pearl movie review

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Something is not right with Pearl ( Mia Goth ), and she’ll never understand why. She’s too set in her ways, like her need to perform on haystacks while dancing with a pitchfork, or murdering animals when no one is watching. She wants to get out of her isolated farm in 1918 Texas, and experience the love that comes from performing, in being seen as an entertainer but not your truest self. It’s not likely her future star profiles would ever mention that she once impaled a duck with a pitchfork and then fed it to her best friend, an alligator (as we see when her name splashed across the screen in the opening credits).

Ti West ’s “Pearl” is about how frightening actors can be as they feed that corrosive need to be seen at all costs. So it’s fitting that this movie’s most brilliant moment, its final shot (not a spoiler, as we know she makes it to 1979 in West's “ X ”), is from Goth using her face to disturbing ends. It’s a wide, forced smile; her teeth signal happiness, while her sporadically twitching facial muscles and welling tears say something much scarier, all while frozen in that desperation. West makes us stare at it during the closing credits. It’s all wildly, wonderfully discomforting, and one wishes this character study strove for that effect more often while telling a story that’s not as nuanced as its final, silent call for help.

But for how obvious the plotting and dialogue can be from co-writers West and Goth in painting a portrait of a monster, it’s fun to interpret Pearl’s proclamations throughout her film as actor/serial killer double-speak: “The whole world is going to know my name,” “I don't like reality,” “All I want is to be loved.” Goth makes these revelations count in primal showcases, expressed with a breathy, heavily accented voice that’s meant to make her sound kind of naive and very much innocent, a carbon copy of the countless Pearls out there. A long-running close-up of Goth later on takes us on a wild ride of her anxieties about not being loved, her fears of her true self, unaware that the sudden turn within her is near, especially after someone makes her feel small. Then they suffer for it.

Those who remember this year’s “X” will remember the farm where a handful of adult film folk died, and Goth’s elderly version of Pearl, who was often naked and rebuffed and took it all very personally for a course of events a la “The Texas Chain Saw Massacre.” The few kills in “Pearl” are more calculated, and come as climaxes to scenes of anger, rejection, and her own frustrations. West makes those moments count, creating dread out of a camera’s movement (slowly spinning at one point, waiting for Pearl to pop into frame), while his editing then has its own brutality. Usually taking place in daylight and within Pearl’s psychosis, they’re meant to be played as dark comedy. That very mix of tone doesn’t hit as poignantly as it wants to, but the kills are effectively bracing.

The house is treated with similar shots as in “X,” but the cinematography by Eliot Rockett presents it in glowing Technicolor, a storybook world of potential—bright green grass, a blood-red farmhouse, blue sky overalls on Pearl as she dreams of getting away. Things are less luminous inside the home, where Pearl’s life of isolation and grave unhappiness is no anomaly: her father ( Matthew Sunderland ) is literally in a wheelchair, sick and wordless, and always needs tending to. And while “Pearl” is a monster movie, Goth’s character has a villain of her own, her mother Ruth, portrayed with haunting disgust this side of “ Mommie Dearest ” by an incredible Tandi Wright .

Repression is evil’s trick in “X” and now “Pearl”; it makes connection, pleasure, and so much that is fruitful all the more out of reach. It gets people killed. Ruth helps make sense of the horror in this world, in a staggering centerpiece scene that lays it all out on a dinner table: she rips apart Pearl’s hopes of ever leaving, projects comments of failure onto her, and screams about her own immense dissatisfaction with life that she has accepted. Her words are visceral, and they seem to control the thunderstorms that boom from the outside. It's an apt turning point for Pearl, and an excellent display for both Goth and Wright.

Pearl finds an escape from all of this in the movies—even just the thought of being in one. When her father needs more medicine, she goes to town and gets to actually watch one, inspiring her dreams of being the smiling dancing woman in the frame. She also meets a dashing projectionist ( David Corenswet ), who makes her feel like she could be a movie star, although she later finds out what kind of movies he means, and what he wants from her. Pearl remains as naive as she is needy as she tells him in wistful terms about wanting to be a star. It's here that we simply have to trust Goth and West’s dedication to this character and believe that they're rooting for her in the end.

West's film takes place in a world that is sick, as the Spanish Flu has reached the states, causing people to wear masks and be isolated. That’s a stronger period element than the movie’s presentation; there’s a nagging effect that in spite of the production design—those cars, dresses, and even a full-out dance sequence—that the movie is so self-amused it’s practically baiting people who go to old movies in theaters to laugh at the niceties and mannerisms of earlier eras. It can be accomplished in other facets, like the gorgeous wall-to-wall score by Tyler Bates and Tim Williams that kicks off with a sumptuous main theme, but the aesthetic gambit of “Pearl” registers more as being cute than immersive.

There are just too many moments in which the sincerity of “Pearl” is questionable. Yes, it gives Goth a compelling chance to nurture a fascinating character, to show a performer’s heart and needs, for us to clock her emotional reactions like the steps of a slasher. But the execution of “Pearl” is shakier in what it wants us to take from her delusions, her violent outbursts, her yearning for love. “Pearl” gets a little too close to letting you simply laugh at her. We know she wouldn’t like that.

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Nick Allen is the former Senior Editor at RogerEbert.com and a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Film Credits

Pearl (2022)

Rated R for some strong violence, gore, strong sexual content and graphic nudity.

102 minutes

Mia Goth as Pearl

David Corenswet as The Projectionist

Tandi Wright as Mother

Matthew Sunderland as Father

Emma Jenkins-Purro as Mitzy

Alistair Sewell as Howard

Writer (based on characters created by)

Cinematographer.

Eliot Rockett
Tyler Bates
Tim Williams

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Movie Review

Pearl is a slasher prequel that makes the original even better

A killer follow-up to x creates a promising new horror franchise.

By Andrew Webster , an entertainment editor covering streaming, virtual worlds, and every single Pokémon video game. Andrew joined The Verge in 2012, writing over 4,000 stories.

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When X came out earlier this year, it was a capable, well-crafted homage to ’70s slasher flicks from director Ti West, but there wasn’t much to it beyond that. It turns out the project is much bigger than that one-off story. As was teased at the end of X , we now have a prequel, Pearl , that tells the origin story of its titular bloodthirsty killer. On their own, the two films each offer a satisfying amount of scares and gore. But it’s when you put them together that they become much more intriguing.

This review contains spoilers for both Pearl and X.

X told the story of a group of young folks attempting to film a porn movie in a rented farmhouse before being steadily killed by the murderous elderly couple they were renting from. Pearl explains how that couple got so murderous. Its predecessor pulled liberally from classic horror movies like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , but Pearl goes in a different direction. It’s much more like The Wizard of Oz. Only, you know, with lots of blood and guts.

Set in 1918, it stars Pearl (Mia Goth), a simple farm girl with dreams of being a star. Problem is, her husband (Alistair Sewell) is away fighting in World War I, her father (Matthew Sunderland) is sick with the Spanish flu, and her strict mother (Tandi Wright) needs Pearl’s help to keep their struggling farm going. Despite a seemingly cheery disposition, Pearl feels trapped. She sneaks out whenever she can to watch movies, dreaming of one day being a dancer on-screen. But it’s not long before the cracks start to show. Early on, she randomly kills a farm animal with a casual kind of blood lust, and later, she has a surprisingly intimate moment with a scarecrow. Something is wrong, and Pearl knows it. She just doesn’t know how to fix it.

Things really start to change when she meets the local projectionist (David Corenswet), a self-proclaimed Bohemian who introduces her to smut movies and the idea of living life for yourself. While her mother dismisses Pearl’s dreams, the projectionist actually supports them, fueling her desires. Soon after, her glamorous sister-in-law Misty (Emma Jenkins-Purro) convinces Pearl to audition for a local dance troupe. What follows is a series of unfortunate events that leads to Pearl ultimately becoming uncoupled from reality and taking her first steps into the wide world of being a slasher movie villain.

Pearl works as a standalone horror movie; the contrast between The Wizard of Oz vibe and the lurking dread builds a wonderful kind of tension and makes the moments of bloodshed hit that much harder. It helps that Goth turns in an incredible performance. She shines, particularly during a long, discomforting speech that sees her accept herself as well as the perfect yet painfully awkward credits sequence. Goth’s ability to swap between Pearl’s true self and the mask she wears in public is wonderful to watch.

But what really makes the movie interesting is how it builds on, and adds layers and texture to, its predecessor. X made it clear that Pearl was full of spite and envy, yearning for her younger days. But now, those motivations are much more clear, to the point that she almost becomes a sympathetic figure. We also see how her husband is roped into the whole endeavor and even get an origin story for the alligator. No matter which order you watch them in, each movie strengthens the other.

This isn’t an entirely new phenomenon, of course. Horror movies are often great at building up a mythology over the course of multiple films, whether it’s Friday the 13th or A Nightmare on Elm Street . But with Pearl and X , much like with Netflix’s Fear Street trilogy , there’s an intentionality that’s clear from the beginning. The mythology isn’t being created on the fly; it’s there from the start, waiting for you to put the pieces together.

There’s more on the way, too: Pearl will be followed by MaXXXine , a direct sequel to X (I know, the titles are confusing) that sees Goth reprise her other role of Maxine as she attempts to make it in LA. Based on the first teaser , it’s clear MaXXXine will have an ’80s vibe, adding another flavor to West’s growing slasher story — and giving Goth another chance to establish herself as one of horror’s most promising new villains.

Pearl is in theaters on September 16th. This review is based on a screening at the Toronto International Film Festival.

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‘Pearl’ Review: A Farmer’s Daughter Moves Up the Food Chain

A horror-movie killer gets a surprising origin story in Ti West’s prequel to “X.”

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By A.O. Scott

If you have seen “X,” Ti West’s ingenious and heartfelt pastiche of ’70s horror and hard-core pornography, you know that Mia Goth plays two roles. (If you haven’t seen it, there are spoilers ahead.) She is Maxine, an aspiring movie star and the designated survivor of a rural killing spree. Disguised by prosthetic makeup, she is also a horny and homicidal farmer’s wife named Pearl, and does a lot of killing.

In “Pearl,” which Goth wrote with West, she repeats that role, playing Pearl as a horny and homicidal farmer’s daughter. That’s not the setup for a dirty joke, and this prequel, set in 1918, is less of a dirty movie than “X” aspired to be. There is some sex and plenty of gore, but mostly an atmosphere of feverish, lurid melodrama leavened with winks of knowing humor and held together by Goth’s utterly earnest and wondrously bizarre performance.

More than 50 years before the events in “X,” Pearl lives on the same Texas farm, with its creaky yellow house, its cavernous barn, and a hungry alligator in the pond. Her life is an endless cycle of toil and frustration. Her husband, Howard, is away at war, leaving her alone with her parents: a pious, dictatorial German mother (Tandi Wright) and a father (Matthew Sunderland) who has been incapacitated by the flu. Money is scarce, and Pearl escapes by sneaking off to the movies while she’s running errands in town.

She dreams of running off to pursue a career in pictures, practicing song-and-dance routines in anticipation of a big break. She also practices what we know from “X” will be one of her later vocations. When a goose wanders into the barn and looks at her funny, she impales it on a pitchfork and feeds it to the alligator. The arc of “Pearl” charts her progress up the food chain, from poultry to human prey.

The bloodshed is at least as grisly as the slaughter in “X,” but “Pearl” occupies a different corner of the slasher-movie universe. It isn’t especially suspenseful — the identity of the killer is never in doubt, and her victims don’t elicit much sympathy — but it has a strange, hallucinatory intensity. The emotions and the colors are gaudy and overwrought, the music (by Tyler Bates and Tim Williams) is frenzied and portentous, but the film is too sincere, too tender toward its peculiar heroine, to count as camp.

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Pearl Reviews

West and Goth beautifully translate the chilling dichotomy between good and evil with several allusions to The Wizard of Oz, as well as a general nod to the saccharine quality of old Disney films.

Full Review | Jul 20, 2024

Pearl the character may not be a star, but “Pearl” the movie is an absolute blast!

Full Review | Jul 17, 2024

Aesthetics aside, a movie like Pearl lives and dies off the lead performance, and Mia Goth delivers a show-stopping performance here.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.5/10 | Jul 12, 2024

Mia Goth dominates the film, given pretty much the entire screen to fill and the runtime to stretch her legs – this is entirely her domain and as Pearl she gives a horror performance for the ages.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 5, 2024

All in all, "Pearl" doesn’t disappoint. While the film’s premise ponders the obsessive ambition and showcases its aftermath, the performances and costume design will impress scene after scene.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Jun 22, 2024

For someone that loves classic films, there was a lot to admire here. With the lush colors, nods to cinematic history and eccentric characters, this is a film that non-horror audiences would find appreciation for.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 19, 2024

West does a few things better than any director today. It is rare for a movie to show men being afraid before something happens

Full Review | Jun 2, 2024

As a prequel, it has some slasher moments that are amplified by Goth's sinister performance as the scream queen in the red dress, but unfortunately it frequents too many common places. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | May 17, 2024

Technically a prequel to his earlier slasher film X (2022), Ti West’s Pearl comfortably stands up on its own as a bold, imaginative, and hugely effective work of horror.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | May 4, 2024

My X-pectations were too high

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Apr 24, 2024

Ti West’s prequel cements the “X” Cinematic Universe as a force to be reckoned with.

Full Review | Nov 2, 2023

A mutli-layered exploration of womanhood in relation to exposure and performance.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.1/10 | Oct 29, 2023

To make all this work Pearl needs a star, and it has it in Goth, whose powerhouse performance elevates what could so easily be a cartoon villain.

Full Review | Sep 19, 2023

Pearl's journey mimics that of Dorothy from The Wizard of Oz. With a little more blood spatter than glittery shoes.

Full Review | Aug 6, 2023

You see West making more creative decisions and playing with different scenarios rather than sticking to the same old tricks up his sleeve. He reinvents himself, and with that comes a gem of a horror picture.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Jul 29, 2023

A great horror film that captures the dawning age of cinema beautifully well. Also has a great performance by Mia Goth that deserves all the awards she gets for her performance.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 22, 2023

The result is a successful contrast between a visual language with hints of a fairy tale and a dark story that hides delirium behind the fantasy. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Jun 30, 2023

Bathed in a Technicolor that yearns for happiness that will never come, Pearl's red hues enhance the call to the madness of this addictive delirium. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Jun 26, 2023

Instead of lining up the victims and letting Pearl get her Lizzy Borden on, Goth and West ruminate in the age-old debate of nature vs. nurture.

Full Review | May 16, 2023

While Ti West’s X was a smart, sassy homage to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and other rural horrors from the 1970s, it pales in comparison to the vivid Technicolor 1918 nightmare he and his star Mia Goth have unleashed here.

Full Review | Original Score: 4.5/5 | Apr 26, 2023

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Common sense media reviewers.

Lots of blood and gore in darkly feminist horror prequel.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Addresses the extremely limited options women had

No positive role models. The main character turns

This is a woman-led story: The three strongest cha

Extreme blood and gore. Imaginary image of soldier

Vintage "stag" film shown for nearly a minute depi

A use of "stupid."

Cigarette smoking. Main character drinks from bott

Positive Messages

Addresses the extremely limited options women had in the early 1900s, and throughout most of human history. Women with dreams may be forced to give them up to live a very narrow, preordained lifestyle not of their choosing. The movie rages against this system in a violent way.

Positive Role Models

No positive role models. The main character turns from victim to monster.

