Eye For Film >> Movies >> The Tinwoodsman's Home Movie #2 (2009) Film Review
The Tinwoodsman’s Home Movie 2 is as curious as a side-trip to Oz. Shot in the hyper-bright colours associated with all things Yellow Brick Road, the Tinman is seen in a field of bright orange flowers (poppies, possibly), posing, rather stiltedly, for photographs with what appear to be passers-by.
Despite the drenched colour scheme, directors Lee Lynch and Naomi Uman have given their film a deliberately ‘home-shot’ look. What they are intending you to divine from it is somewhat trickier. Lynch – whose obsession with the Tinman apparently stems from his own heart defect - says: “I believe that my work is infused with a naturalist aesthetic, which enables the viewer to gather strength and inspiration”.
I’m not sure I would go as far as that, since there is only so long that you can find watching people horse about with an axe on camera interesting – and that length is somewhat less than the six-minute runtime here. Plus the jangly vocal-free version of If I Only Had A Heart that plays over the film gives it an oddly sinister edge. The film is technically interesting but, like the Tinman, it lacks heart.
Reviewed on: 14 May 2009
