You’ve likely seen plenty of crime films, but have you ever seen one starring a seamstress? This is but one of many unique concepts that make up the artistic melting pot of Sew Torn, Freddy Macdonald’s debut feature and an undersung gem of 2024’s SXSW Film & TV Festival. Having premiered as part of the always-memorable “Visions” section, Sew Torn follows a young woman (Eve Connolly) who copes with her mother’s passing by maintaining her failing sewing business. When she drives upon a crime scene involving two gunmen and a mysterious suitcase, she is beset by three options: take the money and run, call the authorities, or simply drive away. Sew Torn weighs each option across three acts in a “choose your own adventure” twist on the classic fish-out-of-water crime caper; though the story goes in three unique directions, each choice leaves our heroine flirting with disaster.
Sew Torn began as an short film that had the distinct honor of being screened theatrically ahead of Ready or Not after being acquired by Searchlight Pictures. The original short, which featured a dazzlingly practical stunt achieved with real thread, was a litmus test for the film’s main attraction and proved to be a captivating nugget of story. It’s no surprise, then, that Macdonald’s follow-up bumps the clever conceit up several notches. Sew Torn features several fully practical, Rube Goldberg-esque thread contraptions that allow its protagonist to get out of the stickiest of situations, including one that transforms paper and thread into a blow dart. This imaginative element takes Macdonald’s darkly funny neo-noir and lifts it with an ephemeral layer of whimsy that makes Sew Torn impossible to nail down in the best way. Its Coen brothers influence is undeniable (Joel Coen himself even saw the short and told Macdonald to make it a feature), but its minimal dialogue and multi-colored fabric give it a step up from the shoulders on which it stands.
GVN recently spoke to director Freddy Macdonald and star Eve Connolly on getting notes from Joel Coen, the pros and cons of working with countless rolls of thread, and producing a first-of-its-kind practical explosion in the Swiss Alps. Here is our conversation, edited for length and clarity.
We need to start with the inception of this idea. The thread element is truly something I have never seen before but the branching paths element is also very unique. Freddy, where did these ideas come from?
Freddy Macdonald: The feature is based on a short of the same name, which was my college application film. Every film school has a different prompt that they want, but I knew I wanted to go to the American Film Institute because they’re the best. Their prompt was to tell a story about a change of heart. Very early on I decided to tell a story about making a big decision and the conflict that comes with that. We shot the short film and blasted it out to the world. I was crossing my fingers that I would get in somewhere and it was this crazy whirlwind where it just happened to land in the hands of Joel Coen, who’s my biggest hero. The short is based on No Country for Old Men and I was terrified because he wanted to meet for coffee. I was like, “Oh my god, he’s going to think we ripped off No Country!” But he was really kind and he said, “You should turn this into a feature but do it independently. Do the Blood Simple method.” It then became this long journey of figuring out what a feature looks like. We did 20 drafts of a linear version first but it wasn’t working. Then, we were like, “What is the short film really about?” It’s about this big decision, the three choices that she could make to commit the perfect crime, to call the police, or to drive away. We really were excited about exploring each individual idea.
Off the record, Freddy was telling me about you, Eve, apparently had no experience with sewing thread before signing on. It had to be something else, then, that grabbed you about this character. What attracts you when you read a script like this and what was it like working with Freddy to further mold the character?
Eve Connolly: As you were saying, the film is so unique. I hadn’t read anything like it. There’s just so much for me to do. Barbara goes through so many different variations and there’s so much action involved but also comedy and heart. It was about her mother and everything she does is driven by that love and, to me, that’s the main reason to do anything in life. That can justify any decision, to just be like “It’s for your mom.” That made it really easy to connect to the story. Seeing the short––the short is incredible. Again, it’s like nothing I’d ever seen before and nothing I had ever done before, which was really something I wanted to do. I often love characters who are the leader in something but don’t talk that much. Sometimes I wish people would talk less because it can take away [from the story]. I remember hearing that for Drive they took out half the dialogue. I think much of the time so much can be said with a look. I loved that element of it. Then, working with Freddy, it’s shocking. He’s so young but he knows exactly what he wants. He’s so specific but at the same time completely collaborative and gives you the room to try different things. You always feel like you know what the end goal is. Also, he’s just so nice. [Freddy laughs] You are! Honestly, he is.
You get that vibe immediately when speaking with him.
Connolly: Yes, exactly.
Macdonald: Aw, you guys.
Connolly: He’s nice no matter how stressful things get. There was one day where the weather was against us. I swear he was smiling the entire time. I don’t know how. He’d be editing when he went home. I think you barely slept the whole time. [His kindness] came through to everyone. The crew all became such a family. That was the energy on set every single day.
Let’s go deeper into the thread. While it’s probably really fun to work with it, I’m sure it also comes with a lot of challenges. Talk to me about the pros and cons of working with something so tactile as the conceit for a film.
Macdonald: From the short, we immediately loved the juxtaposition of the thread and the guns. Thread is seen as this very delicate thing, almost this household object that you don’t ever think about. We were trying to think of what would be the most interesting ways to use that thread, almost like Barbara’s superpower throughout the film. Once we started going there, my dad [Fred Macdonald, producer and co-writer] and I spent hours in our backyard with thread and cardboard guns testing these rigs so that they would work practically. On set, we did them practically as well, and that was very fun to play with, but it was a nightmare as well. My dad and I were the only ones who knew how these thread contraptions worked. We would make these videos trying to explain it to Eve and the crew. She nailed it every single time. Her hands were so confident.
