After wrapping Ti West‘s slyly subversive slasher film “X” — starring as both Maxine Minx, an aspiring starlet in a troupe of young pornographers and, under prosthetics, the deadly biddy Pearl, whose farmhouse plays host to their ill-fated, X-rated shoot — most actors might have taken a break. A long vacation. Time to recharge. But Mia Goth is not most actors. Plus, she had a monologue for the ages to prepare for.
So instead, days later, she and West and their crew launched right into work on their prequel, “Pearl,” a darkly comedic gambit that turns back the clock six decades from “X"s 1970s-set Texas massacre to a World War I-era Technicolor fantasia — and proves, in her third and most virtuosic performance in these films thus far, that the singular Goth was long overdue for a leading star turn. (The question is: Will audiences, the industry and awards voters take note?)
Released by A24 this past weekend to critical raves after a debut at the Venice Film Festival, the period psycho-thriller lands just six months after “X” hit theaters. The prequel zeroes in on Pearl, a naïve young woman aching to escape her isolated rural life, who sours from starry-eyed farm girl into something more sinister when her dreams of fame are threatened. It’s a richly dynamic role the likes of which Goth has never before played, and the actor, who has cultivated an eccentric body of work (“High Life,” “Suspiria”) since debuting at age 20 in Lars von Trier’s “Nymphomaniac,” jumped at the unprecedented creative and collaborative opportunity.
