“I was abandoned as a baby and this old hunchback lady found me in the forest and looked after me. She loved me and raised me and then one day she walked me to the edge of the forest and set me free,” claims teenager Iona (Lily Newmark, “Solo: A Star Wars Story,” “Emerald City”) in a trailer for “Pin Cushion.” Her fairy tale-esque origin story isn’t exactly convincing, but it’s clear that she genuinely feels as though she’s entering a whole new world. She and her mother Lyn (Joanna Scanlan, “Getting On”) are new in town and struggling to fit in.
Iona’s welcomed to her new school by its resident mean girls. (“Have you sucked cock?” they ask. “Probably,” a naive Iona answers.) She seems to form an uneasy friendship with the popular clique and begins experimenting with makeup, a change that doesn’t go unnoticed by her mother. “One sign of lipstick and [boys] behave like animals,” Lyn warns, seemingly further alienating Iona with her overprotectiveness.
Check out the trailer to see Lynn’s own attempts to make friends.
“Pin Cushion” marks Deborah Haywood’s feature debut. The writer-director’s previous credits include shorts “Twinkle, Twinkle,” “Biatch!” and “Sis.” The coming-of-age drama made its world premiere at the 2017 Venice Film Festival, where it received rave reviews, and hits select theaters July 21.
