12.31.22
Hey! It’s the last day of 2022. This is the last and final post for this year. I haven’t been able to put my views this year, but I have a few films that interest me and caught my eye.
Naru (Amber Midthunder) hides from the Predator. Disney
The first was Prey. The recent new Predator film that take place in the 1719 in the Northern Great Plains. I gave a review of this film back in August. You can read my review below. I find this one better than the last Predator film. There were elements to the film that I enjoyed, like the fact that this takes place during the 1700s, a group of a Native American tribe, and the cinematography, was well worth seeing.
Now the second, was Pearl: An X-ordinary Origin Story. This is a prequel to X, which was released earlier in March of this year. Pearl was released in September. Five months after X.
X, was also released in March of 2022, starring Mia Goth. IMDb
X is set in 1979, where we are following a crew filming a pornographic film on a farm they have rented, owned by an elderly couple, Howard and his ailing wife Pearl, but the crew is threatened by a killer. I was able to see both films. X was a pretty good slasher film. There were a few characters that stood out like Bobby-Lynne Parker and Lorraine Day (portrayed by Brittany Snow and Jenna Ortega), but porn actress Maxine Minx and Pearl (both brilliantly played by Mia Goth) were the two that were interesting to me. There was a small, but surprising twist in the end.
I was really into Pearl. In X we see Pearl as an old woman, but in this prequel we go back to 1918, when Pearl was a young woman.
She is living with her German immigrant parent’s farm in Texas. The world was dealing with the influenza pandemic or Spanish Flu, like we are dealing with this COVID mess. Pearl’s husband Howard is off fighting in the first World War. Her father is paralyzed and her domineering mother, Ruth, wants Pearl to not only take care of her father, but the farm as well.
Hiding a secret repression…Mia Goth as Pearl. A24/Slasher Film
Pearl is bored of the farm life and dreams of being a big star and having a better, exciting life. Her mother is not pleased with this, but Pearl doesn’t care. We see a young woman who is fantasizing about a life away from the farm homestead as just a fantasy, but underneath is a very disturbed individual.
Director Ti West directed both films and each are different. While X gives that grimly 70’s slasher feel, think Texas Chainsaw Massacre, while Pearl is like stepping into a Wizard of Oz, Mary Poppins sort of world. A demented fairy tail to throw in the mix. West and star Mia Goth wrote the screenplay for Pearl.
I enjoyed the performances of Goth and the whole cast. Goth shines as the star obsessed Pearl with naiveté and excitement, but it’s the monologue at the end of the film, that brings Goth’s talent in play. We see a troubled young woman dealing with the hardship of a wife, whose husband is fighting WW1. Add to the fact that she’s not only being a dutiful wife, but a daughter who is trying to please, but oppose her parents, all the while trying to keep it together, but the veneer begins to crack deeper.
For Pearl, I give an A. Hope you enjoyed my review of these films. Enjoy the rest of your Saturday, be safe, happy, healthy, and blessed.
Featured image: Pexel
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