Make Up (2019)

Impressive, tense psychological drama - Make Up review by PD

This first feature from director Claire Oakley is a highly watchable, original piece, being a tense, psychological drama with coming-of-age elements and a sprinkling of sinister surrealism. It's very successful in creating a tangible sense of atmosphere and discomfort through clever filmmaking and a subtle but highly absorbing lead performance by Molly Windsor as 18-year-old Ruth. The off-season Cornish caravan site setting is truly inspired, with Oakley, along with cinematographer Nick Cooke, turning a campsite into a nightmare (fumigated caravans covered in polythene feel like crime scenes) as Ruth tries to come to terms with new desires and who she really is. Though the film is quite short you don't get the feeling of anything particularly rushed or contrived for effect, the director taking her time to explore Ruth's repressions and desires via her relationships with boyfriend Tom and, especially, her new friend, the vivacious Jade, who, on the surface, is everything that Ruth isn’t, i.e. confident and liberated. By turns, Jade brings out something of herself in Ruth, much the chagrin of Tom and his gross workmate, Kai.

Fantasy and reality become increasingly indistinguishable as Ruth’s friendship with Jade develops, the film becoming increasingly impressionistic, and whilst the ending may well be a tad cliched, the build up to it is beautifully done. Impressive stuff.