Infinity Pool – Brandon Cronenberg’s new film starring Mia Goth, rated NC-17, appeal pending

Heads up! This piece contains MASSIVE SPOILERS for the movie pearl. We kindly “ax” you to watch the movie first and come back to read this afterwards.

We all know the story. The story of little Dorothy Gale and her adventure when she is whisked away to the wonderful land of Oz. The Wizard of Oz is one of the most timeless pieces of American literature ever produced, and the 1939 film adaptation remains one of the greatest (and scariest) films of all time. This has led to numerous filmmakers of all genres and backgrounds being inspired in different ways by the classic story over the years. Ti West takes it to a whole other level with his new film Pearl, the prequel to his slasher film X which tells the story of the title character and her descent into utter madness.

The film is littered with parallels to the 1939 film classic The Wizard of Ozshowing how the fairy tale story can be used in a different context than we are used to.

Right off the bat, the aesthetic and cinematic style choices are reminiscent of the Technicolor filmmaking era. Technicolor is a process for shooting color film that dates back to 1916 and uses a three-strip system in which a modified camera takes footage through different color filters (usually red, green, and blue) and processes them separately, so each strip would be processed differently “Print” colors onto a finished print of the film. The result was a vivid display of color not common in this era of filmmaking, although one film in particular became famous for using this process: The Wizard of Oz. pearl pays tribute using a vibrant color palette of vibrant reds, greens and blues that visually evoke the spirit of The Wizard of Oz.

From here we are introduced to Pearl (Mia Goth), a lonely farm girl living a quiet life on her family’s farm. She helps care for her disabled father and is constantly bullied by her overbearing mother Ruth. She dreams of a better life, but her husband is fighting in World War I and because of her predicament, she has no other place to go. Pearl is a reflection of Dorothy Gale The Wizard of Oz (down to the pigtails). In this film, Dorothy lives on a farm with Aunt Em and Uncle Henry and dreams of a place “over the rainbow” to escape from the everyday life she leads.

Pearl then rides her bike into town to get medicine for her father. When she comes to town, we are presented with a very different world than what Pearl is used to. Music is played and people live their lives freely, and Pearl’s troubles go away with an escape to the movies (with a side of microdosing). She also meets the projectionist (David Corenswet) of the theater she attends (more about him later). This runs parallel to the iconic scene in The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy is taken to the Land of Oz. From the muted, drab palette of her sepia tones to a technicolor fantasy only possible in dreams.

As Pearl walks home, she is accidentally led into a corn field inhabited by a scarecrow who monitors the field. Curious, Pearl begins seductively speaking and dancing with the Scarecrow, eventually leading to a scene in which she acts out a sexual encounter with her, imagining the performer’s face before having a violent outburst telling him that she is married. Ashamed of what she has done, she heads home with the Scarecrow’s hat in tow.

The scarecrow’s design is obviously very much inspired by the design used by actor Ray Bolger in The Wizard of Oz. As he was a well-known dancer during his lifetime, the filmmakers gave his character a dance number when he was introduced pearl repays the favor by letting them share an intimate dance. Of note, the 1939 film’s script has an ending scene where the Scarecrow’s human counterpart, Hunk, goes to agricultural school and Dorothy promises to write to him, implying a romantic connection.

After a visit from Pearl’s mother-in-law and sister-in-law Misty (Emma Jenkins-Purro), she learns from a local troupe who are doing auditions for their touring show. Seeing this as her opportunity to escape her provincial life, she confronts her mother about auditioning for the dance troupe. Her mother responds with a violent outburst, recounting how she sacrificed everything to take care of Pearl’s father, including her dreams and goals. The argument reaches a boiling point as Pearl fights her mother around the fireplace and Mom’s dress ignites, setting her on fire. Pearl acts quickly and dumps water on her screaming mother, enveloping her in a cloud of smoke and dumping her in the basement to die. This is the scene where we see Ruth evolve from being Aunt Em second in command into a twisted metaphor for the Wicked Witch of the West, complete with a recreation of the climactic scene where Dorothy splashes water on her, killing her in the process .

Pearl runs into the arms of the projectionist at the theater where, despite their marriage, they share an intimate love scene, and he also promises to take her to Europe. The next day, he offers to drive her to his house so she can prepare for her big audition. Hearing Pearl’s mother in the basement, he confronts her and eventually catches her in a lie and decides to leave, suggesting he has no interest in seeing her again despite their rapidly developing romance. Feeling despised, Pearl snaps and proceeds to stab him in the heart and submerge his body (and car) in a nearby swamp. The projectionist is a cold, heartless bastard in Pearl’s eyes twisted version of the tin man who is known to have no heart. She takes revenge by destroying his heart. It’s important to acknowledge that he’s the only character to share any sort of intimacy with Pearl, an act normally reserved for lovers.

In the final act, Pearl dons one of Ruth’s dresses – a long red dress as a twisted subversion of Dorothy’s iconic short blue dress she wore when she visited Oz – and goes to her audition. After not getting the part in the troupe, Pearl and Misty return to the farm, where Pearl breaks down and confesses everything she’s done, while also revealing her resentment that her husband left her and went to war . The dance troupe was to Pearl what the hot air balloon was to Dorothy, total wish fulfillment and an escape to the life she deserves. Fearing her confession, Misty tries to leave when Pearl confronts her about forming the dance group and not telling her. Misty in this scene could be considered evocative The Wizard of Oz‘s Cowardly Lion in her fear of Pearl, and her hair also appears to be a nod to the loose curls worn by the Cowardly Lion in the original film.

After brutally murdering Misty with an axe, Pearl vows to “make everything right” and gathers her parents’ corpses around the dinner table to show that she believes things can go back to normal despite all that happened . Howard comes home from the war to find the decomposing corpses in the dining room and Pearl wearing her peasant girl looks from the start. Knowing what we know about X, she never leaves the court. Doomed to spend the rest of her days in a mundane existence and not living the life she felt she deserved. At the end of the day, Pearl realizes…

“There’s no place like home.”