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The Swerve

Play trailer 1:37 Poster for The Swerve 2018 1h 35m Drama Play Trailer Watchlist
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96% Tomatometer 49 Reviews 57% Popcornmeter 50+ Ratings
A woman with a seemingly perfect life battles insomnia.
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The Swerve

The Swerve

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Critics Consensus

Bound together by Azura Skye's riveting work in the central role, The Swerve paints a harrowing portrait of a life unmoored.

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Critics Reviews

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Randy Myers San Jose Mercury News 10/29/2020
3.5/4
It's a forceful debut from Kapsalis, but, wow, it is harrowing. Go to Full Review
Scott Marks San Diego Reader 10/27/2020
3/5
A relentlessly unshakable albeit unpleasant ride, particularly when filmmaker Dean Kapsalis slaloms around audience expectation, something he skillfully accomplishes for the first two-thirds of the picture. Go to Full Review
Richard Whittaker Austin Chronicle 10/02/2020
3.5/5
The power of The Swerve is that it doesn't paint a full-blown breakdown - in this case, one that results in an unbearable tragedy - as easily traced back to one moment. Go to Full Review
Cody Dericks Next Best Picture 07/06/2022
7/10
Aided by an incredibly harrowing lead performance from Azura Skye, “The Swerve” confidently and unsparingly puts the audience in the headspace of its troubled protagonist. Go to Full Review
Yasser Medina Cinefilia 12/21/2021
6/10
It seems unfinished and predictable as it traverses the common grounds of the genre to illustrate the psychological abyss of its protagonist. [Full review in Spanish] Go to Full Review
Dax Ebaben Film Cred 08/31/2021
The Swerve is a cinematic experience that plays like a strange dream, the kind where the uncanniness seems to cause irrational fear. Go to Full Review
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Audience Reviews

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James M 08/26/2024 Outstanding performance by the lead actress and sobering insight into severe mental illness, but, ultimately, I watch a movie to be entertained. This movie is not at all entertaining. See more Jeffrey P 11/12/2023 A strong performance from the lead keeps this afloat and carries it to a lightly twisted ending despite a slow pace and vague plot throughout. See more Adam M 10/26/2023 Mental health is a serious issue and this movies touches on the aspects of depression, isolation, feeling unseen, and being unstable. I wish they took it further, as the movie started off somewhat slow. The ending was fairly decent, up until the last scene. See more Darla P 10/24/2023 This was the most dismal movie I've ever seen. It leaves you with the most uncomfortable feeling.... See more 07/30/2021 Extremely well acted and produced, but it's nothing but pain, fear, and death. That's all. There's nothing redeeming; it's 100% darkness. I cannot bring myself to give a positive review of something like this, ever. See more ronald h 07/02/2021 The Swerve is a thoroughly unpleasant movie. It's well directed and acted, with a strong performance by Azura Skye. It's not entertaining. Rather, it's depressing and disturbing. That doesn't mean it's bad. If your criteria for a film is hyper-realism, it succeeds greatly. But if you're in the mood for mindless, light entertainment, forget this one. The Swerve is solidly in the Diary of a Mad Housewife tradition. The theme of a woman losing her mind has been explored by John Cassavetes and Woody Allen. In fact, Skye's Holly somewhat reminded me of Gena Rowlands in Allen's 1980's Another Woman. Holly is a suburban high school English teacher with two surly, spoiled teenage sons and an unsympathetic husband who manages a grocery store. She almost anorexically thin, neurotically hung up on killing a mouse in her home, and upset about a childhood experience that her weird sister keeps bringing up. She gobbles anti-depressants. To add to the misery, her husband has been fooling around with one of his employees. One of her male students is attracted to her, and she has a shocking, inappropriate moment in her minivan with him. Not a good idea. It just fuels his obsession with her, and she doesn't try to stop it. Watching her descend into madness is not a lot of fun. Some critics consider The Swerve to be about mental illness rather than female depression stemming from external forces. I think it's a bit of both. I wonder if women will respond to The Swerve differently than men. Probably. As a clueless male with a limited understanding of women's emotions and the way that those emotions overwhelm their lives, I felt squirmy and edgy throughout this film. I recognized Skye's talent and appreciated her committed performance, but overall, I was terribly uncomfortable. Of course, art doesn't have to be edifying and uplifting in order to be valid. It can be bleak, humorless, hopeless, and despairing. But as for me, if I'm feeling dark, I'd prefer to look at Munch's "The Scream" than to sit through 90 minutes of unabated misery. The final act of this film turned my stomach. It also made me lose my appetite for apple pie. See more Read all reviews
The Swerve

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Movie Info

Synopsis A woman with a seemingly perfect life battles insomnia.
Director
Dean Kapsalis
Producer
Tommy Minnix
Screenwriter
Dean Kapsalis
Production Co
Spark Chamber
Genre
Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Streaming)
Sep 22, 2020
Runtime
1h 35m
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