Diverse Representations

This is a woman-led story: The three strongest characters are women and, while not especially admirable, are the ones who drive the story. Very few characters; all are White.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Extreme blood and gore. Imaginary image of soldier exploding, with blood and gore spattering everywhere. Woman's dress catches on fire; she's severely burned. Character killed, stabbed in head with pitchfork; lots of blood. Another hacked up with an axe; lots of blood, body parts shown. Someone is smothered with a pillowcase. Dead bodies. Characters slap one another. Stabbing a goose with a pitchfork; dead, bloody goose shown. Gory war footage in movie theater newsreel. Rotting pig covered in maggots. Jump scares. Nightmare sequence. Characters eaten by alligator. Threatening with knife. Main character smashes an alligator egg. References to WWI and the Spanish flu. Character considers feeding father to alligator. Spoken reference to a dead infant. Spoken references to killing animals. Violent sobbing, utter despair.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Vintage "stag" film shown for nearly a minute depicts a man with two sexual partners; there's full nudity, sex, thrusting, etc. Married main character kisses another man and wakes up in bed with him (sex implied). Main character pretends to "make out" with scarecrow, tongue-kissing; she sits on top of him and brings herself to orgasm. Main character bathes in front of her non-responsive father (nothing graphic shown).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Cigarette smoking. Main character drinks from bottle of morphine (medicine meant for her father).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Pearl is the horror prequel to Ti West 's X (2022). It's set decades earlier, in 1918, and tells the story of how the creepy elderly woman in the first movie became a homicidal maniac ( Mia Goth plays the character at both ages). It's extremely bloody and gory but well made and smart; it's really a dark feminist tale. Characters are brutally killed with axes and pitchforks, and body parts are severed. People are also severely burned, suffocated, eaten by an alligator, even blown up (flinging gory bits everywhere). There are jump scares and nightmares and a rotting pig covered in maggots. Several seconds of a vintage "stag" film are shown, with full nudity, thrusting, and sex. The married main character kisses another man and wakes up in his bed, with sex implied. She also kisses a scarecrow (using her tongue), then writhes on top of him, bringing herself to orgasm. There's cigarette smoking, and the main character takes a swig of morphine. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

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Community Reviews

Parents say (9)
Kids say (25)

Based on 9 parent reviews

movie that leaves you feeling icky

just wow. at the end I had to sit on my bed and think I love movies that make you feel like you need a bath after not exactly scared that something’s gonna get you but a feeling of unease. be warned the last scene is pretty gory but other then that it’s not bad (the last scene isn’t the worst thing I’ve seen either if your sensitive then I’d recommend searching the ending first) there is a scene where Pearl roses a scarecrow and one of an old timey corn movie both very short and skipable. also making out also skipable a bit longer though. i highly recommend. also it’s Mia goth which should give you enough reason to watch!

What's the Story?

In PEARL, it's 1918 -- many decades before the events of X -- and young Pearl ( Mia Goth ) lives on a farm with her strict, stern mother ( Tandi Wright ) and her ailing father (Matthew Sunderland). Pearl is married to soldier Howard (Alistair Sewell) and is waiting for him to return from war. While she waits, Pearl dreams of being a dancer and seeing the world and being adored, but she feels stifled by her mother and her never-ending farm chores. During her rare trips to town, Pearl steals trips to the picture show to watch dance films. She meets the handsome, carefree projectionist ( David Corenswet ), who stirs something inside her. Then she learns from her sister-in-law, Mitzy (Emma Jenkins-Purro), about a dance contest at the local church; the winner gets to go on a tour. Pearl pins her every hope on winning the contest. If she doesn't, who knows what might happen?

Is It Any Good?

This prequel to X promises an origin story, and while it may leave off with more questions than answers, it's still a well-crafted gorefest and a vivid character study. Indeed, Ti West 's Pearl , which was co-written by its star, only suffers when taken together in context with its predecessor. Since the older Pearl appears in the 1979-set X , we know that, no matter what happens in this movie, she'll survive. But as the prequel ends, it doesn't really suggest how the 60 years in between the movies might be filled. Although perhaps that's the point -- it might be a stifling, decades-long blur of nothing. But judged on its own merits, this is a very good movie, hinging on a powerful and sympathetic performance by Goth. West sets up many highly atmospheric shots and striking images, including a vicious rainstorm, a flirtation with a scarecrow, a red dress, a dance number, a gothic dinner table tableau, and a shocker of a tracking shot.

An antique adults-only film and "X" images and references link Pearl to Goth's doppelganger Maxine from the first movie. There are also references to the Spanish flu pandemic of the time and to people having to wear masks. But the real key to Pearl is Goth's modulated performance, which effectively shows the character's wants and needs and the emotional cracks that form like fault lines when things twist or go awry. The movie's tour-de-force is a lengthy monologue -- with Goth emoting in long, unbroken takes -- unloading her innermost thoughts and feelings to Mitzy. The words tumble out like boulders in an avalanche. Her transformation into a psychotic killer is no accident, and it doesn't happen overnight. It's the product of her environment, as well as her gender and the time period. To some, those might have been the "good old days," but to women like Pearl, they were a trap.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Pearl 's violence . How did it make you feel? Was it exciting? Shocking? What did the movie show or not show to achieve this effect? Why is that important?

How is sex depicted? What values are imparted?

Is the movie scary or just gory? What's the difference? What's the appeal of horror movies ?

What does the movie have to say about the roles of women in history? What options did a woman have in 1918? How have things changed? How have they remained the same?

How does the movie compare to its predecessor? How do the two movies complement each other?

Movie Details

In theaters : November 15, 2022
On DVD or streaming : November 29, 2022
Cast : Mia Goth , Tandi Wright , David Corenswet
Director : Ti West
Inclusion Information : Female actors, Latino actors, Female writers, Latino writers
Studio : A24
Genre : Horror
Run time : 102 minutes
MPAA rating : R
MPAA explanation : some strong violence, gore, strong sexual content and graphic nudity
Last updated : December 25, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Mia Goth, wearing overalls and a blue work shirt, raises a pitchfork over her head in Ti West’s Pearl

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Pearl cements Mia Goth’s place as a true horror icon

The middle film in Ti West’s moviemaking horror trilogy is a colorful blast with one central problem

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Polygon has a team on the ground at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival, reporting on the horror, comedy, drama, and action movies meant to dominate the cinematic conversation as we head into awards season. This review was published in conjunction with the film’s TIFF premiere.

When horror writer-director Ti West premiered his gory period slasher X at SXSW in March 2022, it came with a surprise reveal: an end-credits trailer for a prequel, Pearl , which would fill in the backstory of X ’s ruthless main villain. For Pearl ’s North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September, West pulled a similar trick, with a teaser and announcement for a third film, MaXXXine , as a sequel to X . Where X is an ode to 1970s-style raw, grainy independent horror movies, West says MaXXXine will be inspired by the ’80s VHS boom — which the tracking lines, color glitches, and synth score on the MaXXXine teaser certainly underline.

That leaves Pearl as the middle movie in a trilogy (so far, at least), and also as the series’ biggest outlier. With stronger visuals than X , a phenomenal and ambitious performance from Mia Goth, but also an emptier and more meandering plot, Pearl loses the fun parts of Ti West’s pastiche. At the same time, it still delivers plenty of thrills and killer moments. It’s both a vividly painted nightmare and a showcase for its star.

X is firmly set during the independent filmmaking boom of the 1970s, as an homage to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre , as seen through the eyes of the porn industry. Mia Goth is stellar, pulling double duty as both final girl Maxine and as Pearl, the killer who comes after her. X has plenty of laughs, gory kills, inventive editing, and even some poignant commentary on show business and moviemaking ambitions.

Mia Goth dances in a blue spotlight onstage in Ti West’s Pearl

Pearl turns back the clock to tell Pearl’s story starting in 1918, when she’s a bright-eyed young woman (still played by Mia Goth) with big dreams of making it in the movies. The problem is that she’s stuck in a world too small for her. Her husband, Howard, is away in Europe, fighting the war to end all wars. In the meantime, Pearl is living at her parents’ farm under the thumb of her repressive German immigrant mother (Tandi Wright) and is forced to take care of her wheelchair-bound father (Matthew Sunderland) during the height of the Spanish flu pandemic, where people out on the streets wear masks over their mouths and noses, avoid close contact or indoor spaces, and constantly talk about the pandemic. A cacophony of coughing can be heard anywhere Pearl goes. What a coincidence!

Pearl hates her limited life under her mother’s eyes and judgment, and the only escapism she finds is at the movies. She dreams of being a dancer on the big screen, in front of big, adoring crowds. In the meantime, she dances to her animals, who she names after her favorite movie stars. She also occasionally kills one of them to feed the alligator that lives in the nearby pond. When she meets the self-serving projectionist (David Corenswet) at her local movie house, he sells her on big dreams of going to Europe and working as a dancer. He also grooms her, showing her a stag movie — the kind that paved the way for the indie porno shoot in X . Suddenly, Pearl sees a way out, and she’s willing to do anything to achieve it.

The primary reason to see Pearl is Mia Goth’s mesmerizing, tour-de-force performance. She infuses the role with enough innocence and wishfulness to make viewers root for her, even if they already know about her future crimes and are appalled by her choices in the present. While the look of the film may be inspired by Technicolor wonders like The Wizard of Oz , Goth’s performance is straight out of Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho , kind and charming one minute, terrifying and deranged the next.

Where X was heavily inspired by the cheap, DIY aesthetic of early indie slashers, Pearl is aimed at replicating colorful visions in the vein of Mary Poppins . Cinematographer Eliot Rockett imbues the film with bright, vivid colors, a soft palette, and a dreamlike quality, while Tyler Bates and Tim Williams’ score gives the film a rousing symphonic sound that makes Pearl’s journey feel as grand as Maria’s in The Sound of Music . Pearl is pure pastiche in style, but it works wonderfully, and it resonates as something that expresses West’s reverence, rather than as a parody or simple imitation.

Mia Goth climbs up onto the perch of a creepy-looking scarecrow to give it a kiss in Ti West’s Pearl

The problem is that the pastiche doesn’t feel as purposeful as it did in X . The very specific 1918 setting doesn’t seem to be there for any other reason than to include a COVID allegory. It isn’t about specific movie references, which don’t reflect the moviemaking of the 1910s, and it doesn’t comment on conservatism or censorship in film, as the setting comes decades before the Hays Code turned Hollywood into a prisoner of moral conservatism.

The script, co-written by West and Goth, doesn’t do much to deepen Pearl’s character — and why would it? She’s the thinnest excuse for a character in X , an ageist villain who murders young, attractive, sexually active people out of petty jealousy and spite, mostly to get across a wry sense of irony over the idea that old people still want to feel loved and desired. With Pearl , West and Goth had an opportunity to explore the environment that created Pearl’s sexual and killer drive, but they mostly leave it to viewers’ imaginations. Like X before it, Pearl presents its central character as little more than a stock slasher-movie psycho with selfish ambitions, no moral compass, and an appetite for blood.

Pearl is a showcase for Mia Goth as a horror star: The climax centers on a monologue where West holds the camera on her face for more than five minutes as she reveals what drives her. West paints a pretty picture in the film, building up gorgeous Technicolor nightmares, aided by painted backgrounds and bright colors. But the pieces don’t add up into anything more than a shiny surface. Pearl goes to show that just because you can shoot a movie in secret doesn’t mean you have to.

Pearl debuts in theaters on Sept. 16.

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‘Pearl’ Review: In ‘X’ Prequel, Mia Goth Shows Where Her Repressed Antihero Went off the Rails

'The House of the Devil' director Ti West expands his porn-shoot slasher movie into a possible franchise by fleshing out the villain's backstory.

By Peter Debruge

Peter Debruge

Chief Film Critic

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Reviewed at Wilshire Screening Room, Aug. 22, 2022. MPA Rating: R. In Venice Film Festival (Out of Competition). Running time: 102 MIN.

Production: An A24 Films release and presentation of a Little Lamb, Bron Creative production, in association with Mad Solar. Producers: Kevin Turen, Harrison Kreiss. Executive producers: Mia Goth, Peter Phok, Sam Levinson, Ashley Levinson, Scott Mescudi, Dennis Cummings, Karina Manashil.
Crew: Director: Ti West. Screenplay: Ti West & Mia Goth. Camera: Eliot Rockett. Editor: Ti West. Music: Tyler Bates, Tim Williams.
With: Mia Goth, David Corenswet, Tandi Wright, Matthew Sunderland, Emma Jenkins-Purro.

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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.

David Corenswet
Tandi Wright
452 User reviews
245 Critic reviews
76 Metascore
19 wins & 62 nominations

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(as Amelia Reid-Meredith)
(as Lauren May Stewart)
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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.

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 Obsession (uncredited) Written by Michael Des Barres and Holly Knight Performed by Animotion

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Sep 20, 2022

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Pearl review: Mia Goth in a horror prequel that marks the birth of a new horror icon

Filmmaker ti west’s follow-up to ‘x’ is a masterclass in finding sympathy for the devil, article bookmarked.

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Ti West’s X , released last year, was a Seventies-set slasher about pornographers working on the sly in a remote Texan farmhouse. It was a pleasingly nasty work, if limited by its questionable reliance on treating the ageing body as a source of repulsion. Pearl is its (far superior) prequel, a film written in two weeks by director Ti West and his star Mia Goth , shot in total secrecy and scrawled in bloodied guts and impotent rage. It is a wholly different beast – a tragicomic portrait of a woman so unable to process the falsity of her daydreams that it drives her to murder and mayhem.

In X , Goth played a wannabe pornstar named Maxine and, under layers of prosthetics, an elderly woman named Pearl who craved and resented Maxine’s youth. This film, set in 1918, sees the young Pearl living on the same farmstead featured in X . She is the daughter of immigrant parents, who shield themselves away out of fear of the burgeoning influenza pandemic and the risks they face due to their German heritage. Pearl’s husband, Howard (Alistair Sewell), has been sent to the Western Front. Pearl’s father (Matthew Sunderland), it’s suggested, succumbed to the flu and was left paralysed. Her cruel mother (Tandi Wright) resents her new role as caregiver, and grows especially abusive when it comes to Pearl’s reveries.

The film’s feverishly sunny, three-strip Technicolor look pays homage to The Wizard of Oz (1939) – as does Pearl’s unusual courtship of a scarecrow and Tyler Bates and Tim Williams’s winningly romantic score. But these things almost seem to taunt Pearl. They suggest that Dorothy Gale was her fullest and most enlightened self among the silly fictions of Oz, and not the daily toils of Kansas.

Pearl’s trips into town, in order to fetch morphine for her father, lead her into the arms of the local cinema’s handsome projectionist (David Corenswet). She shares with him her dreams of becoming a famous dancer. Then she confesses that, “sometimes I worry I’m not the same as other people”. Pearl is not OK. Driven deep into hiding is the darkness that’s in her. The film’s kills – fewer and less baroque than X – each become sharp and taut expulsions of feeling. West’s camera looks up in awe as Pearl looms over the frame, her axe raised.

Pearl’s torment – empathetic, frightening, and ludicrous all at the same time – is believable largely because Goth single-handedly wills it to be. Her commitment to every choked cry for attention, to every glassy-eyed departure from reality, is unimpeachable. What’s even more impressive is how delicately the actor unpicks Pearl’s innocence, to show us a woman so open to the world and vulnerable to its cruelties that she’s become corrupted beyond hope. “I feel things very deeply,” she observes. At the theatre, Pearl watches as macabre newsreel footage cuts to lines of dolled-up chorus girls – you get the sense she’s lost the ability to tell the difference between the two, between the pure and the abject.

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That confusion reaches its apex in a final reel monologue, shot largely in a single take, in which all the shlockiness of Pearl’s descent into madness collapses into pure sorrow – a real rip-your-heart-out-and-slam-it-on-the-table moment for Goth. West’s film is, in short, a masterclass in finding sympathy for the devil. The credits close on Pearl as its hero grins manically, staring unblinkingly into the camera for several, unbroken minutes. It’s an impressive feat. But what we’re really looking at is the ascent, fully unmasked, of a brand new horror icon.

Dir: Ti West. Starring: Mia Goth, David Corenswet, Tandi Wright, Matthew Sunderland, Emma Jenkins-Purro, Alistair Sewell. 15, 102 minutes.

‘Pearl’ is in cinemas from 17 March

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‘Pearl’ Review: Ti West and Mia Goth’s Unholy Prequel Doesn’t Kill

Kate erbland, editorial director.

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Two for the price of one? Talk about indie ingenuity. But West went even further, not just casting a remarkable Goth in two roles, but two entire films. Unfortunately, one is far better than the other, and as West and Goth attempt to reverse-engineer a psycho killer’s bloody backstory, they diminish both “X” and “ Pearl ” in the process.

