearl: [yelling in distress after being rejected] No, I'm a star! Please, I'm a *star!* Please, somebody help me! Please help me! *Help me!*

Crazy credits
The strained smile that Goth holds for more than three minutes behind the closing credits was a spur-of-the-moment inspiration from Ti West. He had planned to film her smiling and then choose a freeze-frame of the most unsettling shot, but at the last minute suggested "What if you hold a smile as long as you possibly can and let's see what happens?" They shot the smile, which "goes from comical to haunting to deeply disturbing the longer it continues," in one take.

Connections
Featured in Chris Stuckmann Movie Reviews: Pearl (2022)

Soundtracks
Oui Oui Marie
Written by Al Bryan (as Alfred Bryan), Joseph McCarthy (as Joe McCarthy) and Fred Fisher

User reviews497

Review

Featured review

6/10

Inconsistent Character Study of a Killer

Mia Goth delivers an impressive but somewhat misguided performance as the title character in this origin story for the main antagonist of Ti West's X. The movie is reasonably entertaining and intermittently funny. The imagery is sometimes gross; but the movie is never scary or horrifying because it fails to provide a convincing explanation for Pearl's pathology. Goth switches from "aw shucks" naive to calculating to deranged. Is she a cunning psychopath motivated by narcissism, envy and rage? Or is she an otherwise decent person spiraling into psychotic delusions? She seems to be neither and both at any given moment. Properly explored, either option would be chilling; but muddling them together make for a frustratingly inconsistent character. She's unpredictable but she's not realistic enough to be compelling.