Honestly, as someone who really loved X, I'm not feeling this as much as everybody else is. I will say that Mia Goth is indeed excellent. Her performance is genuinely brilliant. The film's greatest scene is a single long take of her just talking for minutes on end. The range that she has shown between this film and the last is very impressive. I love her to death, and she holds this movie up single-handedly and makes it what it is.
But the actual film surrounding her feels quite lacking in terms of the horror, the humor, and the development. I could predict every scene beat for beat before it happened. It made for a somewhat dull experience. It lacked the subversions that X had. As well as the likeable side characters, the tension, and the fun kills. One of my biggest issues is just how boring the characters other than Pearl are. Usually these character study movies have interesting people for the lead to interact with, which brings out stuff from within the protagonist. But man, is this cast ever flat. None of them are bad actors, but their writing is bland as anything. This leads to a lot of scenes where Pearl talks to some flatline of a person about the same few topics over and over. Then she kills some folks in ways (and even an order) that anyone could see coming a mile away. It's a tamer, smaller, less entertaining movie than X that drags quite a bit, which is something I rarely say. It was disappointingly unengaging consider how neat the setting and lead character are.
I feel as though Ti West is at his best when he's making homages to 70s Horror. His composition, editing, and pacing all suit that style of filmmaking perfectly, but he's not so great at doing other types of films. This felt no different to me. The Old Hollywood stylizations didn't gel with the more modern techniques used sometimes, and the tone was a bit confused. There was zero suspense the entire film. And I mean zero, which is kind of shocking since that's West's whole thing. But it wasn't especially fun either. Much of it was strangely serious, considering how silly it was, although there were some funny bits. But it felt like Mia Goth was the glue holding this entire thing together, and the other characters, where the story went, and how the horror was handled were just afterthoughts. I saw this earlier today, and I don't remember all that much of it aside from a few key scenes. The memorable visuals and moments are few and far-between, but they're there. It's a showcase for a single specific talent rather than an amalgamation of a group of talents.
Anyway, I'm glad that people are enjoying this so much. I feel like I saw a totally different movie than most people, though, with some of the reviews I've read. But hey, I'm happy you got the experience that I was hoping for but unfortunately didn't get out of it. I'd still love to see Mia and Ti make more movies together! They clearly have lots of passion and talent, and I'm excited to see what else they'll come up with, even if this one wasn't as much my speed.
