Pearl (15)
****
No horror movie worth its salt stops after its first killing.
Even the faintest sniff of success is enough for them to get their churn on, spewing forth a string of sequels, prequels, spin-offs and reboots.
Ti West’s X, a slasher where the young, nubile cast and crew of a 70s porn film were hacked up by Pearl, the senile geriatric farmer’s wife envious of their youth and sexuality, was a corker. The combination of the pristine luridness of the set-up, and West’s spry energy and invention made for something enormously satisfying.
West and co-writer/star Mia Goth started the follow-up before the original was even released, and have taken it in a wholly unexpected direction – an origins film set in 1918 where, Spoiler but unavoidable, Pearl is played by same the performer (Goth) who played Maxine, the sole survivor of the 70s massacre.
It’s a bit like Jamie Lee Curtis playing the young Mike Myers in a Halloween prequel, or Sigourney Weaver playing the putative Xenomorph in Prometheus. While those would both be something of a stretch, here the subtext is that victim and predator, Maxine and Pearl, are very much slashed from the same cloth, both deluded fame-obsessed narcissists.
Pearl is another stylish, startling piece of filmmaking but it is not really a horror movie. Using the same set as X, it explores the young Pearl's various frustrations with wartime farm life during wartime and expressions of her psychopathic tendencies.
She clashes with her puritanical German mother (Wright) who is afraid of catching the Spanish flu, teases her mute, wheelchairbound father (Sunderland), and curses her husband for leaving her stranded while he goes off to fight in Europe.
She sneaks out to the movies, dreams of becoming famous, and performs her dance routines for the livestock in the barn. And really for the first hour, the film is a period character study, albeit one shot as a camp 40s melodrama. Imagine a pre-emptive Psycho prequel sympathetically exploring the early crime of Norman and Mrs Bates, shot on the same set but in gaudy technicolour by Douglas Sirk.
Which is quite something but maybe not what your average horror movie fan is looking for. Still, I think most people seeing this would accept that Mia Goth's performance is something extraordinary: she's Joan Crawford AND Bette Davis trapped inside Olive Oyl's body, each trying to out grandstand the other.
Directed by Ti West. Starring Mia Goth, David Corenswet, Tandi Wright, Matthew Sunderland and Emma Jenkins-Purro. In cinemas March 17. Running time: 102 mins.
Allelujah (12A)
***
Featuring two much-loved British institutions - Alan Bennett and the NHS - this film adaptation of the Primrose Hill playwright's National Theatre success is an hour shorter and has dropped the ! from the title.
But it seems like much more has been lost in the transition from stage to screen.
Set in a Yorkshire hospital threatened with closure, it follows Sister Gilpin (Saunders) and dedicated doctor Valentine (Gill) dealing with a ward of cantankerous, loopy, endearing geriatric patients.
Its depiction of the health service as a giant bed-juggling exercise is insightful and, from out of nowhere, the last ten minutes delivers a shocking twist and a rousing, impassioned defence of the NHS.
Prior to that though, this film version is oddly underwhelming. There are strong performances, moments of humour, but a striking lack of vitality.
Bennett has been one of the most perceptive and persistent chroniclers of our nation’s descent into barbarism, but his portrait of a failing, exhausted NHS mirrors the perception of it coming from a failing, exhausted artistic establishment.
The credits are filled with familiar establishment names who have been making angry, crusading films and plays for four decades, to almost zero effect.
Directed by Richard Eyre. Starring Jennifer Saunders, Bally Gill, David Bradley, Russell Tovey, Derek Jacobi and Judi Dench. In cinemas March 17. Running time: 99 mins.
80 For Brady (12A)
**
The Brady is Tom, American Football’s greatest ever quarterback. The 80 is four Oscar winning or nominated older leading ladies playing friends fulfilling their dream of going to the Superbowl.
The conventions of the oldies group's last big adventure film are now well established: they accidentally take drugs, bond with much younger people, get into scrapes and learn life lessons.
And this all passes off well enough. Granted, the Jane Fonda avatar is a tad stilted, but Tomlin and Field are fun, as is Moreno if you can get past her resemblance to Gloria Hunniford. The film’s problem is the American football backdrop.
A lot of it feels like bizarrely unflattering NFL product placements that simply reinforce a view of the sport as being a shallow, soulless cash grab. Brady is also a producer, and the film centres on his greatest triumph, a miraculous comeback victory in the 2017 Superbowl.
A remarkable achievement that, Spoiler, that is tossed away by making it the result of a motivational speech by Tomlin. It's like a Steven Gerrard film where Liverpool's 2005 European Cup victory was down to Margi Clarke barging into the dressing room at halftime and telling them all to buck up.
Directed by Kyle Marvin. Starring: Rita Moreno, Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin Sally Field, Harry Hamlin and Tom Brady. Preview screenings March 19. Running time: 98 mins.
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