Soon after the film’s SXSW premiere , West and Goth revealed that, while making “X” in New Zealand during the early days of COVID-19 quarantine, they had also made a prequel to “X” that focused on the origin story of Goth’s older character, Pearl. If “X” is West’s love letter to ’70s-era exploitation films and indie porn, “Pearl” is an unholy ode to Technicolor fairy tales and the corrosive power of Hollywood, even in its earliest incarnation. Set in 1918 — toward the end of World War I and smack in the middle of the Spanish flu epidemic that infected one-third of the global population — “Pearl” attempts to fill in the blanks of Pearl’s backstory, a compelling enough idea that’s soon at the mercy of a rickety screenplay that’s both beholden to “X” and determined to be its own thing.

Before young Pearl can finish swanning about her bedroom in a lovely gown, the lights come crashing down (literally and metaphorically), and we’re suddenly thrust into the reality of her being: she’s stuck on a hardscrabble farm, her husband is serving his country somewhere hellish, and her only company is her stern German mother (Tandi Wright) and an infirm father (Matthew Sunderland). As we learned in “X,” young Pearl dreamed of stardom — a major movie buff, she was convinced she was destined for the limelight, determined to somehow break into Hollywood by way of her dancing, which we’re never entirely sure is very good or not — but “Pearl” makes plain just how out of reach that dream really is.

But what about the stars and story of “Pearl”? If the film’s first act is beholden to reminding its audience what they loved about “X,” its final act zooms too far out to remind anyone why they loved the first film and why they might love this second one. West has indicated that he is already hard at work on a third entry in the series, one that would be inspired by a different filmmaking era and likely sew up the many loose ends left dangling from “Pearl,” and he’s got his work cut out for him. It’s a classic prequel problem, as West attempts to balance the old stuff with the new, and comes up short on both ends.

At least there is the film’s second act, which marries the dueling spirits of the rest of the feature, finding something giddily dark and dirty in the process. Pearl loves nothing more than going to the pictures, and when a handsome projectionist (David Corenswet) catches her eye and invites her back to the movie house whenever she wishes, it sets into motion many events and emotions that will forever change her. We learn little about The Projectionist — hell, not even his name, he’s simply listed by his profession in the film’s credits — beyond his affection for dirty movies and the pride he feels in being a so-called “bohemian.” He’ll make an excellent mark.

But while she is doubtless an extraordinary performer, her talent often goes unchecked in the film. For every scene of her flipping out and burning through the screen, there’s a fussy, over the top corollary that follows on its heels. Nothing is as impressive as Pearl’s heart-stopping reaction to a pivotal dance audition, a raw and unfiltered sequence of truly bonkers proportions, but soon enough, West and Goth get bogged down in a laborious one-take sequence that mostly amounts to “Goth goes nuts, and then goes nuts again and again and again.”

It’s an impressive feat of filmmaking, but one that reveals nothing new, a major misstep for a film seemingly dedicated to doing just that. What’s the point of a prequel? We already know everything we need to about Pearl, but somehow, it feels less satisfying than we last left her, broken and bloody and crushed, but at least wholly original.

“Pearl” premiered at the 2022 Venice Film Festival. A24 will release the film in theaters on Friday, September 16.

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‘pearl’ review: ti west and mia goth’s ‘x’ prequel delivers more technicolor camp than horror.

The indie exploitation veteran and his starry-eyed leading lady trace the murderous mayhem of broken dreams on a Texas farm in the lush style of a midcentury melodrama in A24’s Venice premiere.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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With Pearl , A24 perfects its first horror franchise

Pearl gets everything right where X gets so much wrong.

Horror sequels are nothing out of the ordinary. If a new movie manages to scare up a profit at the box office, you can pretty much assume a sequel is already in the works. Prequels , however, are another story. Even before George Lucas poisoned the well, it was generally agreed that trying to tell a new story set before the original was more trouble than its worth.

So it may come as a surprise that Pearl , the surprise prequel to Ti West’s surprise horror hit X , not only matches but exceeds the original. Filmed back-to-back with X before that movie earned $14 million on a budget of $1M, Pearl proves that A24’s first horror franchise is Mia Goth, who pulls double duty once again in a movie that manages to out-perform the original in nearly every way.

In X , Goth played both the final girl (aspiring porn star Maxine Minx) and the resentfully decrepit killer Pearl. In Pearl , Goth returns as the killer in her youth, but her second role as co-screenwriter proves even more important. Perhaps Goth’s touch is the secret sauce X sorely needed.

Pearl gets everything right where X gets so much wrong. Where the latter clumsily connects porn’s golden age to the 1970s independent film movement, the former states its own thesis clearly: movies are a wonderful escape from dreary reality, but they aren’t an excuse to disassociate from it. But fair is fair. Combined, both films make an argument for Goth as one of 2022’s most vital actors, or if not that then certainly the gutsiest. Placed side-by-side, though, there’s no contest. Pearl is a gem.

It’s 1918 and Pearl is in her 20s (or possibly her late teens). She lives on the farm where the events of X take place with her flinty German mother Ruth (Tandi Wright) and invalid father (Matthew Sunderland). Pearl goes about her daily chores with a blithe spirit. Farm life, she declares repeatedly, isn’t for her. She’s a movie star. She just needs a big shot working in the pictures to discover her. The callous joke West tells about Pearl in these films is that she isn’t a star at all, just a delusional naif with dreams outsized to her talent.

Plot plays little part in Pearl : The film revolves around Pearl’s confrontations with Ruth, chitchats with her sister-in-law Mitzi (Emma Jenkins-Purro), uncomfortable bathtimes with her dad, and occasional unauthorized jaunts to the town theater, run by a fine as wine fella referred to only as “the projectionist” (David Corenswet). As Pearl waits for her husband Howard’s return home from Europe, her patience with her parents, Mitzy, and even the projectionist grows deliriously thin. All her pent-up frustration and ego has to vent at some point. Pearl asks us to guess when, and on whom.

Pearl trades X ’s sympathy for empathy.

Instead of a propulsive thriller, Pearl functions as a character study with psycho underpinnings. West cedes the stage exclusively to Goth instead of asking her to share it with his ensemble as she does in X . Of all the smart choices Pearl makes, centering the narrative on Goth is the smartest. She exudes greater presence here playing just the one character than she does playing two in X , which says much given that she’s still the best thing about it.

But with only Pearl to consider (and with the spotlight trained on her) Goth digs into the character with what reads as zeal upfront but on closer inspection looks an awful lot like affection. Goth slowly slices Pearl open over the movie’s course, leading up to a third-act monologue clocking in at several minutes’ worth of confessional vulnerability. It’s the punctuation mark to the questions Pearl asks about what drives her and (more importantly) what in the hell is wrong with her.

Pearl cuts a sympathetic figure in X , where she’s characterized as the product of life’s disappointments. She washes her failure’s bitter taste from her mouth by slaying the young and the beautiful at their sexual peak. Pearl trades X ’s sympathy for empathy. West and Goth keep intact the suggestion that fate dealt Pearl a bum hand, but the film paints a clear picture of what being American meant in the 1910s. Yes, Pearl had it hard, but so did everyone else. Her disappointments and hardships aren’t unique. Neither are her hopes and dreams. What sets Pearl apart from everyone else is that she won’t take “no” for an answer.

Pearl and X are both on-theme for director Ti West, but Pearl benefits immensely from streamlining.

Goth acts as much through expression as expectoration. She flashes million-watt smiles, gambols about sets like a carefree otter, oozes a humble charm that belies Pearl’s hunger for fame and murderous rage, and treats phlegm, drool, and tears as props. Any actor willing to push themselves so far on camera that they start dripping snot tendrils is one worth paying attention to. Goth puts her soul, plus a whole box of Kleenex, into fully realizing Pearl from pastoral ingenue to axe-swinging maniac. No other performance on screen this year comes close to hers in terms of self-assured abandon.

Pearl ’s credits linger on the image of her desperate, maniacal, fourth-wall-breaking grin, which she holds for the camera for so long one hopes she only needed a single take to nail it. Goth is so invested in Pearl’s well-roundedness, though, that if getting the take right meant straining her jaw, she probably would have, and her commitment echoes throughout the rest of the film’s production.

West grounds Pearl with that thought in mind. This is an artist with his eyes trained on the past. Movies like The Roost , The House of the Devil , and The Innkeepers each draw on specific horror niches (haunted house films, Satanic worship and supernatural films, and monster movies) as well as 1970s and 1980s aesthetics.

Pearl and X are both on-theme for West, then, but Pearl benefits immensely from streamlining. In X , West’s kitchen sink tendencies get the better of him. Instead of having an idea, he has all of them, which stirs up a discordance of theme, style, atmosphere, and character that sets the movie off-kilter. But Pearl lands right in the 1930s and stays there through the use of Technicolor visuals, wipe transitions, and iris shots. West’s facility with these techniques dovetails with Goth’s work for a shocking, foundational effect: the oldfangled sensibility evoked through Pearl ’s design adds oomph to its every act of violence, be it small (pitchforking a duck) or great (pitchforking a person). Strictly speaking, X is gorier. In Pearl gore is used sparingly, but it hits harder against West’s backdrop — and so does Goth’s gradual ascent to madness.

Pearl debuts in theaters on Friday, September 16.

‘Pearl’ Review – Mia Goth Has That ‘X’ Factor in Ti West’s Gorgeous Technicolor Nightmare

Bloody Disgusting’s Pearl review is spoiler-free.

Writer/Director Ti West nestled his ode to independent, exploitation filmmaking into ‘70s set slasher X . For its prequel, West rewinds the clock much further to pay tribute to the Golden Age of Hollywood. Mia Goth reprises her role as the repressed killer Pearl, this time exploring a much different, younger side. Pearl makes for a vastly different viewing experience thanks to its drastic shifts in style, tone, and cinematic influences, but with enough connective tissue to enrich its predecessor.

Set in 1918, Pearl longs to get away from her family’s farm. Her husband is away at war. She lives with her strict German mother ( Tandi Wright ) and is forced to care for her sickly father ( Matthew Sunderland ). Pearl is a dreamer, though; she spends her time shirking responsibilities, sneaking off to the movies, or dancing around the barn and at home. After she bumps into the theater’s Projectionist ( David Corenswet ), her dreams go into overdrive. But something’s very wrong with Pearl. She’s volatile and has a tendency to inflict harm on others. Her killer instincts emerge whenever someone threatens to get in the way of her dreams.

West, who co-wrote Pearl with Goth, painstakingly injects plenty of connective tissue between films to further flesh out and reward revisits of X . There are the more apparent callbacks, like Pearl’s penchant for feeding alligators, and then plenty of subtle ones, like the inclusion of a wheelchair or her bicycle. “Oui Oui Marie” even makes a sly return. But if you expected the prequel to further flesh out the deranged yet loving relationship between Pearl and Howard, this is Pearl’s story.

More specifically, this is Goth’s movie. If X was a showcase for Goth’s talents as she pulled double duty, Pearl doubles down on her talents in a different way. This iteration of the character is a naïve dreamer coming to terms with who she is and the ugly parts she’s buried. This is a budding serial killer who unsettles others when she’s not trying to mask those terrifying parts of herself. It gives Goth much to work with, from girlish whimsy to unhinged shrieking fits. Goth most impresses in an insanely lengthy, confessional monologue that goes through a wide range of emotions.

West’s tribute to this bygone era of filmmaking yields a gorgeous technicolor nightmare. Vibrant skies and painted backdrops to elaborate dance numbers, all set to a sweeping score, contrast the more flashy and macabre horror moments. It’s Pearl’s dreams rotting inside out, made tangible in film. It heightens the drama and revels in the surreal; there’s a warped sense of humor to it all.

West and Goth play by their rules here, stylistically and narratively. West uses his cinematic influences to create something unique and audacious, and Goth cuts loose with an unrestrained performance. That it’s so different from X and its slasher framework means it’s much slower to come together. It’s less about the body count, though there are plenty of bloody, violent deaths, and more about a slow unraveling of a mind that was a bit broken from the start. That has the potential to polarize, but it’s a technical marvel and an absolutely wild ride all the same.

Pearl releases in theaters on September 16.

Horror journalist, RT Top Critic, and Critics Choice Association member. Co-Host of the Bloody Disgusting Podcast. Has appeared on PBS series' Monstrum, served on the SXSW Midnighter shorts jury, and moderated horror panels for WonderCon and SeriesFest.

M3GAN FOX Plays a Killer Android in Upcoming Thriller ‘Subservience’ [Trailer]

The director and star of the better-than-expected Till Death (2021) are back together again for Subservience , with Megan Fox starring as a lifelike artificially intelligent android.

Director S.K. Dale’s AI thriller, which looks like a mix between thriller Fatal Attraction and horror movie M3GAN , will be released on VOD by XYZ Films on September 13 .

Watch the official trailer for Subservience starring Megan Fox below. “Fox stars as Alice, a lifelike artificially intelligent android, who has the ability to take care of any family and home.

“Looking for help with the housework, a struggling father ( Michele Morrone ) purchases Alice after his wife becomes sick. Alice suddenly becomes self-aware and wants everything her new family has to offer, starting with the affection of her owner – and she’ll kill to get it.”

Whatever you do, don’t turn her on…

Madeline Zima, Atanas Srebrev, Andrew Whipp, Matilda Firth , and Kate Nichols also star.

The screenplay is written by Will Honley and April Maguire. Produced by Jeffrey Greenstein, Yariv Lerner, Tanner Mobley, Robert Van Norden, Les Weldon, & Jonathan Yunger.

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“Dexter: Resurrection” – Michael C. Hall Returning for “Dexter” Sequel Series

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Mia Goth takes a pitchfork to the competition in Ti West’s deliciously spiky prequel to ‘X’

Time Out says

In Ti West’s 2022 zoomer horror X , Mia Goth played two roles: a young porn actress, and an old woman, Pearl. In this prequel, Goth plays the younger Pearl, who must surely have endured some terrible trauma to become a murderously jealous OAP. Or did she? Was she born bad, or did factors push this potential sociopath over the edge? West and co-writer Goth have fun asking these questions in an entertaining blend of shockfest and movie pastiche that’s given weight by a bewitching turn from the stellar Goth.

Set on the same farm as X , it sees Pearl visibly frustrated by life in rural Texas in 1918. There’s a flu pandemic and her husband, Howard, is away at war. Pearl is stuck with her stern German mother (Tandi Wright) and her paralysed father (Matthew Sunderland). She has a disturbing, almost incestuous fascination with his immobilised condition, which gives her a power she’s otherwise lacking in life.

Thankfully (sort of), she reserves her sexual power for the local scarecrow, in a heightened and darkly hilarious scene that references The Wizard of Oz. When she meets a handsome projectionist, Pearl feels stirrings towards more mobile targets. But her desire to leave town and become a chorus dancer puts everyone around her in danger – and us on tenterhooks.

Goth is bewitching in an entertaining blend of shockfest and movie pastiche

On the one hand, Pearl offers an empathetic look at the women who are left to pick up the pieces while men are off killing each other; on the other, it’s a panicked portrait of an ambitious, frustrated woman whose disregard for morality and refusal to accept obstacles makes her so dangerous. One riveting monologue gives a dramatic insight into the confusion of a sociopathic mind.

Part drama-thriller, part OTT slasher, Pearl doesn’t particularly resolve its internal conflicts, but it does hold the attention. The creepy question of how far this disturbed woman will take her urges makes this as psychologically twisted as you want it to be in your imagination. Oh, and there’s one more question: will there be any more dark recesses of the human psyche left for West and Goth’s trilogy closer, MaXXXine , to explore? In UK cinemas Mar 17. On PVOD in the US now.

Cast and crew

Director: Ti West
Screenwriter: Ti West, Mia Goth
Tandi Wright
Matthew Sunderland
Emma Jenkins-Purro
Alistair Sewell

Been there, done that? Think again, my friend.

