Maxxxine (trailer)...

[MinionZombie]

"X" and "Pearl" were both awesome, so I cannot wait to get my gogglies wrapped around this one.

[shootemindehead]

Thought 'X' was trash meself. But 'Pearl' was nothing short of brilliant. Can't say I'm in any hurry to see this and might continue to view 'Pearl' as an excellent one off.

[MinionZombie]

Thought 'X' was trash meself. But 'Pearl' was nothing short of brilliant. Considering one "trash" and the other "brilliant" is a bit of a curious division. If anything, I thought "X" improved further as a result of watching "Pearl" (the added background context adds a whole new tragic layer).

[shootemindehead]

Considering one "trash" and the other "brilliant" is a bit of a curious division. If anything, I thought "X" improved further as a result of watching "Pearl" (the added background context adds a whole new tragic layer). I get why people might like 'X', but it just wasn't for me. 'Pearl' on the other hand I found to be an excellent film in its own right and can easily be viewed as its own thing which, in fairness, 'X' can as well. In any case, here's what I wrote about 'Pearl' in 2022... 'Pearl' A follow up prequel to Ti West's 'X' that easily tops that effort by a country mile. 'Pearl' is the origin story of the psycho bitch that we meet in that movie who meets out a grizzly end to the pornographers that are using her farm as a location to shoot their movie. This time we are transported back to 1918, 61 years before the events in 'X' and on the cusp of the end of the Great War. Pearl lives on the same farm we saw previously with her joyless German immigrant mother, Ruth, and crippled father who appears to be suffering from locked in syndrome or something to that effect. Her life is spent between doing laborious farm chores and hopeless dreams of being a chorus girl in some low rent Siegfried Follies troupe. But from the beginning, however, we see that Pearl isn't quite the full shilling and she demonstrates a disturbing tendency toward casual killing, which spirals further out of control as the story progresses. 'Pearl' is a brilliant film and is fully confident in what it is. Wrapped up in a lovely package that is a superb nod towards Hollywood movies of yesteryear, its over all presentation is uniformly excellent. A stylised opening credits sequence evokes a 'Wizard of Oz' or 'Gone With the Wind' feeling and Pearl is an intriguing mixture of Dorothy Gale and Norman Bates. Not an easy combination, by any stretch of thought, but in the hands of a ridiculously good Mia Goth, we buy into her immediately. It's difficult to praise Goth's performance to the level it deserves because she really is fantastic here. She manages to make the viewer feel both sorry for and appalled by Pearl in equal measure. You would like to see her succeed in her naive wish of being "a star" and getting away from the miserable trappings of her farm life. But you also want her to get a permanent residency in the local nuthouse too. The entire film is firmly anchored by Goth and, while there isn't a duff performance on show, she stands out with great ease. She's able to go from endearing innocent to chilling harpy in the blink of an eye which is really quite impressive and that closing shot of her over the end credits leaves an unforgettable impression of a fragile mind that has fully snapped. 'Pearl' is a much more satisfying movie than its predecessor, 'X', in every way and I actually think that it stands as a better experience viewed on its own. 'X', while entertaining in parts itself (especially in its nods to 'The Texas Chainsaw Massacre'), tended to get cliched, muddled and repetitive, and had a penchant toward the prurient for the sake of it. 'Pearl' has no such issues and flows through its story in a much more comfortable manner. There's a third movie in the making called 'MaXXXine' which will chronicle what happened to the only survivor of 'X'. But, to be honest, I can't say that that will be a necessary addition to what's on display in 'Pearl'. In any case, 'Pearl' is one of the most satisfying genre pictures I've seen in a long time so it comes highly recommended and I find myself unable to find fault with it. 10/10

[MinionZombie]

I have a lot of respect for "Pearl" in that it proves how successful it can be when a studio (in this case A24) can be when allowing their creatives to be creative and not be swamped under a mountain of mushy committee notes. Judging by the extras on the Pearl Blu-Ray the project came about through sheer inspiration and creative exploration of the project that was in prep at the time ("X"). They pitched Pearl to A24 and the studio ran with it and as a result a superb film was created - and one that is genuinely inspiring to watch. I echo your sentiments about Mia Goth - a truly wonderful and multi-layered performance, very complex and flawed and leaves the audience tick-tocking back and forth in their opinion. Some moments really are heartbreaking...   e.g. the way how the casting group so casually dismiss Pearl at the audition after her wonderful flight of fancy ... was her audition really that good, or is she fooling herself? Either way, the quick dashing of her dreams hits like a crashing boulder and you can't help but feel for her - despite the evidently very dark corners of her cracking psyche. Personally, as a big fan of "X" as well, "Pearl" added an additional layer to the original film that made it even more satisfying. I think, with the shift back to Maxine from "X", then "Maxxxine" is going to be a different kind of film - but it'll be interesting to see if/how it melds the tones of both "X" and "Pearl", and if/how it blends the stories and lives of both Pearl and Maxine, possibly as different sides of the same coin.