The phrase, “a change of heart,” would forever alter the course of Freddy Macdonald’s life.
Last month, the 23-year-old wunderkind’s feature directorial debut, Sew Torn, premiered at South by Southwest to glowing reviews, capping an extraordinary five-plus years for the young filmmaker. As a high school senior, Macdonald — whose American family had relocated to Switzerland a handful of years earlier — started applying to film schools, and he decided to take a lofty crack at the American Film Institute’s (AFI) graduate program. As part of the application process, Macdonald had to make a short film that told a story involving the aforementioned idiom, “a change of heart,” and so he started trading ideas with his father, Fred Macdonald.
The father-son duo soon found themselves in the oeuvre of the Coen brothers, specifically No Country for Old Men. The inciting incident of the Coens’ best picturing-winning neo-Western involves Josh Brolin...
Last month, the 23-year-old wunderkind’s feature directorial debut, Sew Torn, premiered at South by Southwest to glowing reviews, capping an extraordinary five-plus years for the young filmmaker. As a high school senior, Macdonald — whose American family had relocated to Switzerland a handful of years earlier — started applying to film schools, and he decided to take a lofty crack at the American Film Institute’s (AFI) graduate program. As part of the application process, Macdonald had to make a short film that told a story involving the aforementioned idiom, “a change of heart,” and so he started trading ideas with his father, Fred Macdonald.
The father-son duo soon found themselves in the oeuvre of the Coen brothers, specifically No Country for Old Men. The inciting incident of the Coens’ best picturing-winning neo-Western involves Josh Brolin...
- 4/13/2024
- by Brian Davids
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
“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. 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,...
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. 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,...
- 3/13/2024
- by Damon Wise
- Deadline Film + TV
A struggling seamstress plays a dangerous real life choose-your-own-adventure game in Freddy Macdonald’s debut feature, the whimsical comedic thriller Sew Torn. Barbara Duggen’s (Eve Connolly) sewing shop in an idyllic hamlet in the picturesque Swiss Alps is on the rocks. Having recently lost her mother, the business is on it’s way out with Barbara struggling to make ends meet by operating mostly as an emergency mobile seamstress. When the high maintenance client at her latest gig pops a button, Barbara must rush back to her shop to replace it, but what she encounters on the way could potentially change her life, but only if she plays it just right. While rushing back through mostly empty mountain roads, she comes across a drug deal gone bad....
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 3/13/2024
- Screen Anarchy
Freddy Macdonald’s Sew Torn is a high-stakes crime thriller for everyone that grew up obsessed with choose-your-own-adventure novels. Working through three wildly different timelines, the story follows a mobile seamstress presented with a (truly) life-changing opportunity. After stumbling across a drug deal gone wrong, Barbara (Eve Connolly) is faced with a choice: commit the perfect crime, call the police, or simply drive away. Which would you choose?
Luckily, you’re not left with any lingering questions about what would have happened in either of the three scenarios, because you’re gifted the chance to witness them all! Following the threads of each decision, Sew Torn is divided into nice clean chapters that make for a series of very unfortunate events. In fact, the film opens on the aftermath of each possible timeline, and none look especially promising. It seems each choice leads to ruin but it isn’t the destination that counts,...
Luckily, you’re not left with any lingering questions about what would have happened in either of the three scenarios, because you’re gifted the chance to witness them all! Following the threads of each decision, Sew Torn is divided into nice clean chapters that make for a series of very unfortunate events. In fact, the film opens on the aftermath of each possible timeline, and none look especially promising. It seems each choice leads to ruin but it isn’t the destination that counts,...
- 3/11/2024
- by Jonathan Dehaan
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