Swoon

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Swoon

1992

1h 32m

Drama

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Popcornmeter

73%

Tomatometer

11 Reviews

65%

Popcornmeter

1,000+ Ratings

In a film based on actual events, teenagers Nathan Leopold Jr. (Craig Chester) and Richard Loeb (Daniel Schlachet) share a dangerous sexual bond and an amoral outlook on life. They spend afternoons breaking into storefronts and engaging in petty crimes, until the calculating Nathan ups the ante by kidnapping, and murdering, a young boy. When the body is found, all evidence leads to Nathan and Richard, whose strange relationship makes the case one of the most talked-about trials of the 1920s.

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Richard Brody

The New Yorker

Kalin... infuses the story with high visual style; his spare graphic framings and joltingly oblique angles both embody the past in heightened detail and conjure the killers' recklessly aestheticizing mind-set.

Jul 12, 2021

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Anthony Lane

Independent (UK)

Swoon is too pleased with its own amoral pose; but Kalin has the same alarming assurance as his heroes, whose story has, if anything, grown in its power to shock.

Jan 4, 2018

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Sheila Johnston

Independent (UK)

An impressive debut feature from the young, independent American film-maker Tom Kalin.

Nov 13, 2017

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Rob Gonsalves

Rob's Movie Vault

An exotic mood piece, based on the infamous Leopold-Loeb case, that probably didn't win director Tom Kalin many friends in the gay community.

Rated: A

Apr 9, 2007

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Emanuel Levy

EmanuelLevy.Com

As a dark, moody and stylized (the film is shot in b/w) poem of love and madness Swoon is effective, but as social polemic on contemporary gay issues, it's strained; even so, it's a striking feature debut.

Rated: B+

Dec 1, 2006

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Linda Cook

Quad City Times (Davenport, IA)

Rated: 5/5

Aug 4, 2004

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Alec B

Despite the arthouse trappings of the filmmaking, it is still engaging as it sees Leopold and Loeb honestly.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/21/24

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Audience Member

Despite the arthouse trappings of the filmmaking, it is still engaging as it sees Leopold and Loeb honestly.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Couldn't make it past 4 minutes. Awful. Seems like a parody of an art film. You want to watch a movie about the Leopold and Loeb case watch Rope or Compulsion. Wish I could get my $3 back from Amazon.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/13/23

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Audience Member

Moody, dispassionate take on the savagery of crime that neither illuminates nor captivates.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

01/16/23

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Audience Member

Moody, dispassionate take on the savagery of crime that neither illuminates nor captivates.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

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Audience Member

The case has been made into two previous movies - Alfred Hitchcock's "Rope" (1948) and Richard Fleisher's "Compulsion" (1959), but both to one degree or another played down the topic of homosexuality. This new version by writer-director Tom Kalin plays it up, sometimes in ways that are fairly disturbing, as when he seems to linger on the ways the dominant Loeb was able to control the more submissive Leopold by using sex as a weapon.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

01/25/23

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Tom Kalin

Director

Daniel Schlachet

Richard Loeb

Craig Chester

Nathan Leopold Jr.

Ron Vawter

State's Attorney Crowe

Michael Kirby

Detective Savage

Michael Stumm

Doctor Bowman

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Synopsis

In a film based on actual events, teenagers Nathan Leopold Jr. (Craig Chester) and Richard Loeb (Daniel Schlachet) share a dangerous sexual bond and an amoral outlook on life. They spend afternoons breaking into storefronts and engaging in petty crimes, until the calculating Nathan ups the ante by kidnapping, and murdering, a young boy. When the body is found, all evidence leads to Nathan and Richard, whose strange relationship makes the case one of the most talked-about trials of the 1920s.

Director: Tom Kalin
Production Co: American Playhouse, Killer Films
Genre: Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Oct 4, 2012
Box Office (Gross USA): $340.1K
Runtime: 1h 32m

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