Pearl

Pearl wants so badly to be a star. Part of the film’s pleasure lies in realising that Goth already is.

Goth is riotously entertaining throughout, but two specific scenes, in both of which the camera rests solely on her face for an extended shot, capture the full force of her unnerving talent.

She slashes, stabs and decapitates aplenty, and proves a dab hand with a pitchfork. That’s essentially the film. It’s Judy Garland goes rogue on a farm.

Pearl’s torment 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.

From the opening credits with their cursive retro font to the end crawl that plays over Goth making a deranged face, the film harks back to vintage B-movies about crazed young ladies...

Fresh, subversive and drenched in delicious irony and dark humour. Goth continues to impress.

My X-pectations were too high

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

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

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.