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Pearl review: a star is born (and is very, very bloody)

Pearl is a candy-coated piece of rotten fruit. The film, which is director Ti West’s prequel to this year’s X , trades in the desaturated look and 1970s seediness of its parent film for a lurid, Douglas Sirk-inspired aesthetic that seems, at first, to exist incongruently with its story of intense violence and horror. But much like its titular protagonist, whose youthful beauty and Southern lilt masks the monster within, there’s a poison lurking beneath Pearl ’s vibrant colors and seemingly untarnished Depression-era America setting.

Set around 60 years before X , West’s new prequel does away with the por nstars, abandoned farms, and eerie old folks that made its predecessor’s horror influences clear and replaces them with poor farmers, charming film projectionists, and young women with big dreams. Despite those differences, Pearl still feels like a natural follow-up to X . The latter film, with its use of split screens and well-placed needle drops, offered a surprisingly dark rumination on the horror of old age. Pearl , meanwhile, explores the loss of innocence and, in specific, the often terrifying truths that remain after one’s dreams have been unceremoniously ripped away from them.

At the center of both films is the lonely, impulsive serial killer that Mia Goth has now played at both the start and end of her life. In X , Goth’s dueling performances as Pearl and Maxine shione amid an array of memorable supporting turns from the film’s other stars. Pearl , conversely, puts Goth at the front and center of its story. In doing so, the film offers its star the chance to give one of the best and most vulnerable performances of the year so far.

Pearl begins in 1918, a year when many American men are still fighting the war overseas while those who are stateside have been left to grapple with the horror of the Spanish Flu. It’s a time that is capable of making anyone go a little mad, which is why it’s the worst — or perfect, depending on how you view it — environment for a young Pearl (Goth) to grow up in. When the film begins, Pearl is still living under the same suffocating roof as her domineering mother, Ruth (Tandi Wright), who makes her routinely bathe and feed her crippled father (Matthew Sunderland), all while Pearl is left to pray nightly for her husband, Howard (Alistair Sewell), to return home safely from the war.

Her poor relationship with her mother, combined with her own crushing loneliness, has made Pearl want nothing more than to get far, far away from her family’s farm. While she’s been able to stave off the suffocating mood of her life by routinely escaping into her own fantasies, a sudden act of cheerful, nonchalant violence in the film’s opening minutes makes it clear that Goth’s future serial killer is already on the brink of total collapse by the time Pearl catches up with her. As a result, the film’s script, which West and Goth co-wrote together, doesn’t take on the same slasher movie structure as X .

Instead, Pearl frequently feels like a kind of twisted coming-of-age story. In fact, like all the great heroes in all the great coming-of-age stories, the journey Pearl goes on throughout the film is one of self-acceptance. Over the course of Pearl ‘s 102-minute runtime, she’s forced to let her defenses down and learn how to be vulnerable in front of others. The only problem is that the real Pearl, the one she hides beneath a smile that feels alternately mischievous and menacing, has a habit of scaring those around her — and for good reason.

Pearl’s descent into full-blown madness is juxtaposed quite effectively against the film’s bright Technicolor look. The resulting effect is one that makes Pearl seem, at times, like a horror film directed by French filmmaker Jacques Demy. The film’s sets are covered in bright pastel colors (an alleyway drainpipe is noticeably painted pink in one memorable scene) in a way that even calls to mind a film like The Umbrellas of Cherbourg , which still looks as if it had been designed to look as sweet and delectable as possible. That said, the film that Pearl has the most in common with is not The Young Girls of Rochefort or X , but Blue Velvet .

Like that 1986 David Lynch-directed classic, Pearl is interested in exploring the rot that lies beneath the surface of so many American archetypes. Pearl’s desperate desire to escape her hometown notably,places her in the same emotional space as practically every cinematic high schooler or Disney princess. But unlike so many of cinema’s other wanderlust-driven young protagonists, Pearl does not shine the longer she is left out in the sun. Instead, she sours, and so do her dreams, which start out innocently enough before growing increasingly violent and disturbing. The film, in turn, gradually replaces its pristinely painted red barns, golden scarecrows, and other pieces of familiar Americana iconography with recurring images of rotting hogs and half-burnt corpses.

Eventually, no matter how hard she tries to suppress it, there’s nowhere for Pearl’s growing instability to go other than to the surface. Once it does, Pearl begins to indulge more in the kind of blood-soaked horror and brutality that X fans may have been expecting all along. However, as impactful as much of the violence is in Pearl ’s final third, it’s Goth’s red-faced, tear-streaked performance that ultimately takes center stage.

After opening with a delightfully macabre prologue, Pearl takes its time getting to the kind of violence and horror its story inherently promises. The film is a slow burn in a way that X very much wasn’t, which makes it far less superficially fun and rewatchable than West’s previous horror effort. Its second act, and especially the pace at which Pearl’s relationship with her mother develops, also drags in certain moments, which occasionally dulls the film’s overwhelming sense of unease.

But every time it seems like Pearl might get lost in the weeds of its own heightened vision of the past, Goth steps up and brings everything back into focus. The actress outdoes her work in X here, delivering a performance as Pearl ’s lead that elicits both pity and fear, often at the same time. Her performance is so central to Pearl , in fact, that the film essentially climaxes with a long monologue that plays out almost entirely in one unbroken close-up of Goth’s mascara-smudged face. The scene might be the best of Goth’s career so far, and it’s followed by an instance of cold-blooded brutality that might be the most technically impressive sequence West has ever pulled off (you’ll know it when you see it).

From there, Pearl achieves a kind of operatic quality that manages to mostly justify the prolonged build-up. Whether or not the film’s climax makes it as effective as that of X will, however, likely vary depending on the tastes of its viewers. X made a lasting impression because of how it pulled its tropes from the wells of various horror classics only to twist them in ways that were often surprising and darkly funny. Pearl , on the other hand, frequently draws inspiration from movies and stories that are, at most, only tangentially related to the horror genre.

The resulting film is a sun-soaked and vibrant slice of technicolor horror that’s both more technically impressive and subtler than X . The film presents its horrors more nakedly than X does, but it traffics in a sense of unease that is far less visceral than the straightforward, slasher-driven violence of its predecessor. Neither approach is more valid than the other, but it’s a testament to West’s control of his craft that Pearl manages to cast the spell that it does, one that makes it impossible to look away even when the film’s rotten truths are literally staring you in the face.

Pearl hits theaters on Friday, September 16.

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Director Karen Maine’s new comedy, Rosaline, works overtime to find a new perspective in one of the most well-known stories of all time. The tale in question? None other than William Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet, which remains so iconic that its influence continues to be felt today. As its title suggests, Maine's film does not place its focus on either of that play’s eponymous, star-crossed lovers, though, but rather on the woman who had originally captured young Romeo’s heart before he set his eyes for the first time on her cousin, Juliet.

In Shakespeare’s play, Rosaline is mentioned frequently but never given an actual line of dialogue. Here, the character is reimagined as a brash and determined young woman who refuses to simply accept Romeo’s change of heart. Instead, she sets out to win him back through any means necessary. The film, in other words, attempts to build a fairly common rom-com plot out of the most iconic love story of all time. Rosaline, to its credit, mostly succeeds at doing so, thanks in no small part to the fiery and charismatic performance given by its young lead.

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Filmmaker David Gordon Green's revival of the Halloween franchise, which started out strong with 2018's Halloween before stumbling with 2021's Halloween Kills, wraps up with this year's appropriately titled Halloween Ends, a film intended to be the swan song for both his trilogy and original Halloween star Jamie Lee Curtis' involvement with the franchise. And while Green's final installment manages to salvage some of the series' appeal, Halloween Ends ultimately falls short of realizing the trilogy's initial potential.

With its lush sets and perpetually probing camera, Decision to Leave looks and moves like any other Park Chan-wook film, but it reverberates with the same untempered passion present in Golden Age noirs like In a Lonely Place and Double Indemnity. Unlike those two films, though, which center their stories around a hot-tempered screenwriter and naïve insurance salesman, respectively, Decision to Leave follows another common noir archetype: the lovelorn detective (played here by Park Hae-il).

In the film’s opening moments, Hae-jun, the detective in question, lands a case involving the mysterious death of a recreational rock climber. The case, in typical noir fashion, leads to Hae-jun crossing paths with Seo-rae (a spellbinding Tang Wei), his victim’s gorgeous but eccentric widow. Perturbed by how disinterested she is in unpacking her abusive husband’s death, Hae-jun begins to tail and spy on Seo-rae, unaware that doing so will only further intensify his attraction to her. As far as noir plots go, this is about as familiar as it gets. With its nods to Hitchcock and lightly self-aware attitude, Decision to Leave makes it clear that it doesn’t mind treading the same narrative terrain as so many of the noir classics that have come before it, either.

Pearl Review

Audiences for Ti West ’s effective, gruesome retro-shocker X — in which porno filmmakers run into an aged, homicidal farmwife in 1979 — were doubly surprised by the end credits. First, there was the revelation that ‘final girl’ Maxine and pension-age mass murderess Pearl were both played (extraordinarily) by Mia Goth . Then, there was a trailer for a Pearl-centric prequel which West and Goth (who co-wrote Pearl ) put together before the first film was released. This might seem presumptuous or ill-advised — like making Joker , but with a newly minted character who hasn’t yet permeated pop culture. Several entries in the Texas Chainsaw franchise (to which X owes a huge, admitted debt) stumble by telling more than anyone cares to know about where Leatherface came from.

In the event, Pearl isn’t an exercise in filmmakers doing their own fan fiction but the ambitious, impressive centrepiece in what’s now revealed as a trilogy. The threads will be drawn together next year in MaXXXine , which picks up Maxine’s story in 1985. Ti West has always been in love with recreating bygone modes of cinema — 2009’s The House Of The Devil , his breakthrough picture, was a perfect pastiche of the 1970s TV horror movie, and In A Valley Of Violence (2016) is a suspense Western — while finding ways of connecting the pop culture of the past with the things that scare us today. Pearl is set during the Spanish Flu epidemic of 1918, but the characters (who wear masks to venture into town) suffer from many of the woes of the modern lockdown era. Even isolated Pearl’s dream of becoming a movie star feels as close to a present-day aspiration to YouTube fame or influencer status as the eternal yearning of girls on farms to be spirited over the rainbow, as enshrined in classic Hollywood.

Just as X cobbled together elements from exploitation horror and sex films of the 1970s, Pearl references inside-the-mind-of-a-maniac horror movies.

West never lets the viewer forget that this is a new-old movie. The opening credits, over a freeze-frame of the smiling Pearl feeding a pitchfork-skewered goose to her alligator best friend, are in a swirly pink font. The almost-continuous orchestral score by Tyler Bates and Timothy Williams is a romantic counterpoint to the onscreen action. Pearl herself is constantly referring to the movies (she names her cows after film stars) and sneaking out against her grim mother’s (Tandi Wright) wishes, to waste money in the local picture palace. With her husband (Alistair Sewell) overseas — she imagines him waving cheerily as he comes home, stepping on a landmine in her yard and being blown to bloody little bits — Pearl is attracted to a ridiculously handsome projectionist (David Corenswet). In his secret cinema stash is a stag reel foreshadowing the Deep Throat-era smut of X , which will rekindle Pearl’s sexual fantasies and killer instincts.

Pearl dances with a scarecrow and filches its top hat for her dance costume, but West and Goth take another Oz image and present it as an expression of frustrated sexuality and seething, incipient mania. Just as X cobbled together elements from exploitation horror and sex films of the 1970s, Pearl references inside-the-mind-of-a-maniac horror movies. A cooked pig left on the porch, which Pearl’s starving but proud mother won’t eat because it’s a charitable gift from her son-in-law’s family, decays and crawls with maggots like the rabbit that parallels Catherine Deneuve ’s mental collapse in Repulsion . Pearl sometimes seems on her way to becoming Norman Bates’ mother, and a tableau of corpses around the dinner table evokes Psycho , The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and the slightly less mainstream down-home horror hit Deranged . The dilapidated farm of X is seen here 60 years earlier, with a fresh coat of paint, but that flesh-hungry ’gator already lurks in the lake on the property and Pearl is well on the way to becoming a magnificent monster.

In recent years, there’s been a tradition of female actors getting showcase roles in horror — Essie Davis in The Babadook , Toni Collette in Hereditary , Rebecca Hall in The Night House . Goth, whose range encompasses Lars von Trier ( Nymphomaniac ) and Jane Austen ( Emma. ), is an astonishing addition to this company. In a turning point, Pearl demands to know why the projectionist isn’t attracted to her anymore, and the grown-up gives a child’s response: “You’re scaring me.” Goth does a great deal more than scare us, with a showstopper soliloquy delivered to her absent husband, eloquent physical action in dance and murder scenes (she’s as limber a performer as the robot girl in M3GAN ) — and a final smile more frightening than any of the rictus grins in Smile , perhaps the equal of the smirk on Mrs Bates’ mummified skull.

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Pearl Review: An X-Traordinary Prequel

Mia Goth's performance is incredible
It looks amazing
It's darkly funny
The horror is wildly different from the previous film, but just as effective
It doesn't move at the same tight clip as "X"

Though he's primarily known as a horror filmmaker, Ti West has always displayed a certain chameleonic tendency even within his chosen genre. Whether he's working with '80s throwbacks ( "House of the Devil" ) or found footage ("The Sacrament") , West has always found a way to immerse himself and his cast and crew in the formalism of whatever he's working on, which means that each film is distinct from the one that came before, even when they're connected.

Which brings us to "Pearl," West's latest film and a prequel to his previous 2022 horror hit, "X." Announced in a surprise reveal following the SXSW premiere of "X," "Pearl" reunites West with the first film's star, Mia Goth, for a decades-earlier origin story that's both visually and tonally very different from its predecessor. And yet, perhaps the most striking thing about "Pearl" is that it manages to be so different while never losing touch with the world that inspired it. Vibrant, brutal, and driven by Goth's fierce lead performance, it's a haunting, blackly comic melodrama, a Disney Princess movie for axe murderers, that's just as unforgettable as the sleazy slasher vibes of "X."

A star is born

It's 1918, and Pearl (Goth, no longer under the heavy prosthetics she used to play the character as an old woman in "X") dreams of becoming a star. As World War I rages in Europe, taking her husband away from her, and a flu pandemic rages at home, she does chores on the family farm while performing dances for the animals in the barn, taking every opportunity to go into town and see a movie. More than anything, Pearl wants to go from watching movies to starring in them, but the world of the farm feels far away from the silver screen, with her ailing father (Matthew Sunderland) and her domineering mother (Tandi Wright) holding her back.

When she sees what feels like her big break looming in the form of a local audition for dancers, Pearl hopes to finally make a clean break from the farm and the dull lives of her parents. But the journey from farmgirl to silver screen star isn't easy, especially as Pearl realizes something is lurking in her, a darkness that she can't explain but which threatens to consume everything around her.

Right away, "X" fans will notice various hallmarks of that film's world, from the farmhouse at the center of the story to the way West chooses to frame certain shots, but "Pearl" does not coast by on references like so many prequels before it. We recognize that this is the same universe, the same plot of land, the same house where things went horribly wrong for a group of teenagers, but it's both a different time and a different Pearl. West and Goth (who co-wrote the screenplay with the director) embrace the 1918-ness of it all just as they embraced the late 1970s aesthetics of "X." That means silent movies flicker around Pearl's world, the Spanish flu looms as a constant threat, and the distant brutality of war affects everyone's daily life. It also means that West and Goth get to play with an entirely different tone and an entirely different kind of horror.

The origin of X

Almost immediately, with its sweeping score and bright, dramatic colors, "Pearl" sweeps you into a world that feels more like the Golden Age of Hollywood than a modern slasher, or even a throwback slasher with a modern edge. West and Goth are intimately concerned with Pearl's inherent darkness, her sometimes ruthless nature, and the urges that she constantly resists right up until she doesn't. The result is a film that's more of an emotional horror than a physical one (though the physical horror does come and doesn't hold back). Goth's fearless central performance pushes the emotional resonance of the film into overdrive, even as West's visual style calls to mind everything from "The Wizard of Oz" to Disney films to old melodramas about farm girls with big dreams. Goth never resists this stylized view of Pearl's world, and yet her performance is remarkably subtle given some of the more over-the-top elements of the storytelling. She's completely invested in the inner reality of the character, in the rich fantasy world that Pearl retreats into when the real world is too much for her, and she explores it with big, expressive eyes, a wide smile, and savagery that flips on and off like a light switch. It's a remarkable performance, and West knows exactly how to complement it with his direction.

