The Lady In The Van meets Thelma & Louise as one of Britain’s best and most underrated filmmakers, Carol Morley (Dreams Of A Life, The Falling), trains her lens on Audrey Amiss, an artist who was unappreciated in her lifetime. It’s a fun, fictionalised tale which sees the Sunderland-born Amiss take a road trip with a beleaguered mental-health professional on a pie-in-the-sky quest for artistic recognition; the film’s title comes from Audrey’s own description of her occupation as printed in her passport.

‘I used to be in the kitchen-sink school of realism, but now I’m avant-garde and misunderstood,’ Amiss (Monica Dolan) informs psychiatric nurse Sandra (Kelly Macdonald), who has been checking in on her for years and seems to be reaching the end of her tether. The two share a final hurrah when Audrey cons Sandra into driving her from London to Sunderland.

This is assuredly entertaining stuff as Amiss disrupts a yoga class, kicks off in a café, crashes a historical re-enactment, terrorises a hitchhiker, and misrecognises people constantly. Morley notes the artist’s ability to find beauty in everything, showing her being transfixed by a fake bloom and hotel art, and poetically describing a crisp. The versatile Dolan attacks this rare lead role with vigour, relishing the chance to get stuck into a proper ‘character’, and she’s well matched by Macdonald, a seasoned voice of reason.

Morley’s script beautifully balances the light and dark. There’s an irreverence to much of the film’s approach, in keeping with similar odd-couple movies. But there’s no shortage of poignancy, with the filmmaker refusing to shy away from Amiss’ challenges and trauma, and keeping things visually lively by punctuating proceedings with her powerful art. It’s fittingly chaotic and very funny, yet feels genuinely celebratory too. 

Typing Artist Pirate King is in cinemas from Friday 27 October.