I watched every minute of Louise Mason’s Sewing A Nightmare. I promise you that. All 52 minutes. And I’m glad I did. Because it eventually revealed itself to be a very charming, often funny film with lots of great angles and off-kilter editing choices. But I would not blame anyone who turned off the movie in the monotonous opening twenty minutes which have some seeming issues with sound quality.
I’m not sure if the sound quality as a whole is a choice. The ceaseless background noise grew on me eventually like the rest of the film did though, sometimes providing a hypnotic quality that matched some bold editing choices. Those choices were made by Louise Mason who wears many hats in this production: director, cinematographer, costume designer, editor, and lead actor (in the role of Tiffany). Tiffany is a tailor sewing some clothing for much of the film. Alone in her room for the first twenty minutes, she speaks to her boss on the phone while working and gets mysterious, unnerving calls from an unknown person.
The opening is supposed to create a sense of foreboding and I’m not sure how successful it is in doing that. There was maybe more suspense as an audience member wondering if the entire 52 minute runtime would be just one person sitting alone in their room at a sewing machine occasionally taking calls on their earbuds. So starved for meaning in this section you might start to fixate on the apple sitting next to her, and that might be by design. She eats the apple. Is Tiffany tempted here like Eve? Does she make clothing to atone for our original sin, our sudden knowledge that we are naked?
Tiffany will finally leave her room for the outer world, partially convinced that outside there will be “A lot of great fruit. A lot of great apples.” The film picks up a lot of energy here.
Tiffany says “I’ve got to go out to see some friends to clear my mind” before immediately cutting to a bunch of pigeons, one of many very entertaining edits. We get the welcome addition of a second character, Tiffany’s friend Kim (played by OG Marcontell).
Some information gets added (a missing fiance, a shitty professor), but the rapport between Tiffany and Kim is much more interesting. They support each other emotionally while simultaneously feeding into each others’ neuroses like when Kim tells Tiffany: “Let me let you in on a little secret. It takes about 45 minutes for a whole house to light on fire and burn down.” Their section together is sandwiched between more atmospheric type stuff. I would have enjoyed a horror film more centered on their relationship, with the tension building distributed throughout in shorter segments.
I haven’t seen Skinamarink, but I have heard about it a little bit. It’s possible there’s something I’m not getting with the atmospheric sections, but I think the film would benefit from cutting those sections way down and giving us more of Tiffany and Kim together.
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