In some ways, much like "X," "Pearl" is a movie about movies, or rather a movie about a movie-obsessed young woman who firmly believes herself to be the leading lady of her own life. That life, though pushes back against Pearl's dreamy notions, and it's in that pushback that the terror comes. The horror of "Pearl" is perhaps a bit spacier and more esoteric than the more straightforward slasher fun of "X," but it's no less effective, and West is no less invested in making it work. He leans hard into the primary colored daylight of the film and the concreteness of Pearl's dreary life so that he can then take her off into her dreamscapes with a clear eye toward contrasting — and finally blending — the two emotional states. It's just as visually dynamic as the previous film but in an entirely different way, reconfirming West's shapeshifting prowess as one of our finest genre filmmakers.

"Pearl” will not scratch the same itch among horror fans that "X" did, but it succeeds in other ways, in part by revealing things we didn't even know we wanted to see. It's a remarkably fully realized, deeply entertaining piece of horror filmmaking, and it just might make you fall a little bit in love with the nasty piece of work at the center of the story.

"Pearl" hits theaters on Friday, September 16.

Pearl: Movie Review

At the very end of Ti West’s slasher film, X, audiences were treated to a teaser for a prequel coming just a few short months later, called Pearl. This film serves as an origin story for one of Mia Goth’s two characters in X. Suddenly, what was a one-off film has become a new horror franchise, all led by a really interesting auteur and a great leading lady, who really gets to shine in this film.

Pearl, set in 1918, tells the story of a young farm girl named Pearl (once again played by Goth, this time not under as much makeup), who dreams of becoming a dancer in “the pictures,” but cannot seem to escape from under the thumb of her domineering mother (Tandi Wright, appropriately and delightfully mean), while taking care of her sick father (Matthew Sunderland, doing a lot with very little available movement). Over the course of the film those dreams turn quite desperate, and more than a little violent, as she spirals further and further down into her sickest tendencies.

I thought X was a very good, but not quite great, throwback to the slasher films of the 1970s and 80s. The film got a big boost from great performances from the entire cast, as well as a darkly funny streak of humor packed into all of the kills. However, what stuck with me the most was the subtle undercurrent of sadness running though the film, coming to the forefront in the third act, where one character tells another that their dreams may very well not work out. That streak of sadness is even more present in Pearl.

This film as a whole, however, is a completely different beast. It’s another horror story, but it is presented as if it was a classic Hollywood film, such as The Wizard of Oz, with beautiful cinematography by Eliot Rockett and an amazing score from Tyler Bates and Tim Williams. The first half of the film was interesting, and I saw what it was going for, but I didn’t fully understand where it was going. However, about halfway through, there came a scene set at a dinner table during a rainy night that made everything click into place for me. From that point on, I absolutely loved the film, as it kept careening into one horrible event after another, ranging from a dance number, to a horrible fate for Pearl’s lover (David Corenswet, very suave and charming), to a go for broke ending that takes the idea of moral decay to a whole new level.

Goth is absolutely stellar in this film, giving what could have potentially been a one dimensional descent into madness an amazing amount of sadness and dignity, both in the aforementioned dinner table scene, as well as in a 6-minute-long monologue–all done in one unbroken shot that I found to be riveting. This is the kind of performance that deserves awards consideration, but unfortunately it probably won’t get any, as the Oscars hardly ever give any attention to the horror genre. It’s a shame, though, because it’s truly amazing work.

Pearl is a startling, weird, sad little movie being made under the guise of being a technicolor fever dream. It won’t be for everyone, but even if you don’t like the horror aspects, the performance by Goth is one to remember, capping it off with a positively disturbing final shot. I loved this thing.

Photo by A24

Trapped on an isolated farm, Pearl must tend to her ailing father under the watch of her mother. Lusting for the glamorous life she's seen in movies, Pearl's temptations and repressions collide. more

Trapped on an isolated farm, Pearl must tend to her ailing father ... More

Starring: Mia Goth David Corenswet Tandi Wright

Director: Ti West

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Trapped on an isolated farm, Pearl must tend to her ailing father under the watch of her mother. Lusting for the glamorous life she's seen in movies, Pearl's temptations and repressions collide.

Starring: Mia Goth David Corenswet Tandi Wright Matthew Sunderland Emma Jenkins-Purro

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How to Watch the Pirates of the Caribbean Movies in Chronological Order

New to the series here's how to follow the pirates of the caribbean timeline..

In the early 2000s, Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean introduced moviegoers to one of the decade’s most iconic film characters: Johhny Depp’s quick-witted pirate lord, Captain Jack Sparrow. On the back of Depp’s performances, the quintet of swashbuckling adventures earned $4.5 billion USD at the worldwide box office — good for a spot among the most-lucrative film franchises of all time.

Ahead of the planned Pirates of the Caribbean 6 , we’ve created a guide to help you navigate the series’ story for all of the movies. Scroll down to find out how to watch the Pirates of the Caribbean films in order, by narrative chronologically or release date.

How to watch in chronological order
How to watch by release order

Pirates of the Caribbean Movies in Order

Ahead of the planned Pirates of the Caribbean 6, we’ve created a guide to help you navigate the series’ story.

How Many Pirates of the Caribbean Movies Are There?

There are five feature-length Pirates of the Caribbean movies and one short film . Several other Pirates stories have been told through novels, comics, and video games. However, this list exclusively covers the film series.

Pirates of the Caribbean 5-Movie Collection

Pirates of the caribbean in chronological order.

These blurbs contain mild spoilers, including characters, settings, and broad plot points.

1. Pirates of the Caribbean: Tales of the Code – Wedlocked (2011)

Released between the fourth and fifth movies as part of a Pirates Blu-ray/DVD box set, Tales of the Code – Wedlocked is a short film set before The Curse of the Black Pearl. Vanessa Branch and Lauren Maher reprise their roles as Giselle and Scarlett for the short, which centers around the two women both believing themselves to be betrothed to Jack Sparrow. Alas, they were fooled, and the duo becomes the object of a rowdy auction.

It's not essential to the wider chronology, though if you're looking for the complete Pirates experience, it's an easy watch with a 10-minute runtime.

2. Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)

From this point on, the release date and narrative chronologies of the Pirates movies align . The Curse of the Black Pearl, the series’ first movie, takes viewers back to the early 18th century during the Golden Age of Piracy. The debut film introduces us to the series' main characters: Captain Jack Sparrow (Depp), Will Turner (Orlando Bloom), Elizabeth Swann (Keira Knightley), and Hector Barbossa (Geoffrey Rush).

A young Will Turner is rescued from a shipwreck with a gold medallion around his neck. The medallion is linked to a curse that afflicts the pirate crew of Jack Sparrow's former ship, the Black Pearl, with tortured immortality. The crew is now led by the mutinous Captain Barbossa.

Will and Jack set aside their differences to rescue Elizabeth Swann, who was taken by Barbossa along with the medallion. Jack’s allegiance flip-flops and then flips again. The trio survives the encounter and ultimately lifts the curse, though the movie ends with Jack wanted for piracy.

Read IGN’s Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl review .

3. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006)

Jack, Will, and Elizabeth return for another seafaring adventure in Dead Man’s Chest. The series’ second movie introduces Naomie Harris’s priestess Tia Dalma, Stellan Skarsgard’s Bill Turner (Will’s father), Tom Hollander’s Cutler Beckett, and Bill Nighy’s Davy Jones, captain of the Flying Dutchman ghost ship.

Jack, Will, Elizabeth, and James Norrington (Jack Davenport) all, with different motivations, set out to find the Dead Man’s Chest and Davy Jones’s heart within: Will seeks freedom from the law and for his father; Elizabeth seeks freedom for herself and Will; Jack seeks to escape his debt to Davy Jones; and James seeks to have his status as a navy officer restored.

Swashbuckling and backstabbing once again ensue, and only one escapes with Davy Jones’s heart, granting them control of Jones and therefore the seas. As for Captain Jack, he ends Dead Man’s Chest dragged to the depths of the sea by the Kraken. Tia Dalma, meanwhile, resurrects a familiar foe from Black Pearl to lead the rescue mission for Jack.

Read IGN’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest review .

4. Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007)

The third Pirates movie is an action-packed adventure that pits the franchise’s heroes against Davy Jones and the Flying Dutchman, now controlled by Cutler Beckett. The heroes first team up to rescue Jack from Davy Jones’s Locker and recover the Black Pearl. After doing so, the crew’s varying motivations lead to the usual plotting and backstabbing. Along the way, we discover Tia’s true identity and meet Jack’s father, the pirate captain Edward Teague (Keith Richards).

By the end, Elizabeth comes into power, Will and Jack defeat Davy Jones, and a new captain takes control of the Flying Dutchman. A pregnant Elizabeth and Will part ways, while Jack and the revived Hector Barbossa set out separately to discover the Fountain of Youth.

Read IGN’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End review .

5. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)

On Stranger Tides is the first Pirates film without Will/Orlando Bloom and Elizabeth/Keira Knightley. Ian McShane and Penelope Cruz stepped into the vacant supporting roles as the father-daughter duo Angelica and Blackbeard — the former being an ex-lover of Jack Sparrow.

The film’s overarching plot is a race to discover the Fountain of Youth between the English, Spanish, and multiple pirate crews. A treasure hunt involving secret maps, Mermaid tears, and the ship of renowned Spanish explorer Ponce de León ultimately leads each party to the Fountain. Barbossa settles an old score with Blackbeard and Jack uses the last of the Fountain’s power to save an ally.

Read IGN’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides review .

6. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017)

The most recent Pirates film sees the return of Jack and Barbossa alongside Henry Turner (the now-grown son of Elizabeth and Will, played by Brenton Thwaites) and a new antagonist in Javier Bardem’s undead pirate-hunter Armando Salazar. Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley reprise their respective roles as Will and Elizabeth for cameo appearances.

Dead Men Tell No Tales features another treasure hunt, the object of which is the Trident of Poseidon. Henry seeks the Trident to free his father from a curse and teams up with Jack and newcomer Carina (Kaya Scodelario) to do so. The trio, eventually with the help of Barbossa, must overcome Salazar’s opposition. One of these four heroes dies along the way. Jack takes his rightful place back aboard the Black Pearl and the other surviving heroes enjoy a family reunion.

A post-credits scene then sets up the return of Davy Jones.

Read IGN’s Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales review .

How to Watch the Pirates of the Caribbean Movies By Release Date

Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006)
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (2007)
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Tales of the Code – Wedlocked (2011 – short film)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017)

Future Pirates of the Caribbean Movies

There are two future Pirates of the Caribbean movies in discussion, but only has been confirmed. The franchise’s sixth mainline movie will be a proper reboot rather than a continuation of Dead Men Tell No Tales. Walt Disney Studios Motion Picture Production president Sean Bailey explained that they have "a really good, exciting story that honors the films that have come before but also has something new to say." And in regards to Johnny Depp's return to the franchise , Bailey also mentioned that he's "noncommittal at this point" about getting Depp back into the role of Captain Jack Sparrow.

Following that film, Disney had also lined up a feature starring Margot Robbie that was seemingly cancelled back in 2022. Little else is known about the project, but franchise producer Jerry Bruckheimer has expressed the Robbie-led PotC movie could still happen eventually .

Jordan covers games, shows, and movies as a freelance writer for IGN.

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Baby in the corner, the Beatles, and the life and death of Mr. Spock

The bsr august 2024 repertory movie roundup.

We're in the hot, sweaty middle of summer, and it's not over before we get quite a few older movies coming to Philadelphia-area screens this August. This month, there are three Star Trek movies, four Matrix films, a Dirty Dancing seminar, and a new name for the Philadelphia Film Center (it’s now called Film Society Center.)

The highlights

Dirty Dancing (Cinema Classics Seminar) Wednesday, August 7, 7:15pm Bryn Mawr Film Institute, 824 Lancaster Avenue, Bryn Mawr

The 1987 classic featured a dancing-filled romance at a Catskills resort in the summer of 1963 between doctor’s daughter Baby (Jennifer Grey) and dance instructor Johnny (Patrick Swayze), all of it scored with classic 1960s songs, and the occasional ‘80s banger like “Hungry Eyes” or “I’ve Had the Time of My Life.”

The film is the subject of a Cinema Classics Seminar from Elizabeth Nathanson, Ph.D. “We will take seriously this deeply fun film,” the description says, “exploring its depiction of gender, class, youth, and the possibilities of liberation through dance.”

Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (4K) Friday, August 9, 7pm Saturday, August 10, 4pm Saturday August 24, 1pm

Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (4K) Saturday, August 10, 7pm Saturday, August 24, 4:30pm

Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home Saturday, August 10, 7pm Saturday, August 24, 4:30pm

All at Film Society Center, 1412 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia

Over the course of three movies in four years in the 1980s, Leonard Nimoy’s Mr. Spock had a heroic death, was brought back to life, and then traveled back in time to 1984 San Francisco to save the world (and the whales). As part of the Summer of Trilogies, the Philadelphia Film Society is presenting three Star Trek movies, two of which ( The Search For Spock and The Voyage Home ) Nimoy directed himself.

A Hard Day’s Night Sunday, August 11, 6:30pm The Colonial Theater, 223 Bridge Street, Phoenixville

The Beatles’ popular 1964 movie is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year, and you can see the adventures of John, Paul, George, and Ringo on the big screen.

Caligula (The Ultimate Cut) Friday, August 16 through Thursday, August 22 The Colonial Theatre

Caligula , released in 1979, was one of the most notorious movies of the 1970s. It’s an historical epic about the titular Roman emperor that starred Malcolm McDowell and Helen Mirren. Bob Guccione, the film's producer and publisher of Penthouse magazine, extensively recut the film to insert lots of hardcore pornography, but now, a new edition, approved by McDowell and minus most of the porn, is finally reaching theaters.

More cinema showings

La Strada Thursday, August 1, 3:30pm Film Society Center

Close Encounters of the Third Kind Friday, August 2, 7pm Film Society Center

The Matrix Saturday, August 3, 11am Film Society Center

The Matrix Reloaded Saturday, August 3, 2:30pm Film Society Center

The Matrix Revolutions Saturday, August 3, 6pm Film Society Center

The Matrix Resurrections Saturday, August 3, 9pm Film Society Center

The Bridge on the River Kwai Sunday, August 4, 3pm Film Society Center

Ran (Cinema Classics Seminar) Monday, August 5, 12:30pm Bryn Mawr Film Institute

Dave Thursday, August 8, 8:15pm Grays Ferry Crescent Esplanade (outdoors)

The Rocky Horror Picture Show Saturday, August 10, 7:30pm PhilaMOCA

Friday, August 16, 10pm Ritz Five

The Three Amigos Sunday, August 11, 1:30pm The Colonial Theatre

The Big Lebowski Thursday, August 14, 7:30pm Ambler Theater (Hollywood Summer Nights)

Wish Friday, August 15, at sunset Williams Moore Reed Memorial Park (Fairmount Park Conservancy movie nights)

Little Shop of Horrors Friday, August 16, 11:30pm Saturday, August 17, 11:30pm Ritz Five

42 Saturday, August 17, 6pm FDR Park (Movies on the Block)

Back to the Future Wednesday, August 21, 7pm Sunset Social

Sense and Sensibility Thursday, August 22, 7:15pm Bryn Mawr Film Institute

The Slumber Party Massacre Friday, August 23, 7:30pm Film Society Center

Casablanca (seminar) Friday, August 28, 6:30pm Bryn Mawr Film Institute

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Also of interest, the ninth annual women’s film festival boasts more than movies, films, workshops, and more for and by women.

Jill Brooke

The Philadelphia Women’s Theatre Festival presents Pancake Queen

Pouring over history.

Rachel Hsu presents The Weight of Our Living

A contemplative art installation on reflexology on the parkway.

Kimberly Haas

The BSR Weekly Arts and Culture Roundup, August 1-7, 2024

Previewing the blackstar film festival.

