Cleopatra Music and
Films, with sales and distribution expertise provided by MVD Entertainment
Group, has selected Sept. 25 as the domestic DVD debut date for English
writer/director Deborah Haywood’s Pin Cushion.
After nearly a decade of
writing and directing a series of short films, Haywood stepped up her game and
went the feature film route with this impressive tale of a mother and daughter
who are cast adrift in society, but willing to give it one more try in their
new home.
Lyn (played by veteran
English writer and actress Joanna Scanlan) and her daughter, Iona (Lily Newmark
— Solo:
A Star Wars Story), move into their new digs in Swadlincote
(Derbyshire) with the intention of starting a new life. By any standard the pair are strange, with
Lyn sporting something of a humped back and her daughter looking every bit that
of Sissy Spacek’s Carrie White character.
Now before you get
sidetracked into thinking that Pin Cushion is another take on
DePalma’s Carrie, you’d only be half-right, or maybe even just a quarter
righter. Lyn is not a crazed religious
freak, nor is Iona gifted with any supernatural powers. What they do have in common with Margaret
and Carrie White, besides living in a strange little house, is their alienation
from society … like Carrie, both Lyn and Iona are just trying to fit in
(Carrie’s mom, forget it).
Iona, who seems naïve
beyond her teen years, arrives at her new school eager to make friends and is
soon the target of the local “Mean Girls,” Keeley (Sacha Cordy-Nice), Stacie (Saskia
Paige Martin) and Chelsea (Bethany Antonia).
Their initial insults and digs seem to go right over Iona’s head, but soon
they up their bullying game and begin to hit their target.
Meanwhile, Lyn, who never
seems to be quite right, is making her own efforts at making friends with
little luck. When she notices that Iona
has shown an interest in a local boy she cautions her against going too fast
(perhaps from experience). It is this
change in tone in their relationship that comes full circle when the bullying
at school arrives in their home.
Pin Cushion is never what it seems. Part Carrie, part Mean Girls, part fantasy
world … but always a tale about being left on the onside by either your looks,
or actions or just because you seem alien.
They are desperate to fit in, but that goal always seems to be just a
step away.
It is a bittersweet film,
as you are drawn to the characters that Haywood has created, especially Lyn. Iona, less so, as she still has a future in
front of her … these school years will be, at some point, just a memory. And beside, Iona soon gets wise to the ways
of Keeley, which only serves to up the meanness of their bullying.
