SXSW ’24: Crafty ‘SEW TORN’ A Choice Midnighter

Sew Torn, Freddy Macdonald’s crafty seamstress thriller told in three vignettes, calls to mind the Choose Your Own Adventure books popularized before the internet exploded. Invariably, readers would determine which path their protagonist should take, with most roads leading to a less-than-fortunate ending. In Sew Torn, a pivotal decision takes shape when Barbara Duggen (Eve Connolly) stumbles upon a drug deal gone wrong: a suitcase of money and two barely living motorcyclists crashed on an otherwise idyllic stretch of Swiss motorway.

Before her are three options: commit the perfect crime, call the police, or flee the scene. Writer-director Macdonald, in an extremely clever and scrappy film that stars his own craft as much as it does any actor, explores the fallout of all three scenarios, each arriving at their own distinct less-than-fortunate ending, as foretold in Sew Torn’s opening moments.

After the death of her mother, Barbara is utterly alone: a seamstress quickly coming undone. Her familial sewing business, a combination of mobile services and creepy talking needlework portraits, is on the brink of collapse. With an inherited client list that’s dwindled down to but a few impatient locals, Barbara feels the pressure to do something bold to upend her small town life. Coming across the scene of a deal gone wrong, opportunity strikes and Barbara’s calculus brings her into three different realities. Are the three unfolding scenarios mere fantasies? Perhaps, but they are electrifying to watch unfold nonetheless.

Though Connolly is an able lead, Macdonald proves to be the real star here. His ingenuity to weave together a suspenseful scene with nothing but a needle and thread hinges on the sublime. He crafts many an exciting sequence, leaning into the crafty anticipation and subsequent build-up and payoff to make for something uniquely entertaining. While the cat and mouse antics remain amusing throughout, the work put into character development can be a bit threadbare, though performances from Calum Worthy and John Lynch help to elevate the at-times underwritten dialogue.

As an expansion of his short of the same name, Sew Torn does seem to quite know what to do with its feature length runtime other than bulk up with more (compelling) shorts but even as a fantastical anthology of sorts, Macdonald’s Rube Goldberg-like creation is too fun to ignore. Sure the setup is so familiar that it borders on cliché but Sew Torn moves so quickly and confidently that to be left trying to untangle any deeper meaning is to miss the sheer exhilaration of its narrative tempest.

CONCLUSION: A crafty midnight movie about the choices we make inevitably leading to doom, ‘Sew Torn’ is a ripping calling card for director Freddy Macdonald and his future storytelling prowess.