Pin Cushion

Pin Cushion. For a change I'd not read any reviews. Didn't even know it was British. All I knew was that it was about a relationship about a mother and daughter. I didn't know it would be an intensely bleak tragi-comedy / psychological thriller / dark social realist drama with fantastical overtures. A jaw droppingly intense study of the effects of loneliness and bullying. It was Carrie without the supernatural but with the girl with long red hair and strange mother. I was an emotional wreck at the end. 8.5 out of ten. Highly recommended.

A story told with poetry and colours, about the love between a mother, her daughter and their efforts to fit-in, at the expense of valuing their own unique identity. A story of mean bullyism and peer pressure which remains cruel and hypocritical at any stage of life. A script that resonates well with our contemporary, conforming society.

A true life fairy tale that explores what so many people experience, the odd couple in a new town wanting desperately to make friends and become accepted, but find themselves lured by the wicked side of those around them to do things they think they must do and the consequences that human beings can lead others into when they enjoy making them unhappy rather than choosing love and the unhappiness and and truths that this brings home. Remarkable debut for someone who had never directed on this scale before and a thought provoking movie everyone should see, especially parents and schoolchildren.

Let's just start by saying that Pin Cushion isn't a happy movie. You won't have a good feeling after watching it. Or you must be a bully yourself and you have no clue what for a lowlife you are yourself. The story is about bullying, about not fitting in. There is the bullying of a young innocent girl that does her best trying to fit in, and there is the bullying by adults towards a woman that looks differently. The acting is good as well as the filming. The story is worth watching, but just don't expect some kind of justice or feelgood moment as it is a sad movie.

In some reason I saw it as an entrance for horror festival. It is not horror movie, although there are some similarities with Carrie, Requiem For a Dream or with 13 reason why. Story evolves around socially incapable mother whose only friend are her daughter, some birds and porcelain dolls. Mother and daughter have really close relationship, but as daughter is getting older she's trying to find some friends of her own. Similarity with Carrie? - Daughter is not well accepted by her schoolmates. There is no paranormality. Similarity with Requiem for A Dream? - Lapses of reality and sequences which are mere hallucinations. Similarity with 13 reasons why? - How can one mistake lead to the catastrophe.

Great movie, really great.