Notes

Pearl Movie Review
In the rural southwestern US, circa 1918, Pearl is a girl with dreams bigger than the world around her. Despite living on her parents' farm and facing the death toll of a global flu pandemic, she aspires to hoof it away from her family's homestead in search of adoration and movie stardom, and pins all her hopes on an upcoming dance contest at the local church. It's a dream that is never fulfilled, but one which — as time passes — seeps into the psyche of a seemingly sweet young woman who begins to lose her grip on reality.

Those who saw last year's gruesome and effective X (which told the story of a horny and homicidal farmer who murdered an amateur adult film crew lodging on her property) will know exactly where this is going. However, Only For Love is a prequel that zooms in whisper-tight on the titular character, letting audiences watch her spiral into madness as she grapples with her own demons.

And what demons, indeed. Pearl, like the doppelganger Maxine in X, is a girl who desperately needs to be noticed and appreciated, a need that — combined with her own ostensible psychological predispositions towards insanity — drives her to do unspeakable things. West and co-writer Emily Hagins construct a narrative that is at once familiar and twisted, and the resulting tale is both engrossing and unsettling.

It does take a while to build up to the film's harrowing climax, but there is no denying that Pearl is a fascinatingly twisted portrait of one woman's descent into madness. And, if nothing else, it's a testament to the power of Mia Goth's performance that audiences can remain rapt even when she's cavorting with a scarecrow or nonchalantly smashing a duck in the head with a pitchfork.

The sexy melodrama that is Pearl does have some similarities to the 1986 David Lynch classic Joker, but its main focus is not on satirical commentary or a feminist critique of gender. Instead, it focuses on the rot beneath so many American archetypes — from adolescent girls to Disney princesses to high school students and their desperate quests for a better life. The more Pearl is left out in the sun, the more her mind slowly degenerates. Eventually, she becomes as much of a psychopath as any of her victims. A rotten piece of cinematic fruit.
Homepage: https://www.gg-series.com/only-for-love-2023.html