baileycerniglia

WOW was this season incredible. This episode was a perfect conclusion to what was probably my favorite season of the entire show. Deborah's goal of getting the late night show was such an interesting direction for the series, and created some really fun episodes and scenes. This episode in particular, and the way it ends... WOW. I'm constantly fascinated by the relationship between Ava and Deborah, and it really came to a head here. I'm fascinated to see what's next in Season 4. Give Jean Smart the Emmy, please. She deserves it. And give the writers some Emmys, because these scripts were fantastic.

I first watched X and Pearl back-to-back about a year ago. I'm generally not a big fan of slashers, but I liked X well enough and liked what it had to say. I was a HUGE fan of Pearl, and thought it was an incredible character study. I was very excited to see the final installment in the franchise.

But the results, for me, were underwhelming. They didn't stick the landing. Setting it in Hollywood made it feel detached from the original films, although I'm not sure how they could've used the farm again so it makes sense to change the location... but additionally, despite being threatened by her past, Maxine as a character didn't feel very connected to the world of X and Pearl, either. And the 3rd act, good lord, felt way too ridiculous for this franchise. I get what they were trying to do, but X and Pearl were a lot more earnest so these outlandish plot decisions felt very separate from the franchise.

That being said, as a standalone movie it was fun and entertaining. There were some great set pieces and it was great to hear iconic lines on the screen again.

This movie is camp at its finest. It is such a purely fun experience with twists at every turn, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. And for the budget that it likely had, the filmmakers did an excellent job.

Some people hold all movies to the same high standards, but you really need to put films into perspective. Tubi Originals are usually made for under $1m, with most of them closer to $500k. The trivia section says this film was shot in 14 days, which leads me to believe it was closer to a $500k budget. That is an enormously tight schedule and budget. You can't compare it to films with multi-million dollar budgets that got months to shoot.

Of course there will be imperfect elements when shooting on that kind of budget and timeframe, but they clearly ran with their limitations and made the best product that they could. You can't criticize a film like this for those things. Really, it's big budget films that we should be more critical of -- When you have all the money and resources in the world, your film should be flawless, but many aren't. On micro budget films it should be a given that there will be some flaws, and that's okay.

This film did an excellent job at creating a fun and dynamic atmosphere, and capitalized well on its budget and limitations. Well done!