Kyle V. Hiller

4DX & D-Box Movie Theaters List: Where To Watch in the US

By Vritti Johar

Many people are looking for a thrilling and immersive movie experience, and 4DX and D-BOX theaters offer just that with their cutting-edge technology and dynamic seating. If you’re wondering where to watch the latest blockbusters like Twisters in 4DX and D-BOX theaters in the US, you’ve come to the right place.

Here is everything that you need to know about where the theaters are and our guide will help you find the nearest 4DX and D-BOX theaters.

List of 4DX & D-BOX movie theaters near you in the US

Here’s a comprehensive list of theaters where you can enjoy an immersive and dynamic cinematic experience.

D-BOX Theaters

CMX Hollywood 16 Theatre and IMAX
4250 Old Greensboro Road, Tuscaloosa, AL 35405, United States
Premiere Cinema Birmingham
501 Lakeshore Pkway, Birmingham, AL 35209, United States
Cinemark Century Park Place 20 and XD (465)
5870 East Broadway Boulevard, Tucson, AZ 85711, United States
Cinemark Century Huntington Beach and XD (482)
7777 Edinger Ave. Suite 170, Huntington Beach, CA 92647, United States
Cinemark Downey and XD (1134)
8840 Apollo Way, Downey, CA 90242, United States
Cinemark Antelope Valley Mall (362)
1475 W Ave P, Palmdale, CA 93551, United States
Cinemark Jess Ranch (1042)
18935 Bear Valley Rd., Apple Valley, CA 92308, United States
Cinema West Civic Plaza 12
9711, 9th Avenue, Hesperia, CA 92345, United States
Galaxy Riverbank IMAX Luxury+
2525 Patterson Rd., Riverbank, CA 95367, United States
Cinema West Palladio 16
240 Palladio Parkway, Folsom, CA 95630, United States
Cinemark Roseville Galleria Mall and XD (1160)
1191 Galleria Blvd, Roseville, CA 95678, United States
Cinemark Century Blue Oaks Theatres and XD (1012)
6692 Lonetree Blvd, Rocklin, CA 95765, United States
Mary Pickford Theater
36850 Pickfair Street, Cathedral City, CA 92234, United States
Metropolitan MetroLux Theatres at San Clemente
Outlets at San Clemente #144, 101 W. Avenida Vista Hermosa, San Clemente, CA 92672, United States
Ultrastar Mission Valley
7510 Hazard Center Drive #100, San Diego, CA 92108, United States
TCL Chinese 6 Theatres
6801 Hollywood Boulevard, Hollywood, CA 90028, United States
Cinemark Century Arden 14 and XD (1137)
1590 Ethan Way, Sacramento, CA 95825, United States
Cinemark Redding 14 and XD (209)
980 Old Alturas Rd, Redding, CA 96003, United States
Cinemark Century Laguna 16 and XD (417)
9349 Big Horn Boulevard, Elk Grove, CA 95758, United States
Cinemark Century Redwood Downtown 20 and XD (485)
825 Middlefield Road, Redwood City, CA 94063, United States
Cinemark Century at Tanforan and XD (494)
1188 El Camino Real, The Shops at Tanforan, San Bruno, CA 94066, United States
Cinemark Century Daly City 20 XD and IMAX (444)
1901 Junipero Serra Blvd., Daly City, CA 94014, United States
Cinemark Lancaster IMAX and ScreenX (280)
2600 West Avenue I., Lancaster, CA 93536, United States
Cinemark Century Bel Mar 16 and XD (478)
440 S Teller St, Lakewood, CO 80226, United States
Cinemark Carefree Circle XD and IMAX (301)
3305 Cinema Point, Colorado Springs, CO 80922, United States

Connecticut

Cinemark North Haven and XD (1129)
550 Universal Dr, North Haven, CT 06473, United States
Cinemark Buckland Hills 18 XD and IMAX (1086)
99 Redstone Road, Manchester, CT 06045, United States
CMX Downtown at Gardens
11701 Lake Victoria Gardens Ave, Suite 1201, Palm Beach Gardens, FL 33410-2706, United States
CMX Dolphin 19 and IMAX
11471 NW 12th Street, Miami, FL 33172, United States
CMX Daytona Luxury 12
1850 Legends Lane, STE 100, Daytona Beach, FL 32114, United States
Cinemark Paradise 24 and XD (1050)
15601 Sheridan Street, Davie, FL 33331, United States
CMX Cinemas Miami Lakes 17
6711 Main St, Miami Lakes, FL 33014, United States
Cinemark Tinseltown Jacksonville and XD (260)
4535 Southside Boulevard, Jacksonville, FL 32216, United States
Cinemark Durbin Park and XD (1162)
35 Durbin Pavilion Dr, St Johns, FL 32259, United States
Cinemark Jacksonville Atlantic North and XD (1164)
11567 Atlantic Boulevard, Jacksonville, FL 32225, United States
Premiere Cinema 14 at Fashion Square Mall
3201 E. Colonial Drive, Orlando, FL 32803, United States
Cinemark Century Jordan Creek 20 and XD (480)
101 Jordan Creek Parkway, West Des Moines, IA 50266, United States
Cinemark Davenport 18 XD and IMAX (1090)
3601 East 53rd Street, Davenport, IA 52807, United States
Cinemark Louis Joliet Mall (1044)
3340 Mall Loop Drive, Joliet, IL 60431, United States
Cinemark Melrose Park and XD (221)
1001 West North Ave, Melrose Park, IL 60160, United States
Cinemark Merriam and XD (259)
5500 Antioch Road, Merriam, KS 66202, United States
Cinemark Fayette Mall and XD (374)
3800 Mall Road, Lexington, KY 40503, United States
Cinemark Egyptian 24 and XD (1051)
7000 Arundel Mills Circle, Hanover, MD 21076, United States
Cinemark Ann Arbor 20 and IMAX (1097)
4100 Carpenter Road, Ypsilanti, MI 48197, United States
Celebration! Cinema Benton Harbor
1468 Cinema Way, Benton Harbor, MI 49022, United States

Mississippi

Cinemark Pearl and XD (274)
411 Riverwind Drive, Pearl, MS 39208, United States
Galaxy Cannery Luxury+
2121 E. Craig Rd., North Las Vegas, NV 89030, United States
Maya North Las Vegas 14
2195 North Las Vegas, Las Vegas, NV 89030, United States
Galaxy Boulevard Mall
3680 S Maryland Pkwy, #385, Las Vegas, NV 89169, United States
Cinemark Century Santa Fe Station 16 and XD (484)
4949 N Rancho Dr, Las Vegas, NV 89130, United States
Galaxy Fandango Carson City
4000 South Curry Street, Carson City, NV 89703, United States

New Hampshire

O’Neil Brickyard Square 12
24 Calef Highway, Epping, NH 03042, United States
Cinemark Century Rio Plex 24 and XD (419)
4901 Pan American Fwy NE, Albuquerque, NM 87109, United States
Premiere Cinema 14 – Rio Rancho
1000 Premiere Parkway (Southern & Unser), Rio Rancho, NM 87124, United States
Cinemark Tinseltown Rochester and IMAX (202)
2291 Buffalo Rd, Rochester, NY 14624, United States
Zurich Rotterdam Square Cinema 7
93 West Campbell Road, Schenectady, NY 12306, United States

North Dakota

The Grand 22 Theatres
1486 Interstate Loop, Bismarck, ND 58503, United States
Cinemark Tinseltown North Canton and XD (230)
4720 Mega St NW, North Canton, OH 44720, United States
CMX Liberty Luxury 15 and Cinebistro
7514 Bales Street, Liberty Township, OH 45069, United States
Cinemark Tulsa and IMAX (265)
10802 East 71st Street, Tulsa, OK 74133, United States
Cinemark Tinseltown Oklahoma City and XD (253)
6001 Martin Luther King Blvd., Oklahoma City, OK 73111, United States
Cinemark Clackamas Town Center and XD (1002)
12000 Southeast 82nd Avenue, #3000, Portland, OR 97086, United States
Cinemark Cedar Hills 16 (483)
3200 SW Hocken Ave, Beaverton, OR 97005, United States

Pennsylvania

Cinemark Tinseltown Erie (186)
1910 Rotunda Drive, Erie, PA 16509, United States
RC Wilkes Barre Movies 14
24 East Northampton Street, Wilkes-Barre, PA 18701, United States
Cinemark Frisco Square and XD (1055)
5655 Frisco Square Blvd, Frisco, TX 75034, United States
Cinemark Legacy and XD (251)
7201 North Central Expressway, Plano, TX 75025, United States
Cinemark West Plano XD and ScreenX (231)
3800 Dallas Parkway, Plano, TX 75093, United States
Cinemark Tinseltown Grapevine and XD (206)
911 State Highway 114 West, Grapevine, TX 76051, United States
Cinemark Dallas XD and IMAX (207)
11819 Webb Chapel Road, Dallas, TX 75234, United States
Cinemark Alliance Town Center and XD (1070)
9228 Sage Meadow Trail, Fort Worth, TX 76177, United States
Cinemark Rave Ridgmar 13 and XD (1114)
2300 Green Oaks Rd, Fort Worth, TX 76116, United States
Cinemark Rockwall 14 and XD (352)
2125 Summer Lee, Rockwall, TX 75032, United States
Cinemark North East Mall 18 and XD (1112)
1101 Melbourne Rd, Suite 6000, Hurst, TX 76053, United States
Cinemark Abilene and XD (1146)
672 East Overland Trail, Abilene, TX 79601, United States
Premiere Cinema + IMAX – Lubbock
6002 Slide Road, South Plains Mall, Lubbock, TX 79414, United States
Cinemark College Station and XD (182)
1401 Earl Rudder Freeway South, College Station, TX 77845, United States
Galaxy Highland
6700 Middle Fiskville Rd., Austin, TX 78752, United States
Cinemark The Woodlands and XD (216)
1600 Lake Robbins Drive, The Woodlands, TX 77380, United States
Cinemark Tinseltown Houston 290 and XD (218)
12920 Northwest Fwy, Houston, TX 77040, United States
Cinemark Beaumont 15 and XD (222)
3855 Interstate 10 South, Beaumont, TX 77705, United States
Cinemark Missouri City and XD (1167)
10343 HWY 6, Missouri City, TX 77459, United States
Cinemark Katy and XD (270)
1030 W. Grand Parkway North, Katy, TX 77449, United States
Cinemark Memorial City (382)
310 Memorial City Mall, Houston, TX 77024, United States
Cinemark Long Meadow and XD, IMAX, ScreenX (5002)
7301 Grand Parkway, Richmond, TX 77407, United States
Cinemark Hollywood Pasadena and XD (190)
2101 E Beltway 8, Pasadena, TX 77503, United States
Cinemark Rosenberg 12 (375)
3420 Vista Dr., Rosenberg, TX 77471, United States
Cinemark East Montana and XD (1081)
12704 East Montana, El Paso, TX 79938, United States
Cinemark NASA and XD (295)
20915 Gulf Freeway, Webster, TX 77598, United States
Premiere Cinema + IMAX – El Paso Bassett
6101 Gateway Blvd W #15, El Paso, TX 79925, United States
Cinemark Tinseltown Las Palmas XD and ScreenX (236)
11855 Gateway West, El Paso, TX 79936, United States
Cinemark West El Paso XD and ScreenX (241)
7440 Remcon Circle, El Paso, TX 79912, United States
Cinemark McCreless Market (1035)
4224 South New Braunfels Avenue, San Antonio, TX 78223, United States
Cinemark Waco and XD (1168)
2400 Creekview Dr, Waco, TX 76711, United States
Megaplex University Stadium 6
1225 North 200 East, Logan, UT 84341, United States
Megaplex 13 at The Junction
2351 Kiesel Avenue, Ogden, UT 84401, United States
Megaplex Centerville at Legacy Crossing
1075 West Legacy Crossing Blvd., Centerville, UT 84014, United States
Megaplex Theatres Geneva
600 Mill Rd, Vineyard, UT 84058, United States
Cinemark Jordan Landing 24 and XD (288)
7301 S Jordan Landing, West Jordan, UT 84084, United States
Megaplex Theatres at Jordan Commons
9335 South State Street, Sandy, UT 84070, United States
Megaplex Theatres at Valley Fair
3620 South 2400 West, West Valley City, UT 84119, United States
Megaplex 8 at Thanksgiving Point
2935 North Thanksgiving Way, Lehi, UT 84043, United States
Megaplex 20 at the District
3761 West Parkway Plaza Drive, South Jordan, UT 84095, United States
Cinemark Riverton and XD (1165)
13257 S. Teal Ridge Way, Riverton, UT 84096, United States
Cinemark Totem Lake Kirkland and XD (1159)
12600 120th Ave NE, Kirkland, WA 98034, United States
Cinemark Century Point Ruston and XD (1013)
5057 Main St, Tacoma, WA 98407, United States
Galaxy Monroe 12
1 Galaxy Way, Monroe, WA 98272, United States

4DX Theaters

Regal Tikahtnu (Anchorage)
Regal North Hollywood
Regal Fresno Riverpark (Fresno)
Regal Hacienda Crossings (Dublin)
Regal Edward’s Ontario Palace (Ontario)
Regal Stonestown Galleria (SF)
Regal Edwards Mira Mesa (SD)
Cinépolis Cinemas Vista Village (Vista)
Regal Irvine Spectrum (Irvine)
CGV Cinemas Buena Park (Buena Park)
Cinépolis Cinemas (Pico Rivera)
Regal Natomas Marketplace (Sacramento)
Regal Edwards Temecula
Regal UA Denver Pavilions (Denver)
Regal Pointe Orlando
Regal Waterford Lakes (Orange County)
Regal Naples (North Naples)
Regal Avenues (Jacksonville)
Regal Cinemas Dania Pointe (Dania Beach)
Regal Kendall Village (Kendale Lakes)
Regal Atlantic Station (Atlanta)
Regal Dole Cannery (Honolulu)
Regal Edwards Boise (Boise)
Regal City North (Chicago)
Marcus Gurnee Mills Cinema (Gurnee)
Regal Red Rock (Las Vegas)
Regal Union Square (NYC)
Regal E-Walk (NYC)
Regal New Roc (New Rochelle)

North Carolina

Regal Beaver Creek (Apex)
Regal Stonecrest at Piper Glen (Charlotte)
Regal Warren Moore (Moore)
Regal Warrington Crossing (Warrington)
Regal King of Prussia
Regal Old Opry (Nashville)
Regal Hollywood (Nashville)
Regal Pinnacle (Knoxville)
Regal Gateway (Austin)
Regal Edwards Houston Marq’E (Houston)
Regal Fox (Ashburn)
Regal Gallery Place (Washington, D.C.)
Regal Meridian (Seattle)

Vritti Johar currently holds the position of an SEO Content Writer at ComingSoon.net, where she combines her passion for cinema with her skills in content creation. Outside of her professional endeavors, Vritti enjoys delving into the realms of art and photography, further nurturing her creative spirit.

Subservience Trailer: Megan Fox Is a Killer AI Android in Horror Movie

Why Pearl Mackie’s Bill Potts Left Doctor Who

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Bill Potts was a relatable and ordinary companion who showcased courage and curiosity as the 12th Doctor's companion in Doctor Who .
As the first openly queer companion, Bill's bond with Heather offered a refreshing look on love.
Despite her brief run on the show, Bill Potts got a fitting conclusion and left a lasting impact on Doctor Who .

Doctor Who is well-recognized for its vast portfolio of companions, all of which provide something different to the franchise. Whether it's Ruby Sunday's whimsical sense of excitement or Rory Williams' kind and generous heart, all of these characters ensure that The Doctor can expand his adventures even further. The likes of Adric and Clara Oswald, who left a major emotional impact on The Doctor. Plus, with a new companion arriving in Season 2 of the latest reboot, fans are eagerly awaiting to see how their favorite sci-fi show will change once again.

Bill Potts joined the show back in 2017 and was commended for being the first openly gay main character on the show. Yet, Potts was more than just a token of representation. This companion faced some of The Doctor's deadliest foes and expressed a keen sense of courage whenever she was faced with difficulty. Despite winning over a large portion of fans, Bill Potts only appeared in one season, leaving many fans disappointed about her surprise departure from the show.

