The director Martin Scorsese says has a “rare” energy
It’s a challenge to find the words to describe the unbelievable career Martin Scorsese has enjoyed in the world of cinema. Comfortably sitting at the head of the American film world for more than five decades, the New York City-born director has established himself as one of the movie medium’s greatest ever auteurs, a fully deserved recognition.
Scorsese’s list of qualities is seemingly endless, from his early work with Mean Streets, Taxi Driver and Raging Bull to his work in the 21st century like The Wolf of Wall Street. Including his latest feature The Killers of the Flower Moon, the iconic filmmaker has delivered time and time again without fail.
Seeing as Scorsese is indeed one of the most acclaimed figures in the global film industry, he is well-placed to judge the upcoming talent of cinema. The Taxi Driver director once gave Ti West, known for his X trilogy and also a swathe of other horror movies, including The House of the Devil, the highest of praise.
Scorsese had been particularly impressed with West’s effort on the 2022 horror Pearl: An X-traordinary Origin Story, which serves as the prequel to his film X and also as the second movie in the franchise. Mia Goth had previously taken the lead role in X, and she was on hand to take control of the second project with the likes of David Corenswet, Tandi Wright and Matthew Sunderland in supporting roles.
“Ti West’s movies have a kind of energy that is so rare these days, powered by a pure, undiluted love for cinema,” Scorsese said in his review that he sent directed to A24. “You feel it in every frame. A prequel to X made in a diametrically opposite cinematic register (think ’50s Scope colour melodramas), Pearl makes for a wild, mesmerising, deeply — and I mean deeply — disturbing 102 minutes.”
“West and his muse and creative partner Mia Goth really know how to toy with their audience… before they plunge the knife into our chests and start twisting,” the iconic director added. “I was enthralled, then disturbed, then so unsettled that I had trouble getting to sleep. But I couldn’t stop watching.”
In X, Goth played a pornstar Maxine who, in 1979, heads out to a rural Texas farmhouse owned by an elderly couple, Pearl and Howard. Pearl tells the origin story of that character, with Goth portraying her. Pearl had once dreamed of becoming a movie star but ended up committing awful and horrific deeds on her family’s homestead towards the beginning of the 21st century.
Check out the trailer for Pearl below.
