Make Up

'Make Up (2019)' follows a young woman who moves to a caravan park in Cornwall in order to be with her long-term boyfriend. As she adjusts to her new life, she finds herself increasingly unsettled by a mysterious redhead and the gnawing feeling that something just isn't right. The piece is a small, isolated experience that focuses on putting you in the perspective of its quiet main character. Its story is a blend of the overtly mundane and the subtly bizarre. As such, its genre is difficult to define. It really is an odd one, a relationship drama infused with often genuinely unsettling suspense - the stuff that belongs in a straight-up horror. That contrast creates an uneven experience that often feels like it doesn't quite know what it wants to be. That's actually rather fitting in retrospect, as uncertainty is a major theme of the movie, but it makes for an inconsistent in-the-moment experience. On top of that, the affair sometimes borders on being dull. It gets increasingly interesting as it goes on, though, and it does a good job of putting you in the head of its protagonist. It often succeeds in getting under your skin, featuring several disquieting scenes that almost put actual horror films to shame. Once you realise what it's doing (and has been doing all along), it becomes a lot more interesting. It explores its themes in a rather innovative way, subtly and slowly unravelling its material. It isn't exactly exciting but it is often engaging. It's a solid and unconventional first-time effort. 6/10

Most viewers may not like the slow pace and sparse dialogue but I thought overall it was quite effective in telling a good story. I'm a fan of Eric Roehmer. The slow everyday-pace set a tone of mystery. The young woman is trying to figure out what's going on as are we. I hope to see more from the director-writer. The lead actress is exceptional.

I found the lead character to be 2 dimensional and to have few redeeming or watchable features. She didn't do a lot, was just one of those characters that just watches everything. This is an overdone technical device to encourage the viewer to watch and pay more attention. However, there was little to see, causing frustration.

The other characters had more life in them but these were not exploited to their full potential. The central theme being a mystery character, didn't really come off that well. This again could have been developed and made much more dramatic and interesting.

A good effort but this storyline was just the basic framework of the story, more flesh was needed on the empty and rather slow bones of the piece.

I enjoyed watching this. It did not easily fit into any genre, and was all the better for that. A rather episodic film, with no clear linear narrative, but it still retained my interest throughout.

It really captured the bleak, barreness of an out of season caravan park, with its motley collection of residents with nowhere else to go.

A bit overloaded with symbolism at times, but definitely worth watching in my view.

Newb filmmaker Claire Oakley did a fine job at directing, but the writing was paced slower than a snail's pace. The 86 min runtime felt like an eternity, and there were far too many unnecessary random few-second shots. It made matters worse that lead Molly Windsor's role was drab and depressing. It's a good metaphorical story, but should've been a short film instead, which is up Oakley's alley. Cinematography and score were decent. It's a 6/10 from me.