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Swoon

Play trailer Poster for Swoon 1992 1h 32m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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75% Tomatometer 12 Reviews 66% 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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Swoon

Critics Reviews

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Richard Brody The New Yorker Jul 12, 2021
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. Go to Full Review Anthony Lane Independent (UK) Jan 4, 2018
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. Go to Full Review Sheila Johnston Independent (UK) Nov 13, 2017
An impressive debut feature from the young, independent American film-maker Tom Kalin. Go to Full Review Joe Lipsett Murder Made Fiction Podcast - Bloody Disgusting Jun 12, 2026
3.5/5
Despite a few issues with the pacing and editing of the first half, this sumptuous black and white New Queer Wave film leans heavily into the romance between Leopold and Loeb Go to Full Review Rob Gonsalves Rob's Movie Vault Apr 9, 2007
A
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. Go to Full Review Emanuel Levy EmanuelLevy.Com Dec 1, 2006
B+
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. Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Alec B @Alec97 Feb 21, 2024 Despite the arthouse trappings of the filmmaking, it is still engaging as it sees Leopold and Loeb honestly. See more Aug 13, 2022 Despite the arthouse trappings of the filmmaking, it is still engaging as it sees Leopold and Loeb honestly. See more Jul 23, 2017 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. See more May 13, 2012 Moody, dispassionate take on the savagery of crime that neither illuminates nor captivates. See more Feb 14, 2012 Moody, dispassionate take on the savagery of crime that neither illuminates nor captivates. See more Jul 26, 2010 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. See more Read all reviews
Swoon

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Cast & Crew

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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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Swoon

Swoon (1992) Swoon (1992) View more photos

Movie Info

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