Pearl

Technicolor melodrama with a pitchfork, shot back to back with X on the same farm, and it is the best of the three.

Texas, 1918. Pearl is stuck on her parents' farm with an invalid father, a German mother who hates the country she is in, and a husband away at war. She wants to be in the pictures.

Ti West shoots it as a Douglas Sirk film: saturated primary colour, sweeping strings, an opening title card in period lettering, and a scarecrow.

Mia Goth co-wrote it and gives a performance that is not a horror performance at all. The audition monologue near the end runs about eight minutes in a single take and it is the best acting in any film on this site.

The final shot holds on her smile for a full minute over the end credits, and she has to sustain it.

Watch X first for the full effect. It works alone.