Connolly: You’re kind to say that. They sent me those videos a couple weeks before [shooting]. I was watching those videos for ages and being like, “Oh my god, I need to make sure I can do this correctly.” That was a fear of mine, that I would be awkward with the thread, not because it’s so nimble but because every tiny detail was so worked out to make it possible. I think that naturally I’m not a very nimble person and, again, I couldn’t sew before we did this. So, I had my doubts. I just think it was all so specific and I knew every time it’d be like, “You’re doing this exact movement.” It just worked, somehow.
Macdonald: She’s being very kind though. Towards the end of the film, I would tell her, “Okay, you’ve got to make this lasso and you’ve got to loop it around a gun,” or whatever,” and I was trying to show her how to do it. It took me like 10 minutes just to try and show her how to do it and she was like, “Okay!” and would do it in one take.
Connolly: That was a pride moment, yeah.
Macdonald: She’s just naturally good. She’s being too humble.
Connolly: Thank you.
This movie feels like a family film. It’s a family production, as your father made the film with you. The ensemble cast feels like a family in the sense that everyone knows each other in this small town. Were you looking to tell a local story?
Macdonald: Yeah. I’m part Swiss, which is why we shot it in the small town in the Alps. When we shot the short on that road, we knew it was cinematic and great, but we hadn’t explored the town that’s a few feet down the road. When we knew we were going to do the feature, we went into that town and started meeting the people there. I love that you’re using the word “family” because the town was like a family that let us into their homes. Literally, people were like, “I want you to shoot in my living room.”
Revel in that now because you’re never going to hear that on any other shoot. [all laugh]
Macdonald: Exactly. I grew up in LA and I was like, “This would never happen in LA.” There’s a scene that involves a big explosion, the first explosion of its kind in Switzerland.
Wow!
Macdonald: All we had to do was ask the store owner, who’s this old Swiss guy, “Hey, we want to do this explosion practically. There’s going to be some glass but we’ll replace everything.” He was like, “Oh, that’s fine.” We were like, “It’s going to be real.” He couldn’t have cared less. It was really nice.
Eve, talk to me about your experience working with this ensemble to cultivate a small town feeling.
Connolly: It was interesting because I was [on the shoot] the whole time but the others would come and go. Calum [Worthy, co-star] was there for probably the longest amount of time, so I got to spend a lot of time with him and K [Callan, co-star]. I can’t say it enough, everybody was just so lovely. John [Lynch, co-star] is Irish, we had quite similar sensibilities, so it was really easy to get on with him. Everybody was so excited about the film as well. That was such a big part of it. They loved the script and everyone really wanted to be there and wanted to see how things with the thread were going to be done. There was such a camaraderie in that. Then, as soon as I met everyone, they were so lovely that it was easy. For a lot of them, I had watched them. Like [with co-star Caroline Goodall and] Princess Diaries. [all laugh] We all grew up on Princess Diaries! It’s insane. You know what I mean? It was really easy to want to spend time with those people. They’re all just lovely.
We need to talk about the score, which is incredible. It sounds like there are sewing machine sounds incorporated into the score?
Macdonald: Yes!
Talk to me about crafting the score and how you even turn a sewing machine into a percussive instrument. [laughs]
Macdonald: I’m so glad you love the score because it’s one of my favorite parts of the movie. Jacob Tardien is the composer. I met him because he reached out to me on Vimeo after seeing the short and said, “Hey, we should talk.” I listened to some of his stuff and I thought he was super talented. I could tell immediately that he was not afraid to go there in terms of using unorthodox instruments. We immediately hit it off and did a short film together. Then, I had this feature, and my dad and I knew early on that we wanted the score to feel as practical as all the threadwork did and to incorporate the sewing machines and thread sounds and have that very unique tone and hands-on feel to it. Jacob took that and ran with it. He literally used sewing machines and thread throughout the whole score. [To Eve] You can speak to this, too. Jacob did a lot of the score before we were even on set. He was there, too.
Amazing.
Macdonald: I was like, “I want you to be able to be with the actors and be able to write music there.” Everyone was sent the main theme.
Connolly: You sent it to me the week before I flew out and I just thought it was incredible. It made me cry. [laughs] The way it builds…I just thought it was so beautiful. It really helps to hear that when you’re going in because it does do so much for tone, having that emotion in it but also a little bit of humor as well. It captures it all in that sound. Hearing that beforehand just clarified the tone you wanted to strike when we were filming.
Macdonald: He used a musical saw for all those waaa noises.
Connolly: Oh my god, it’s so good.
Did he literally record a sewing machine?
Macdonald: Yeah. He had thread in his hands always. Like you.
Connolly: [laughing] Me and him.
Oh, he’s plucking the thread.
Macdonald: Yeah, it’s crazy.
It’s probably the cheapest score he’s ever produced. [all laugh]
Macdonald: Exactly. I think it’s brilliant.
Sew Torn held its World Premiere as part of the Visions section of the 2024 SXSW Film & TV Festival. It is currently seeking distribution.
Larry Fried is a filmmaker, writer, and podcaster based in New Jersey. He is the host and creator of the podcast “My Favorite Movie is…,” a podcast dedicated to helping filmmakers make somebody’s next favorite movie. He is also the Visual Content Manager for Special Olympics New Jersey, an organization dedicated to competition and training opportunities for athletes with intellectual disabilities across the Garden State.
