Writer-director Deborah Haywood makes her feature directorial debut with the surreal and whimsical mother-daughter nightmare Pin Cushion, driven by a singular vision and masterful control of a unique tone, which tiptoes the line of beauty and terror.

| Jul 20, 2018

Haywood's formidable first feature is at once a ruthless dissection of cruelty, capturing the relentless torment of outcasts for the pleasure of self-styled superiors, and a warm evocation of an interdependent mother-daughter bond.

| Jul 19, 2018

It's not always an easy watch but it's a sensitive, assured film with characters you'll warm to and root for.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 19, 2018

Haywood digs into her own teenage memories and unearths something eccentric, tragic and utterly unclassifiable.

| Jul 19, 2018

Two compelling central performances shine a light on a difficult relationship between one family and the rest of the world. The screenplay could have benefited from being a touch less predictable.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 16, 2018

The film is like a cross between a crocheted bunny and a nail bomb.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Jul 15, 2018

A quiet and weird story, beautifully executed by Haywood.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 13, 2018

While the mother-daughter relationship is touchingly played...the malevolence of their tormentors...is totally overegged and the finale is so bleak and garish that it derails the film completely.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 13, 2018

It is a film whose claustrophobia and nightmare-sadness are superbly controlled, and Scanlan gives us one of the best performances of her career as the pitiful and unpitied Lyn.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 12, 2018

It's a strong, quirky debut. Compassion bleeds through its shocks and ironies. It's a true original.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 11, 2018

Uneven in places, Pin Cushion nonetheless offers a moving meditation on what it feels like to be different, elevated by great work from Joanna Scanlan and newcomer Lily Newmark.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 11, 2018

Taking a very dark turn late in the second act, Pin Cushion's eccentric craft-fair aesthetic is ultimately protective cushioning wrapped around a broken heart.

| Original Score: B | Oct 10, 2017

At its core, this is a story about bullying and mental illness and being disconnected from reality.

| Oct 10, 2017

Pin Cushion is most emotionally piercing in depicting the daily ways in which the world still punishes this loving, mild-as-milk woman for her difference.

| Sep 27, 2017