The Upcoming
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Cinema
      • Movie reviews
      • Film festivals
    • Food & Drinks
      • News & Features
      • Restaurant & bar reviews
      • Interviews & Recipes
    • Literature
    • Music
      • Live music
    • Theatre
    • Shows & On demand
  • Fashion & Lifestyle
    • Accessories
    • Beauty
    • News & Features
    • Shopping & Trends
    • Tips & How-tos
    • Fashion weeks
  • What’s On
    • Art exhibitions
    • Theatre shows
  • Tickets
  • Join us
    • Editorial unit
    • Our writers
    • Join the team
    • Join the mailing list
    • Support us
    • Contact us
  • Interviews
  • Competitions
  • Special events
    • Film festivals
      • Berlin
      • Tribeca
      • Sundance London
      • Cannes
      • Locarno
      • Venice
      • London
      • Toronto
    • Fashion weeks
      • London Fashion Week
      • New York Fashion Week
      • Milan Fashion Week
      • Paris Fashion Week
      • Haute Couture
      • London Fashion Week Men’s
  • Facebook

  • Twitter

  • Instagram

  • YouTube

  • RSS

London Film Festival 2019

Make Up

London Film Festival 2019: Make Up | Review
8 October 2019
Mary-Catherine Harvey
Avatar
Mary-Catherine Harvey
8 October 2019
Public screenings
4th October 2019 9.00pm at Curzon Soho
6th October 2019 3.15pm at Vue West End
11th October 2019 8.50pm at Vue West End

Movie and show review

Mary-Catherine Harvey

Make Up

★★★★★

Links

TwitterInstagramFacebookWebsite

Special event

In spite of its muddled genre and confused strands of sexual tension, Make Up’s most glaring flaw may just be its name. It is somehow both on the nose and absolutely nothing to do with the film it titles. Perhaps it simply describes director Claire Oakley’s hollow but decently pretty film.

After eighteen-year-old Ruth (Molly Windsor) moves in with her boyfriend Tom (Joseph Quinn) in a remote coastal holiday park, her mind plays tricks on her as she navigates life on the windy cliffs. Attempting to make their house a home, Ruth folds up her boyfriend’s clothes only to discover an ominous strand of red hair clinging to his clothes and a lipstick stain smeared on his bedroom mirror. It’s a catalyst for Ruth’s growing insecurity and suspicions concerning the man with whom she now lives.

It’s hard to trace which elements of the story Oakley tries to invest her audience in. At first, it is Ruth’s suspicions about her boyfriend’s affair. At other times, it is the descent down the rabbit hole as Ruth seemingly loses her grip on what she sees and hears. Finally, the film turns its attention to a burgeoning sexual relationship between Ruth and Jade (Stefanie Martini), a fellow employee in the camp.

Oakley creates an elemental backdrop to the drama. Employees plastic-wrap the homes up for the winter season, generating an interesting visual of man against the insurmountable power of nature. The wild, untamed sea and the brutal winds barrelling at the coast also create a dramatic underbelly. Unfortunately, the tense undercurrents never reach the surface in Make Up.

Oakley relies on the natural world as well as the erratic but intense sound design to create a psychological layer that never materialises in the narrative. Ruth does not only imagine a red-haired phantom; strange wails emanate from beneath the caravans and a mysterious figure appears in the plastic sheeting. These fractured elements are a distracting siphon deviating our attention from the heart of the story.

★★★★★

Mary-Catherine Harvey

Make Up does not have a UK release date yet.

Read more reviews and interviews from our London Film Festival 2019 coverage here.

For further information about the festival visit the official BFI website here.

Watch a clip from Make Up here:

Related Itemsreview

More in Film festivals

Lovers Rock

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More

Nomadland

★★★★★
Sarah Bradbury
Read More

Possessor

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

African Apocalypse

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Limbo

★★★★★
Guy Lambert
Read More

New Order (Nuevo Orden)

★★★★★
Emma-Jane Betts
Read More

Striding Into the Wind

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

After Love

★★★★★
Andrew Murray
Read More

Notturno

★★★★★
Rosamund Kelby
Read More
Scroll for more
Tap

Movie and show review

Mary-Catherine Harvey

Make Up

★★★★★

Links

TwitterInstagramFacebookWebsite

Special event

  • Popular

  • Latest

  • TOP PICKS

  • Female filmmakers lead nominees for the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards
    Cinema
  • An interview with Ifrah Ismael: Tales from the Front Line and other stories
    Theatre
  • Persian Lessons
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Jeremiah Fraites – Piano Piano
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • Lonely the Brave – The Hope List
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • 23 Walks
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Live Lab at The Yard Theatre: An interview with associate director Cheryl Gallagher
    Theatre
  • We Still Fax at ANTS Theatre Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • We Ask These Questions of Everybody: An interview with Amble Skuse and Toria Banks
    Theatre
  • Hello Cosmos – Dream Harder
    ★★★★★
    Album review
  • We Still Fax at ANTS Theatre Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • WandaVision: Marvel’s charming sitcom proves an astounding success
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • The Queen’s Gambit: A chess story that’s not about the moves but the motives
    ★★★★★
    Cinema
  • Undercover at Morpheus Show Online
    ★★★★★
    Theatre
  • Ten short literary collections to get you back into reading
    Literature
The Upcoming
Pages
  • Contact us
  • Join mailing list
  • Join us
  • Our London food map
  • Our writers
  • Support us
  • What, when, why

Copyright © 2011-2020 FL Media

London Film Festival 2019: Honey Boy | Review
London Film Festival 2019: Scales (Sayidat Al Bahr) | Review