Edit Item

Make Me Up

Country: UK, Language: English, 84 mins

Lesbian | Experimental | 2018

Director: Rachel Maclean
Writer: Rachel Maclean
Producer: John Archer; Angus Farquhar; Jenny Waldman

CGiii Comment

If Margaret Thatcher and Dr Frank'n'Furter had had a baby [oooh me Begonias have gone all limp]...then, this here drag queen...is the embodiment of that all-grown-up gobby bambino! She spouts, screams and screeches...repeat and repeat and repeat! **SPOILER ALERT** All this film amounts to is...killing a drag queen and a lesbian snog!

It's a caca-ophonous [sic], infuriatingly repetitive, definitely deafening diatribe...on feminisim! Rachel McLean is [no spoilers here] a [revolutionary...oooh me Begonias] feminist [one of those man-hating ones, if this is anything to go by]...what she fails to realise is...women are feminism's greatest adversary! And this film ain't gonna be helping the cause in any shape or form whatsoever! Not because it's non-commercial, totally contrived drivel...but, because it is [cue: euphemism] not very good.

Everything [in this film] is borrowed (that's a [not an other one!] euphemism for stolen)...from Alice-in-Wonderland to The-Spice-Girls via Botticelli and Henry Moore...there are [many] others...too exhaustive to list. Who needs originality when pilfering is so much less labour intensive than creativity itself?!?

Good grief...why do 'artists' think they can make a film? Too much public money went into this...the BBC & Creative Scotland should be held [more] accountable for their irresponsible spending...who in God's name gave this the greenlight and then signed the cheque!?! Sack them immediately!

As for Ms Maclean...do what you do best...ripping off Jules & Pierre! Who next: Gilbert & George?

On a more positive note...the make-up was good!

Trailer...

The(ir) Blurb...

Identity, gender, politics and technology are the themes of a visually dazzling essay about pressures faced by women of today. Created by acclaimed multimedia artist Rachel Maclean, Make Me Up follows Siri as she becomes trapped in a candy-coloured dreamhouse where female inmates are forced to undertake competitive tasks. This world is both seductive and dangerous; a place where surveillance, violence and submission are a normalised part of daily life. When Siri attempts to subvert the rules sinister truths come to light. With fierce intelligence and lacerating humour Maclean examines the quest for female freedom and asks provocative questions about the conspiracy to conform and submit. Make Me Up was commissioned to commemorate the 1918 Representation of the People Act, which gave some, but not all, British women the right to vote. Maclean turned plenty of heads with her daring Brexit-Trump-Pinocchio-themed film at the International Art Exhibition of the 2017 Venice Biennale. She does it again here and is most certainly a filmmaker to watch.