Bill Potts Didn’t Let Her Current Situation Hold Her Back From Discovering More

Top 5 bill potts episodes.

Season 10, Episode 10, "The Eaters of Light"
Season 10, Episode 12, "The Doctor Falls"
Season 10, Episode 8, "The Lie of the Land"
Season 10, Episode 6, "Extremis"
Season 10, Episode 4, "Knock Knock"

Why Karen Gillan’s Amy Pond Left Doctor Who

Amy Pond signified a new era in Doctor Who, one that was filled with adventure. So, why did Karen Gillan decide to leave the role at its peak?

Like many of The Doctor's previous companions, Bill Potts felt very normal. She wasn't entirely privileged and had a seemingly average home life, living with her foster mother, Moira. Yet, it could be argued that her mundane nature is what makes her special, as audiences are able to relate to her straight away. When the audience is first introduced to her in Season 10, Episode 1, "The Pilot," she's working in the canteen of St Luke's University in Bristol. Though this is not a bad position by any means, many viewers get the impression that Bill is stuck and is struggling to find a secure sense of direction and purpose in her life. But, when she sneaks into the Twelfth Doctor's lectures to learn more about the nuances of physics , the viewer quickly learns that Bill Potts is destined for great things. Thus, this gives the audience a sense of drive and ambition, as many viewers also struggle with feeling stuck and would love nothing more than to leave their earthly worries behind and soar across the universe. Plus, Potts's job at the university places her in a state of limbo. She isn't a student, and she isn't part of the school's larger academic team. As such, she has very few commitments, which means that she's entirely ready to throw away her job and start living alongside The Doctor.

Bill is also a deeply curious and inquisitive woman, making her an ideal companion for someone like the Twelfth Doctor. For example, in Season 10, Episode 3, "Thin Ice," Potts quickly discovers that a small child is trapped under the ice, while The Doctor is more concerned about his sonic screwdriver. Moments like these indicate that Potts uses her compassionate heart to drive her, ensuring that she can remain grounded while The Doctor has his head in the clouds. As such, even as a completely ordinary person, Bill Potts was able to uncover some of history's greatest mysteries and save multiple communities from devastation. So, even though she may not have the same skill set or experience as her Time Lord counterpart, she's always willing to go the extra mile to ensure that she can solve every mystery.

As an Openly Queer Companion, She Offered a Refreshing Look at Love

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Although Bill Potts is by no means the first openly Queer companion , she does a fantastic job of showcasing what it's like to have a crush. Many companions have had crushes in the past, but the majority of them have developed feelings for The Doctor. But Potts' intimate bond with her partner Heather highlights that she has a rich life outside of her travels with the Time Lord. In Season 10, Episode 1, "The Pilot," Bill spends copious amounts of time yearning over her crush, Heather, again, making her very relatable to mass audiences. The fact that Bill spotted Heather roaming around the university campus and instantly found her attractive is a very common part of growing up and showcases that she's a perfectly normal woman who is keen to pursue a healthy relationship. This may not sound groundbreaking, but in the world of Doctor Who , it most definitely is. In the past, companions like Rose Tyler and Clara Oswald struggled to hold down a secure relationship because they could not let go of The Doctor, so they ended up keeping vital secrets from their partners. However, Bill subtly contrasts this trend by focusing her entire heart on one woman, making it a very sweet bond.

Bill's deep devotion to Heather also means that she isn't ashamed of her Queerness and is proud to embody her most authentic self. This is particularly evident in the 2017 Christmas Special, Twice Upon a Time . Here, Bill strikes up a conversation with the First Doctor and a WWI Captain in which she tells the men that she's had previous intimate experiences with women, which, of course, shocks them. Although fans sometimes criticize this episode for the fact that it portrays the First Doctor as homophobic, it could be argued that this scene is used to explore how much times have changed since Doctor Who first aired in the 1960s. As a time-traveling alien who has explored everything that the universe has to offer, it seems silly that older incarnations of The Doctor wouldn't be more aware of such a simple concept in the grand scheme of time and space. Instead, this scene highlights that characters like Bill are allowed to flourish within the franchise, and although some fans may not agree, it doesn't matter because Bill is proud of who she is and who she loves.

Bill Potts Finally Got Her Happily Ever After

The Twelfth Doctor, played by Peter Capaldi, meets the Cyberman that is Bill Potts on Doctor Who.

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Unlike many of her predecessors, Bill Potts received a somewhat happy ending during her time on Doctor Who . In Season 10, Episode 12, "The Doctor Falls," Potts is tragically converted into a Cyberman. Yet, not all hope is lost as Heather turns Bill into an oil-like entity, ensuring that she can be restored. Thus, Heather and Bill spend the rest of their lives exploring the universe hand in hand. In turn, Bill gains everything she's ever wanted: a better sense of purpose and Heather by her side. Although she makes a minor cameo in the following Christmas Special, many fans agree that Bill Potts' legacy had a very fitting conclusion. Over the years, Bill Potts has appeared in an abundance of spin-off material, including audio dramas, comics, and even a short webcast that was released during the pandemic as part of Doctor Who: Lockdown! So, although it seems very unlikely that Potts will reprise her role on screen, she is still a very integral part of the Doctor Who canon.

In reality, actress Pearl Mackie was released from her contract so that Chris Chinball could start his era with a clean slate. Admittedly, some viewers found this process quite unfair, but it seems that Chinball was eager to take a different approach with Season 11 and didn't want the Thirteenth Doctor to be tied down to her previous incarnation. Since leaving Doctor Who , Mackie has appeared in a wealth of popular content, such as the Netflix Original Series, The Diplomat . Therefore, even though Bill Potts only lasted on the show for one season, her impact is undeniable. Not only did she pave the way for more Queer characters , but she showcased how, even as a totally normal woman, she managed to alter the course of time and space in a truly remarkable fashion.

The further adventures in time and space of the alien adventurer known as the Doctor and his companions from planet Earth.

Olympics opening ceremony recap: Highlights from Paris torch relay, flame lighting

Editor's note: Follow the latest Olympics live results, medal count and updates for Saturday, July 27.

With an ambitious and unique opening ceremony , the 2024 Paris Olympics got under way when thousands of Olympians, including Team USA athletes , cruised along the Seine River on Friday night.

The city’s iconic landmarks provided a stunning backdrop for the parade of nations. Athletes from around the world, including Team USA flag bearers LeBron James and Coco Gauff , floated on boats for the six-kilometer route that traveled east to west across Paris from the Pont d’Austerlitz to the Trocadero.

USA TODAY Sports brought you live updates from Paris, highlights and more throughout the opening ceremony. (Follow NBC's replay of the opening ceremony in prime time.)

Who lit the Olympic Cauldron?

The Olympic Cauldron was lit by Teddy Riner, a three-time Olympic champion in judo, and Marie-Jose Perec, a three-time Olympic champion in track and field.

Rafael Nadal, Serena Williams carried Olympic torch

In an Olympics opening ceremony surprise, Rafael Nadal carried the Olympic torch once it reached the Eiffel Tower. Nadal might as well have honorary French residency after winning a record 14 French Opens. He won four in a row from 2005-2008, five in a row from 2010-2014, another four in a row from 2017-2020 and his final one in 2022. He is 112-4 all-time at Roland Garros. A statue of him was erected outside the stadium in 2021. Nadal has 22 Grand Slams total.

Nadal then passed the torch to fellow tennis legend Serena Williams. Three of her 23 Grand Slam titles came at the French Open. Carl Lewis, a four-time Olympic champion at the 1984 Games, and Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci, who scored the first perfect 10 in Olympic history at the 1976 Games, also were part of the torch’s final journey. — Nancy Armour

Boat of GOATs. 🐐🛳️ #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/8Plbfd0seX — NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 26, 2024

Amelie Mauresmo passed Olympic torch to Tony Parker

The tennis theme in the Olympic torch relay continued when Amelie Mauresmo, the only French player to be No. 1 in the Open era, took the torch after it arrived off the boat. Tony Parker, who paved the way for French players in the NBA and won four titles with the San Antonio Spurs, took the handoff from Mauresmo. Parker and Carter continued running with the torch after they passed it over to a trio of French athletes. — Nancy Armour

Celine Dion at opening ceremony dazzled

The legendary singer Celine Dion performed at the opening ceremony after the Olympic Cauldron was lit. She also sang at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics opening ceremony.

CELINE! 🥹 #ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/87AqGnLJUi — NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 26, 2024

Eiffel Tower puts on light show at opening ceremony

Watch the iconic Paris landmark sparkle.

The #ParisOlympics are here‼️ 📺: @NBCOlympics & @peacock #OpeningCeremony pic.twitter.com/5IPiPHTFqZ — Team USA (@TeamUSA) July 26, 2024

Who sang 'Imagine' at the Olympics?

Pianist Sofianne Pamart and singer Juliette Armanet performed “Imagine,” the John Lennon and Yoko Ono song.

Team USA's LeBron James, Coco Gauff not slowed by rain

The rain wasn’t spoiling the party for LeBron James, Coco Gauff and the rest of the U.S. Olympic team.

“Representing the red, white and blue, there’s no better time,” James said during an interview with NBC’s Maria Taylor during the parade of nations. “We’re here for the USA and ready to go out and compete at a high level.”

The NBA superstar and the Grand Slam champion were selected as flagbearers by the rest of the U.S. team. Flagbearers held their country’s flags aloft as the team boats floated down the Seine while other athletes waved smaller flags. But Gauff and James also took time to pose for photos with others on the boat – including the captain – and take in the sights of Paris.

“Seeing a lot of water, first off,” Gauff said. “But also some amazing people, a lot of amazing athletes and we’re all excited to represent Team USA.”

Asked if the steady rain put a damper on their special moment, James said no.

“The rain can’t stop us,” he said. — Nancy Armour

Team USA cruising into the #ParisOlympics 🤩🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/gQDaRBrqXT — NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 26, 2024

LeBron and Coco leading the way as Team USA cruises down the Seine. 🫡 📺 #ParisOlympics Opening Ceremony on NBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/JUBuL2It10 — NBC Sports (@NBCSports) July 26, 2024

Axelle Saint-Cirel performs French national anthem on Grand Palais roof

On the roof of the Grand-Palais and wearing colors of the French flag, Axelle Saint-Cirel, the Choeur and the Maîtrise de Radio France performed the French national anthem, called The Marseillaise. It was composed in 1792 by Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, who was an officer for the French Engineers. It was declared the national anthem in 1795. As the national anthem was performed, the Republic Guard raised the flag at the Trocadéro. Composer Victor le Masne musically rearranged the national anthem for the opening ceremony.

🇫🇷 La Marseillaise ! Vous l’attendiez, c’est Axelle Saint-Cirel qui l’interprète depuis le toit du Grand Palais. pic.twitter.com/Nvsx31VC0S — Info France 2 (@infofrance2) July 26, 2024

Steph Curry, A'ja Wilson at Olympics opening ceremony

Women's basketball forward A'Ja Wilson looks to have added an extra piece of fashion to her Team USA Ralph Lauren outfit — thanks to the help of Steph Curry. The Golden State Warriors guard — who is making his Olympic debut with USA Basketball in Paris — gifted Wilson Olympics-themed sunglasses for Friday's opening ceremony.

thx @StephenCurry30 for the shades 🙂 pic.twitter.com/f3MaJA9iPq — A'ja Wilson (@_ajawilson22) July 26, 2024

Which country will host the 2028 Olympics?

The 2028 Summer Olympics will be in Los Angeles. The city has hosted twice before: 1932 and 1984.

Noah Lyles, Sha'Carri Richardson show off nails at opening ceremony

Here's a look the nails of Noah Lyles, who is the fastest man in the world so far this year.

He’s an ICON. He’s a legend. He is the moment. 📺 #ParisOlympics Opening Ceremony on NBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/8BzUdyEX03 — NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 26, 2024

And here are Sha'Carri Richardson's nails from the opening ceremony.

She is HER. 💅 #ParisOlympics @itsshacarri pic.twitter.com/sXXxIMPf4R — NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 26, 2024

What country has the most athletes in the Olympics?

There are 10,714 athletes from 206 different countries scheduled to take part in this year's Olympic Games. The United States will have the largest national delegation at the Summer Games in Paris with 593 athletes. Host nation France is second with 573, followed by Australia (460), Germany (427), Japan (404), Italy (403), China (388), Spain (382), Great Britain (327) and Canada (318) rounding out the top 10.

Why was Australia after Zambia and Zimbabwe at opening ceremony?

The sight of the Australian team coming after Zambia and Zimbabwe might have taken those who know their alphabet by surprise. But there was a reason for the Aussies being so far out of alphabetical order. Countries that are hosting upcoming Olympics come at the end of the Parade of Nations. Brisbane is hosting the 2032 Summer Games, so Australia was the third-to-last team. The United States was second-to-last, with the Olympics returning to Los Angeles in four years. And France, the host of these Paris Olympics, was the last country in the 85-boat flotilla. — Nancy Armour

Olympics opening ceremony order of countries

The order of the parade of nations is determined by the French spelling of their country names. Germany is Allemagne in French, for example, so it goes with the As, not the Gs. The only exceptions are the United States, which is Etats-Unis in French but goes second-to-last because it is hosting the next Summer Games, and France, because it’s the host country.

Metal band at Paris Olympics: Who is Gojira?

The metal band Gojira , who performed at the Olympics opening ceremony, is made up of Joe Duplantier, Mario Duplantier, Christian Andreu and Jean-Michel La- badie. They performed at the Conciergerie, which was the residence of French kings in medieval times. It became a prison during the French revolution and Marie-Antoinette was one of its most famous prisoners. Gojira performed alongside singer Marina Viotti.

Aya Nakamura Olympics opening ceremony performance

Aya Nakamura is one of France’s most famous pop stars, performing performed "Pookie, Djadja" and "For me formidable, La Bohéme" at the opening ceremony alongside 60 musicians from the Republican Guard and 36 choristers of the French Army. Nakamura mixes elements of R&B, Afropop and Parisian street slang, and her most famous song is “Djadja.” She’s been compared to Rihanna and Cardi B.

En même temps. pic.twitter.com/xDkT0Kdq6N — Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) July 26, 2024

Why Russia, Belarus are banned from 2024 Olympics

Once again, Russia is technically banned from appearing at the Olympic Games . Yet once again, Russian athletes will compete under a different name − a handful of them, at least.

At the 2024 Paris Olympics , which begin this week, 15 athletes from Russia − and 18 from neighboring Belarus − are slated to compete as "Individual Neutral Athletes," or AINs for short, according to the most recent statistics released by the International Olympic Committee on Saturday . The AIN classification means that Russian and Belarusian flags, national anthems and uniforms will be absent from the Paris Games. This punishment was levied by the International Olympic Committee following its invasion of Ukraine. — Tom Schad

How many athletes are on Team USA?

There are 593 American Olympians at the Paris Games. Meet Team USA .

Leading the stars and stripes 🇺🇸 📺: @NBCOlympics & @peacock #ParisOlympics | #OpeningCeremony pic.twitter.com/Yxcgph2rsj — Team USA (@TeamUSA) July 26, 2024

How many countries participate in the 2024 Olympics?

More than 200 countries are competing in the 2024 Olympics , from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.

Minions at Olympics opening ceremony

Minions — of the "Despicable Me" franchise and its spinoff movie, "Minions" — made a digital appearance at the opening ceremony. In a video with the "unknown" athlete running with the Olympic torch, the Minions are seen acting out a scene in a submarine submerged in the Seine.

The Minions are trained and READY for the Olympic Games. 💪 @Minions 📺 #ParisOlympics Opening Ceremony on NBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/7vhtm5yxcw — NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 26, 2024

Lady Gaga at Olympics opening ceremony gave stunning performance

Lady Gaga returned to music at the 2024 Paris Olympics during a performance at the opening ceremony and lit up the City of Lights. Alongside a fleet of dancers , the Grammy favorite performed a French-inspired set alongside the Seine river with a tribute to Zizi Jeanmaire's presentation of "Mon Truc En Plumes," translated to “My Thing with Feathers.” — Jay Stahl

Olympic opening ceremony performers

Lady Gaga, metal band Gojira and French pop star Aya Nakamura were among those who have performed at the opening ceremony.

