Pearl movie is the reason I go to the movies. It’s so creative and fresh. It just gets better and better as you go along and then you realize that there are so many personal themes, ideas, and symbols throughout this movie that you can think about afterward. Like Pearl’s upbringing, Pearl’s mother, Pearl’s psychopathy, the scarecrow scene, and Pearl Movie Ending with the rotting pig and the dead parents at the table. And how this movie ties in with the other movie X.
I’ll make sure not to spoil any major plot details in X, in case you haven’t seen it. I’ll just talk about some of the themes and ideas in X that relate to the movie Pearl.
I thought Pearl was a movie that stood in its own lane and provided a real experience when watching. The elongated shots, the powerful monologue, the incredible heart-wrenching but sinister malevolent performance from Mia Goth, and the lack of investment into any other characters allowed this film to deserve the title of being called Pearl. She dreamed of being a star, and she was definitely the star of this movie.
I haven’t seen anything like this, and I don’t feel as though it’s being spoken about as much as it should be getting spoken about. I can understand that it’s not going to be a film for everybody’s taste, but the runtime makes it digestible. The environment is extremely eerie, and it has a very human story at its core.
Pearl Movie Explained
So to break this movie down, we’re going to use 3 themes. One, “Parental Suppression”. In this, we’ll discuss the Setting and filming Style, Pearl’s restrictive Mother, and Pearl’s imprisoning life.
Two, “Freedom Through Stardom”. In this, we’ll discuss Pearl’s crying monologue to Mitsy, Pearl’s dreams, The scarecrow scene, The projectionist Man and Pearl’s psychopathy.
Three, “Psychopathic Faith”. In this, we will discuss Pearl’s character in X movie, Pearl’s husband Howard, and Pearl Movie’s Ending with the rotting pig and the dead parents sitting at the table and much more.
Parental Suppression
If you haven’t read the synopsis of this movie, I have to let you know that this movie Pearl is a prequel to another movie titled “X” that was released earlier this year by the same director, Ti West. The movie Pearl is the origin story of the old woman character named Pearl in movie X.
The stylistic approach to this film even indicates that this film takes place before the events of X. X’s filming style matches the time period that it’s set in, replicating the look and feel of classic 70s slashers like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Pearl’s filming style also matches the time period that it set in, replicating the look and feel of classics from the early 20th century, most notably the Wizard of Oz.
The film actually establishes this by capturing the exact same opening shot as X, while using a completely different stylistic approach. Like it’s foreshadowing the calm before the gruesome storm. But this calm is not necessarily a peaceful calm. It’s more a suppressive and imprisoning calm, quite similar to the first act of the Wizard of Oz. Everything about the first act of this film captures the feeling of restriction and discomfort.
Pearl’s Mother is extremely strict with her, limiting Pearl’s activities to the tasks around the farm. And Pearl’s tasks around the farm are captured with a very isolated and repetitive nature. There’s also a pandemic happening with guidelines in place, that we all know sometimes feel isolating and discomforting. And of course, the tail end of World War I, which separated families and loved ones for a very long time.
Freedom Through Stardom
This film is a character study discussing the results of a young woman who feels like love, attention, and community are slowly being pulled further away from her. With an ice-cold suppressive mother, a completely paralyzed and speechless father, and a loving husband overseas in the face of death, Pearl forges a twisted dream to acquire everything she’s been missing.
I have to say, Pearl’s beautifully tragic monologue around the climax of the film is my favorite part of the movie. It breaks down the fact that there was always been a void for Pearl. So many of the most important things in life for Pearl have always been missing. She never felt love. She had no sense of community. She was never the center of positive attention, and she was forcefully prevented from expressing her passions and true feelings by her mother.
However, for Pearl fame and stardom in the performing arts would completely fill this void. And give her all of these essential experiences back. She would be loved and admired by many. Her audience would be her sense of community. They would provide the positive attention she never had and she would be celebrated by expressing her passions and true feelings.
Filling this void by chasing fame is actually common with many entertainers who have openly admitted it. We’ve seen this very real concept fleshed out in many other tragic character study films like the “King of Comedy”, “Taxi Driver” and more recently “Joker”.
Pearl desperately longs to have these essential parts of life, signified really well by her scene with the Scarecrow, releasing her expression of sexuality. Also, a very twisted callback to the Wizard of Oz.
It makes sense that Pearl is drawn toward this Projectionist man in every single way. He represents everything she longs for. He showers her with attention. He celebrates her uniqueness and physical beauty. He encourages her to celebrate and express her passions and sexuality. And he is a vessel for her to acquire stardom far away from home.
However, the only obstacle standing in Pearl’s way to all of this is her mother, Ruth. And Pearl has an incredibly sinister way of overcoming this obstacle. And there’s no denying that Pearl is a psychopath. She carries all of the integral psychopathic traits. Like her inhumane lack of empathy for others and her unbreakable focus on long-term objectives. And this lack of compassion, combined with a dead-set focus allows Pearl to eliminate anyone standing in the way of the dream theme.
Psychopathic Faith
When Pearl is abandoned by the frightened Projectionist and rejected by the shallow judges, she hits absolute rock bottom. She’s left with absolutely nothing. No family, no friends, and no chance at her dream. And I feel like this is where everything ties in with the themes and ideas from X. I swear I won’t spoil X if you haven’t seen it.
Quite early in X, we learned that Pearl seems to now have resorted to religion to find peace within all of her failure and misery. Pearl has grown old, living enviously and regretfully. She’s envious of the liberty of the performers on her farm and regretful of the way she lived out the rest of her youth.
Maxine represents the version of Pearl that she wanted to be when she was young. This explains so much of what happens in X. And throughout the movies Pearl and X, there’s this continuous-running theme of escaping the value system of the preceding generation. We see it in Maxine with her father; if you’ve seen X, you know the big moment I’m talking about. We see it in Pearl with her mother in the movie Pearl.
And even are hinted at in Pearl that Pearl’s husband Howard shares some of the same sentiments. As you hear from Mitsy that he was extremely resentful towards his father. And that kind of explains where we see Howard go in X and we can talk more about that in the comments if you want to. I just don’t wanna spoil Howard’s decisions in X that might be integral to the plot of that movie.
And before I talk about the very end of Pearl, I just want to say if anyone wants to have a discussion about X and all the characters and the major plot points at the very end Just let me know about it, I would love to talk about it.
Pearl Movie Ending Explained
But in Pearl before Howard’s return, we hear Pearl recite a line from her mother from earlier in the movie, accepting these old reserved values that she was trying so hard to overcome. It’s not getting what you want, it’s making the most of what you have.
Pearl has officially surrendered to the previous generation and given up on her dreams. She sets the table with the rotting pig and her dead parents in a final desperate attempt to revert things back to the way they were. Overall Pearl’s rage stems from suppression, temptation, envy, vanity, and regret. An unreachable, twisted fantasy breaks a dedicated psychopath.
The want for a better life and want to give it a shot so at least you can say that you’ve tried. And also murder, psychosis, and terrifying moments. But that’s the beauty in it. It’s hopes and dreams colliding with nightmares. And it paints the perfect story of Pearl and how she came to be the individual that we saw in the movie X.
Also Read: The Truman Show Ending Explained: The Dark Hidden Meaning Behind The Movie
