Sew Torn
March 24th, 2024
MOVIE: SEW TORN
STARRING: EVE CONNOLLY, CAROLINE GOODALL, CALUM WORTHY, JOHN LYNCH
DIRECTED BY: FREDDY MACDONALD
AMovieGuy.com’s RATING: 4 STARS (Out of 4)
RATED: R
RUN TIME: 100 MINUTES
When you see Sew Torn, the words that come to mind are creative, thrilling, and wildly inventive. No matter how in tune someone is with the pulse of modern cinema, a film like Sew Torn can slip through the cracks—but discovering this hidden gem at the 2024 SXSW Film Festival is an experience that lingers. At just 21 years old, director Freddy Macdonald co-wrote and directed this strikingly original thriller, signaling the arrival of a bold new voice in filmmaking.
Set in the Swiss Alps, the story follows Barbara, a young woman who runs the sewing shop left behind by her late mother. Her life takes a dramatic turn when she stumbles upon the aftermath of a drug deal gone bad: a motorcycle in a ditch, a suitcase full of cash, two unconscious men, and cocaine scattered on the road. Faced with a split-second decision—help or walk away—Barbara’s choices begin to unravel a tense, layered story where each path could change everything.
Eve Connolly delivers a compelling performance as Barbara, introduced in a whimsical opening shot as she drives a tiny Fiat adorned with an oversized spindle and needle. She returns to her shop to fix a wedding dress for Grace (Caroline Goodall), a demanding bride on her third marriage, but fate has other plans. From there, the film branches out into multiple narrative threads, each exploring a different version of Barbara’s fate, pulling the viewer deeper into its noir fabric.
What sets Sew Torn apart isn’t just its clever premise, but the exhilarating execution. The ingenuity of Barbara’s contraptions—fashioned from nothing more than thread and household tools—is both absurd and brilliant. In one sequence, she uses a thread to retrieve a gun, in another, she MacGyvers a string-blown dart to steal keys from a hook. These inventive, Rube Goldberg-style setups are executed with a level of creativity rarely seen in modern thrillers.
Co-written with his father, Fred Macdonald, Freddy’s screenplay employs a Rashomon-style structure that plays with perspective and outcome, enhancing the film’s tension and unpredictability. The recurring characters—including a father-son gangster duo played by Calum Worthy and John Lynch—reappear in various scenarios, from a tense jailhouse encounter to an awkwardly suspenseful dinner, echoing the unease and unpredictability of films like The Last Stop in Yuma County.
Sew Torn is nothing short of a modern marvel. Each segment of Barbara’s journey is a self-contained thriller, blending Coen brothers-style noir with emotional depth and high-concept ingenuity. It’s a meditation on grief, agency, and how the smallest choices can alter the course of our lives. With its inventive storytelling, standout performance, and thrilling direction, Sew Torn is a discovery audiences won’t soon forget. Freddy Macdonald has not only made an impressive debut—he’s sewn together a film destined to stand out in the fabric of contemporary cinema.
4 STARS
SEW TORN IS PLAYING IN SELECT THEATERS FRIDAY, MAY 9TH, 2025.
Written by: Leo Brady
