‘Sew Torn’ Review: Freddy Macdonald’s Strange, Striking Neo-Noir Is A Great Discovery – SXSW
deadline.com“Choices, choices…,” says the narrator, a young seamstress, in this strange and striking debut from Freddy Macdonald. A neo-noir in the early Coens tradition, Sew Torn also features a bold tri-part structure in which the heroine, Barbara (Eve Connolly) — like Lola before her in Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run — gets three standalone chances to pursue a different destiny after stumbling on the bloody aftermath of a drug deal gone wrong on a quiet country road.
It begins with image of a reel of red cotton, a briefcase and a dead body. This is Barbara, who wonders what we’ll make of her story (“Perhaps you’d relate to my isolation, my need.
Or perhaps you’d see my lack of morality”). Macdonald’s film then loops back to explain who Barbara got here, a tale of chance and coincidence that reshuffles its characters in a way that always surprises, ultimately creating a tight, genuine ensemble out of its seemingly random supporting cast.
When we meet her, Barbara is still recovering from the death of her mother, who has left her in charge of the family business, a small-town haberdashery called Duggan’s.
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