APPLAUSE to Lady Gaga for SLAYing this look 🩷 pic.twitter.com/arTVjG79lO — On Her Turf (@OnHerTurf) July 26, 2024

Who made medals for the Paris Olympics?

The Monnaie de Paris, which has been minting France’s coins since 864. The company also made the medals for the Athens Olympics in 1896, the first modern Olympic Games, and the two previous Summer Games in Paris, in 1900 and 1924.

How many medals were made for the Paris Olympics?

Why does greece go first in the olympics.

Greece goes first at the opening ceremony every Olympics because it is the birthplace of the Olympic Games.

Bienvenue mesdames et messieurs 🤩 Welcome the delegations to this enchanted, playful and sparkling Paris. Lights up, the curtain is open and the show has begun. #Paris2024 #OpeningCeremony pic.twitter.com/rSZJdIg30f — The Olympic Games (@Olympics) July 26, 2024

Why is Peyton Manning wearing an arm band?

NBC opening ceremony co-host Peyton Manning sported an arm band on his right forearm during the opening ceremony broadcast, much like he did during his playing days as an NFL quarterback. He joked he was wearing it because he had notes on all 200-plus countries in the opening ceremomny.

Giannis Antetokounmpo on being Greece's flag bearer

“That is an honor,” he said . “If I am the flag bearer, great. If I am not, OK. I am just happy that I have a good coaching staff and a good team, I am in the Olympics."

Η μεγαλύτερη τιμή 🇬🇷🇬🇷🧿 pic.twitter.com/xHAWs5SI8i — Giannis Antetokounmpo (@Giannis_An34) July 26, 2024

Who designed the Olympics flag?

Pierre de Coubertin, who is considered the founder of the modern Olympics, designed the rings in July 1913. The Olympics logo was first used on a flag in 1914. That original flag is now at the Olympic Museum in Lausanne. The IOC officially adopted the rings logo and flag in 1914.

Americans in Paris

Rachael Raskovich, Amanda Mason-Sekula and Kelly Holmes arrived at the opening ceremony wearing American flag themed hats, red white and blue glasses and sequin USA jackets with "Proud American" stitched on the back.

"Amazon," Raskovich said with a smile when asked about the gear.

The trio of friends met in law school and said they will spend the next week or so hopping around to events around the city. They have tickets to beach volleyball and equestrian, Raskovich said, among other sports. Their group was just one of the many clad in red, white and blue that lined the southern banks of the Seine River on Friday night. Doris Ng of Chicago was among the U.S. spectators who were still searching for a good spot from which to view the ceremony in the hour before it began.

"We thought we were going to be on time," she said. "I think everybody else beat us to the punch already."

Fortunately, she also has tickets to the closing ceremony, she said. — Tom Schad

Not every local was in a festive mood

One man saw my media credential and wanted to make sure — despite barely speaking English — that he was upset over a rumor Celine Dion had been paid 2 million Euros to perform one song at the opening ceremony. Another woman, an American who has lived in Paris for 15 years, said property taxes went up and yet Parisians were not given much access to events or even public spaces to watch the festivities despite the financial and social burden being put on them.

But even when the rain began falling, people did not scatter to look for shelter. Instead they powered through, trying to get a better look at the bleu, blanc and rouge streaks being left in the sky by an airplane flyover.

Restaurants, which don’t have televisions here, were generally not busy. If you were going out to eat Friday night, it’s because you didn’t care to watch the show live. But inside one of them in a residential area near the Eiffel Tower, you could hear the singing of La Marseillaise, the French National Anthem. For a few minutes, the din of conversation went completely silent. — Dan Wolken

Team USA opening ceremony outfit

Team USA’s opening ceremony outfit is a modern take on a tailored look. On top, a tailored single-breasted wool blazer with red and white tipping is worn over a striped oxford shirt. The bottom is a more casual tapered jean and classic suede buck shoe fit.

Ralph Lauren works closely with Team USA and the goal, as always, is to “do something graphic and uniquely American,” chief brand and innovation officer David Lauren said.

To account for the heat, the company constantly looks at different fabrics and layering systems to keep the athlete’s body temperature in check, Lauren said. All items in both the opening and closing ceremony outfits are manufactured in the United States.

The USA Basketball delegation departs for #Paris2024 #OpeningCeremony pic.twitter.com/Hzdz7VtuYx — USA Basketball (@usabasketball) July 26, 2024

Coco Gauff opens up on being U.S. flag bearer, making Olympic debut

Coco Gauff is making her Olympic debut in Paris and she is one of two U.S. flag bearers . “(Competing) in the Olympics has always been up there with winning a Grand Slam, like top goals,” Gauff told USA TODAY Sports this summer. Read our full feature on Gauff .

On the opening ceremony red carpet, Serena Williams was asked about Gauff being the flag bearer. "Isn't that great. I'm so excited to see her tonight. I'm just so happy for her," the tennis legend said.

"I don't know if it's fun or if I'm a little jealous!" 😅 Serena Williams on enjoying the #ParisOlympics despite no longer being a competitor. 📺 #ParisOlympics Opening Ceremony on NBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/DLWoHJ1ppY — NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 26, 2024

USA flag bearers 2024

Basketball superstar LeBron James and tennis star Coco Gauff are the flag bearers for the Americans. Gauff is the first tennis player to serve in the role.

Our flag bearers are ready 🇺🇸 📺: @NBCOlympics & @peacock #ParisOlympics | #OpeningCeremony pic.twitter.com/xyJIz2w7Aa — Team USA (@TeamUSA) July 26, 2024

Why is Snoop Dogg at Olympics?

With his mind on the Olympics and the Olympics on his mind, Snoop Dogg is, indeed, back for the 2024 Paris Olympics . The rapper, who will carry the torch ahead of the opening ceremony , is primed for a bigger role three years after his reactions to the dressage competition with Kevin Hart went viral at the Tokyo Games.

Snoop will appear regularly on “Primetime in Paris,” serving as a “ special correspondent ” for NBC. During parts of the primetime show, Snoop Dogg will interact with Team USA athletes, their families, or explore Paris and share his experiences and insights with the night's audience. He's also carrying the Olympic torch .

Snoop Dogg is bringing the energy to the Opening Ceremony. 📺: #ParisOlympics Opening Ceremony on NBC and Peacock pic.twitter.com/W3bQHHcWoQ — NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) July 26, 2024

Paris Olympics closing ceremony date

The 2024 Summer Games will hold the closing ceremony on Aug. 11

How many times has Paris hosted the Olympics?

Paris has hosted the Summer Olympics three times: 1900, 1924 and 2024.

Are any U.S. athletes skipping the opening ceremony?

About 350 of Team USA’s 592 athletes will march – or rather, float – in today's opening ceremony, according to Nicole Deal, who oversees the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee’s security operations.

That means about 40% of the U.S. delegation will be absent, though that is not exactly unusual.

Many athletes and teams – especially those competing early in the Games – choose to pass on the opening ceremony because it often runs late into the night and requires them to spend several hours on their feet. U.S. gymnasts and swimmers, for example, regularly skip the ceremony to rest up for their competitions – which, in some cases, begin the next morning.

U.S. swimming star Katie Ledecky said earlier this week that she never planned on going to the Paris opening ceremony for this very reason. She swims the 400-meter freestyle Saturday morning. — Tom Schad

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Movie Review: 'Pearl'
Pearl: Movie Review
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Pearl (2022)
Pearl (2022) Movie Review

COMMENTS

Pearl movie review & film summary (2022)
Things are less luminous inside the home, where Pearl's life of isolation and grave unhappiness is no anomaly: her father ( Matthew Sunderland) is literally in a wheelchair, sick and wordless, and always needs tending to. And while "Pearl" is a monster movie, Goth's character has a villain of her own, her mother Ruth, portrayed with ...
Pearl (2022)
Jul 20, 2024. Pearl the character may not be a star, but "Pearl" the movie is an absolute blast! Jul 17, 2024. Aesthetics aside, a movie like Pearl lives and dies off the lead performance, and ...
Pearl review: a slasher prequel that makes the original even better
Image: A24. But what really makes the movie interesting is how it builds on, and adds layers and texture to, its predecessor. X made it clear that Pearl was full of spite and envy, yearning for ...
'Pearl' Review: A Farmer's Daughter Moves Up the Food Chain
Pearl falls into an affair with the local movie-house projectionist (David Corenswet), who introduces her to French pornography and dazzles her with the promise of a Bohemian life free of small ...
Pearl
Full Review | Original Score: 8.5/10 | Jul 12, 2024. Mia Goth dominates the film, given pretty much the entire screen to fill and the runtime to stretch her legs - this is entirely her domain ...
Pearl Movie Review
Parents Need to Know. Parents need to know that Pearl is the horror prequel to Ti West's X (2022). It's set decades earlier, in 1918, and tells the story of how the creepy elderly woman in the first movie became a homicidal maniac (Mia Goth plays the character at both ages). It's extremely bloody and gory but well made….
Pearl review: Mia Goth melts down as a serial killer in the making
Mia Goth in 'Pearl'. Christopher Moss/A24. But though it shares a cinematic universe with X (and a similar Searchers-like opening shot), Pearl is the superior film, less beholden to West's ...
Pearl review: Mia Goth is breathtaking in a flawed horror prequel
Pearl turns back the clock to tell Pearl's story starting in 1918, when she's a bright-eyed young woman (still played by Mia Goth) with big dreams of making it in the movies. The problem is ...
'Pearl' Review: In 'X' Prequel, Mia Goth Imagines Antihero's Backstory
'Pearl' Review: In 'X' Prequel, Mia Goth Shows Where Her Repressed Antihero Went off the Rails 'The House of the Devil' director Ti West expands his porn-shoot slasher movie into a ...
Pearl (2022)
Pearl: Directed by Ti West. With Mia Goth, David Corenswet, Tandi Wright, Matthew Sunderland. 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.
Pearl
Released in the same year as 2022's 'X', 'Pearl' is the prequel to that film and builds on the lore created previously.SYNOPSIS: 'In 1918, a young woman on the brink of madness pursues **** in a desperate attempt to escape the drudgery, isolation, and lovelessness of life on her parents' farm.:Director Ti West is building his reputation from these films and their upcoming sequel 'Maxxxine ...
Pearl movie review: Mia Goth in a horror prequel that marks the birth
Pearl is a tragicomic portrait of a woman so unable to process the falsity of her daydreams that it drives her to murder and mayhem. Mia Goth delivers a stunning performance as the young Pearl, a character who becomes corrupted beyond hope in the Seventies-set slasher film.
'Pearl' Movie Review: Ti West and Mia Goth's Unholy Prequel
Before young Pearl can finish swanning about her bedroom in a lovely gown, the lights come crashing down (literally and metaphorically), and we're suddenly thrust into the reality of her being ...
'Pearl' Film Review: Ti West and Mia Goth's Campy 'X' Prequel
'Pearl' Review: Ti West and Mia Goth's 'X' Prequel Delivers More Technicolor Camp Than Horror. The indie exploitation veteran and his starry-eyed leading lady trace the murderous mayhem ...
'Pearl' review: Mia Goth perfects A24's first horror franchise
Pearl. , A24 perfects its first horror franchise. Pearl gets everything right where X gets so much wrong. Horror sequels are nothing out of the ordinary. If a new movie manages to scare up a ...
Pearl Review
September 13, 2022. By. Meagan Navarro. Bloody Disgusting's Pearl review is spoiler-free. Writer/Director Ti West nestled his ode to independent, exploitation filmmaking into '70s set slasher ...
Pearl review: Mia Goth is bewitching in an spiky blend of movie
Ti West delivers a deliciously spiky prequel to 'X' In Ti West's 2022 zoomer horror X, Mia Goth played two roles: a young porn actress, and an old woman, Pearl.In this prequel, Goth plays ...
Pearl (2022 film)
Pearl (subtitled An X-traordinary Origin Story) is a 2022 American psychological horror film directed, produced and edited by Ti West, co-written by West and Mia Goth, who reprises her role as the title character, and featuring David Corenswet, Tandi Wright, Matthew Sunderland, and Emma Jenkins-Purro in supporting roles.A prequel to X (2022) and the second installment in the X film series, it ...
Pearl review: a star is born (and is very, very bloody)
Pearl is a candy-coated piece of rotten fruit. The film, which is director Ti West's prequel to this year's X, trades in the desaturated look and 1970s seediness of its parent film for a lurid ...
Pearl
Pearl Review. Texas, 1918. Pearl (Goth) has married a neighbour in the hope of getting away from the family farm and her oppressive mother (Wright) and incapacitated father (Sunderland). But her ...
Pearl Review
A prequel that should've been left on the shelf. Pearl hits theaters on Sept. 16, 2022. Set 60 years before X, Ti West's Pearl — a.k.a. Pearl: The X-traordinary Origin Story — lacks the ...
Pearl Review: An X-Traordinary Prequel
Pearl Review: An X-Traordinary Prequel. A24. By Matthew Jackson / Updated: April 18, 2023 1:34 pm EST. ... In some ways, much like "X," "Pearl" is a movie about movies, or rather a movie about a ...
Pearl
Pearl - Movie Review (2023) By Naomi Roper ... Pearl is a farm girl with dreams of being a huge star just like the girls she sees in the movies. With her husband away at war Pearl rots away on her farm with her invalid shell-shocked father and her stern German mother who cannot be doing with any of Pearl's foolish dreams. When an ill-fated ...
Pearl: Movie Review
Pearl: Movie Review. By Jacob Mash October 6, 2022. At the very end of Ti West's slasher film, X, audiences were treated to a teaser for a prequel coming just a few short months later, called Pearl. This film serves as an origin story for one of Mia Goth's two characters in X. Suddenly, what was a one-off film has become a new horror ...
Watch Pearl Streaming Online
Start your free trial to watch Pearl and other popular TV shows and movies including new releases, classics, Hulu Originals, and more. It's all on Hulu. Trapped on an isolated farm, Pearl must tend to her ailing father under the watch of her mother. Lusting for the glamorous life she's seen in movies, Pearl's temptations and repressions collide.
How to Watch the Pirates of the Caribbean Movies in Chronological ...
From this point on, the release date and narrative chronologies of the Pirates movies align. The Curse of the Black Pearl, the series' first movie, takes viewers back to the early 18th century ...
The BSR August 2024 repertory movie roundup
The highlights . Dirty Dancing (Cinema Classics Seminar) Wednesday, August 7, 7:15pm Bryn Mawr Film Institute, 824 Lancaster Avenue, Bryn Mawr. The 1987 classic featured a dancing-filled romance at a Catskills resort in the summer of 1963 between doctor's daughter Baby (Jennifer Grey) and dance instructor Johnny (Patrick Swayze), all of it scored with classic 1960s songs, and the occasional ...
4DX & D-Box Movie Theaters List: Where To Watch in the US
TV Reviews; Open menu Games. Video Game News; ... Many people are looking for a thrilling and immersive movie experience, ... Cinemark Pearl and XD (274) 411 Riverwind Drive, Pearl, MS 39208 ...
Why Pearl Mackie's Bill Potts Left Doctor Who
In reality, actress Pearl Mackie was released from her contract so that Chris Chinball could start his era with a clean slate. Admittedly, some viewers found this process quite unfair, but it seems that Chinball was eager to take a different approach with Season 11 and didn't want the Thirteenth Doctor to be tied down to her previous incarnation.
Olympics opening ceremony recap: Highlights of parade, torch lighting
Nadal then passed the torch to fellow tennis legend Serena Williams. Three of her 23 Grand Slam titles came at the French Open. Carl Lewis, a four-time Olympic champion at the 1984 Games, and ...

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Pearl cements Mia Goth’s place as a true horror icon

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‘Pearl’ Review: In ‘X’ Prequel, Mia Goth Shows Where Her Repressed Antihero Went off the Rails

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Reviewed at Wilshire Screening Room, Aug. 22, 2022. MPA Rating: R. In Venice Film Festival (Out of Competition). Running time: 102 MIN.

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