31 August 2017 (2017-08-31) (Venice Film Festival)
13 July 2018 (2018-07-13)
Running time
82 minutes
Country
United Kingdom
Language
English
Pin Cushion is a 2017 English-language film written and directed by Deborah Haywood, her feature film debut. Pin Cushion premiered as the opening film of International Critics' Week at the 74th Venice International Film Festival[1][2] and was released in the United Kingdom on 13 July 2018.
Plot
Mother Lyn and daughter Iona (a.k.a. Dafty One and Dafty Two) are excited to be starting a new life in a small Midlands town. Determined to make a success of things after a tricky start at a new school, the gawky Iona becomes ‘best friends’ with Keeley, Stacey and Chelsea. Used to having Iona to herself, Lyn feels left out and tries unsuccessfully to make her own friends starting with Belinda, her sour-faced neighbour. As much as Lyn and Iona pretend to each other that things are going well, Iona struggles with schoolmates who act more like 'frenemies' than friends, and Lyn is treated with varying degrees of indifference by neighbours and a supposed support group.
Pin Cushion was filmed in Haywood's home town of Swadlincote, South Derbyshire, with locations including the interior of Gresley Old Hall in Church Gresley, the interior and exterior of The Pingle Academy, the exterior of the Town Hall, and in West Street to the High Street in the town centre, and a scene filmed in Burton Queen's Hospital. The house the main characters move into can be found in Hastings Road, Swadlincote.[4]
Haywood chose to shoot part of the film at her old school because she "had such an awful time there. Before the film I used to close my eyes when I would drive past, now when I drive past I have great memories of making a film there." The graffiti written about her in the past had been painted over in the intervening years.[5]
Reception
Pin Cushion has received positive reviews from critics. On review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 89%, based on 36 reviews with an average rating of 7.1/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Pin Cushion explores the prickly dynamics of mother-daughter relationships and female friendships, led by striking work from leads Lily Newmark and Joanna Scanlan."[6]Metacritic gives the film a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on 8 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[7] The film was described by The Guardian as an "ecstasy of black comic misery and cartoon horror".[8]
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