'Sew Torn' review: 'Pushing Daisies' meets 'Run Lola Run'
Cozy crimeis a subgenre in which intriguing tales of murder boast a jaunty aesthetic that's irreverently twee. Think Only Murders in the Building,with its foolhardy amateur sleuths alternately investigating homicide and bickering over their podcast's production. Think Pushing Daisies, a candy-colored mystery series about a lovelorn pie-maker who can literally raise the dead to solve their murders. Think Sew Torn.
Written and directed by Freddy Macdonald, this inventive indie crime comedy begins with a drug deal gone violently wrong, before stitching together a multi-thread tale of an unlikely criminal mastermind: a mild-mannered mobile seamstress played by Eve Connolly (Vikings).
What's Sew Torn about?
Sew Tornis set in a picturesque village high in the mountains, where a pleasant business district boasts quaint shops. One such shop is owned by seamstress Barbara Duggen (Connolly), who offers custom embroideries alongside alterations. Further out, vibrant green pastures dotted with cows stretch to a mighty concrete bridge overlooking a misty valley, reaching even farther to stately homes, where a wealthy bride-to-be (a hilariously harsh Caroline Goodall) is in a snit over a fallen button.
In an opening in which Barbara barely speaks, Macdonald swiftly sets up how this young woman has shrunken in the shadow of her late mother, the original mobile seamstress. Trapped by her dedication to carry on her mother's work even as the family business fails, Barbara's fingers twitch at rebellion as she stitches. Her urge for self-sabotage might be ruinous, but at least it could bring something new. By flicking a button into a floor vent, she must flee the growling bride to get another. Barbara's lovely commute back to her village is interrupted when she comes across a pair of bumbling gangsters on a blood-spattered, remote road.
A clever lass, Barbara takes one quick look at the scene and assesses from the felled motorcycles, hobbled goons, and scattered bags of white powder that the briefcase skittered down the road is full of cash. "A perfect crime," she says to herself, seeing a solution to her financial woes. She doesn't just pick up the money and run, though. Instead, Barbara uses her handy seamstress kit and its brightly colored threads to create a Rube Goldberg machine that should neatly dispose of the messier bits of this could-be heist. Despite her quick thinking, things don't exactly go to plan.
Sew Torn offers a collection of possibilities and quirky characters.
In 1998, writer/director Tom Tykwer awed critics with his high-energy crime thriller Run Lola Run, which featured a flame-haired Franka Potente chasing down several different solutions to save her scheming boyfriend from a deadly fate. Sew Torn offers Barbara a similar bargain. When her perfect crime proves deeply flawed (and fatal), rather than leaving her bleeding out in a cornfield, Macdonald thrusts her back onto that road, staring down the coveted briefcase once more.
Armed with some hard-won knowledge from her previous encounter with the briefcase, Barbara tries a new plan; she calls the cops. Well, actually, this village is so small that she calls thecop, an elderly woman who is not only the sheriff but also the local notary and the justice of the peace. Far from a hard-ass, K Callan (Poker Face, Knives Out) brings the energy of Coen brothers comedy, as her character can suss out bullshit with ease yet exudes patience and empathy. She'll collar all three of these crooks with the sternness of a school marm teaching a lesson.
Here and throughout the other threads, Barbara's choices knit in a reluctant gangster (Calum Worthy), a frantic thug (Thomas Douglas), a chatty embroidery enthusiast (Ron Cook), and a merciless kingpin (John Lynch). Each gets their moment to shine via Sew Torn's curious narrative structure. Some imbrue menace, while others give off agony, and still others a boisterous warmth. Yet all would be for naught if Connolly weren't crushing the lead role.
Eve Connolly proves she's a captivating leading lady in Sew Torn.
While this crime comedy can get quite silly with its violent slapstick, thread-centric machinations, and kooky criminals, Barbara is the straight man surrounded by stooges. Her expression is often drawn, her eyes spiked with calculation. While other characters bloviate about their lives, Barbara is a much more internal character, her quietness making her seem all the more an outsider in her hometown. But Connolly makes sure Barbara never feels flat or passive. Voiceovers framing the beginning and the end give audiences a peek into Barbara's thinking, but mostly we rely on Connolly's sharp facial expression and precise physicality for insight.
