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Ti West's Pearl, the Mia Goth-centered prequel to the A24-produced X, scared the shit out of Martin Scorsese. The legendary filmmaker sent a personal review to A24, which was published by /Film.
"Ti West's movies have a kind of energy that is so rare these days, powered by a pure, undiluted love for cinema. You feel it in every frame," Scorsese wrote. "A prequel to X made in a diametrically opposite cinematic register (think '50s Scope color melodramas), Pearl makes for a wild, mesmerizing, deeply – and I mean deeply – disturbing 102 minutes.
"West and his muse and creative partner Mia Goth really know how to toy with their audience ... before they plunge the knife into our chests and start twisting. I was enthralled, then disturbed, then so unsettled that I had trouble getting to sleep. But I couldn't stop watching."
Taking place in 1918, the film stars Mia Goth as Pearl, who wants to leave her family's isolated farm, ailing father, and overbearing devout mother, for a glamorous life as a movie star – and will stop at nothing to make her dream come true. The film is shot in a vintage, technicolor-inspired style that sets the tone for Pearl's Pre-Code Old-Hollywood villain origin story, which we see more of in the recently announced sequel MaXXXine. The cast also includes David Corenswet, Tandi Wright, Matthew Sunderland, Emma Jenkins-Purro, and Alistar Sewell.
Our own review of Pearl reads: "Clever, violent, and wicked, with a fabulously unhinged turn from Goth, West’s period psycho tale truly does have the X Factor."