Related Stories
- Everything we know about 'Only Murders in the Building' Season 4
- 25 best crime shows on Netflix
- 'Problemista' review: This funky New York fairytale is an instant comedy classic
- 10 SXSW films you'll want to know about before the fest begins
- 20 best comedies streaming on Netflix right now
All of this interiority makes a sharp contrast in the third thread of the film all the more exciting. In this sequence, Barbara's only path to survival is to throw herself into a dance number. It is explosive and inexplicable. Her limbs fling about madly while her face is sharply focused. This is not a celebration; it is a scheme tied to strings. And of all the incredible things she pulls off with thread, it's the most climactic and wickedly fun.
Macdonald enhances the fantastical possibilities of this crime-ridden tale with color, using vivid hues but a medium contrast. There's grays within these tones, perhaps reflecting Barbara's boredom with these surroundings despite their beauty. Yet there's no ignoring the boldness of things like the dazzling blue of her eyes, the harsh red of blood, and the bright yellow thread wrapped around the giant bobbin at the back of her teal Volkswagen bug (a cutesy signifier of her trade). Notably, each color is reflected in literal threads that prove crucial to Barbara's plans. Each burst of color speaks to Barbara's possibilities for more than mending. She can remake the world around her or tear it to shreds. But what to do with that knowledge?
Thanks to a crackling cast, a clever color scheme, and a plotline that's uniquely knotty, Macdonald makes Sew Torn a sensational experience. It has the cheeky fun of a top-notch crime comedy without losing the edge of life-or-death stakes. With a series of possibilities being unspooled, the movie is delightfully unpredictable. Its leading lady lands each beat, be it one of harrumphing frustration, a outrageous dance, or a dangerous hope. And in the end, it leaves its audience dizzy but satisfied by its wild spins.
Sew Torn was reviewed out of its World Premiere at SXSW 2024.
TopicsFilmSXSW
-
采购商+48,英德红茶在泉城济南蹭蹭涨粉7.58亿元市工业园区工业总产值增长162%鱼头一摆,好运常来!广东上线数百款年鱼产品S. Korea imposes sanctions on 11 vessels over N. Korea's illegal ship雅安市举办首届“文轩教育”校园足球精英夏令营Oppo's 10x optical zoom technology is coming to a phone in Q2 2019攀枝花地震致成昆铁路客运受影响Think you can tell between a real and computerFrom Prairie Grasslands to ManTrump's climate expert is wrong: The world's plants don't need more CO2
下一篇:Swifties for Kamala raises over $100,000 in donations for Harris campaign
- ·LG Display starts production of advanced OLED displays for gaming
- ·US Secretary of State welcomed to New Zealand with 'a display of middle fingers'
- ·Banksy election stunt backfires in a big way
- ·Trump still hiring cheap foreign workers at Mar
- ·Carbon neutrality law violates basic rights: Constitutional Court
- ·彩色面条、蜜香野菊……连南这些“隐形特产”让人欲罢不能
- ·“六大行动”推进绿美广东生态建设
- ·North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory admits defeat.
- ·The Best AMD Ryzen Gaming Laptops (So Far)
- ·Age just a number for Nadal, Federer and Djokovic
- ·US voices concerns over NK support for Russia prolonging war in Ukraine
- ·How Newark Mayor Ras Baraka plans to keep Newark net neutral
- ·US Open 2024 livestream: How to watch US Open tennis for free
- ·N. Korean refugee
- ·Smartphones will get a lot more interesting next week
- ·Trump’s handling of the Taiwan call backlash was worse than the call itself.
- ·9 Planetariums to Get Lost in the Cosmos
- ·Pogba keen on playing for Real Madrid one day
- ·N. Korean vice FM meets Chinese, Cuban officials at int'l forums in Uganda
- ·Fowler to coach Indian Super League team
- ·Apple iPod: The First 10 Years of the Ubiquitous Media Player
- ·Twitter: Donald Trump's nuclear button tweets don't violate the rules
- ·Apple issues apology for slowing old iPhones down
- ·Donald Trump using scotch tape on his tie is not a metaphor or is it.
- ·特写|在农事定向大赛遇见和美乡村
- ·Zodiac meme Instagram will align the stars to make you feel seen
- ·雨城区疾控中心提示:科学补碘 防治碘缺乏病
- ·Michael Cohen's evidence against Trump is getting compared to those long
- ·Giggs boosts chances of becoming Man United manager, says Hughes
- ·Google's new educational program will teach kids to fight hackers
- ·How to watch 'Kinds of Kindness': When is it streaming?
- ·How to speed up Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox using OneTab
- ·今日起可到宝兴东拉山等地避暑了
- ·Zodiac meme Instagram will align the stars to make you feel seen
- ·Cicadas love to land on people. Experts explain why.
- ·Tesla comes out on top in 2017 'Consumer Reports' satisfaction survey