Be gay, do crime: the movie. Decades after multiple Hitchcock films focused on queer-coded serial killers, Swoon brings that subtext to the forefront, but also serves as a biting critique of true-crime sensationalism. Writer-director Tom Kalin—an incredibly talented New Queer Cinema filmmaker, who could have been one of the great filmmakers of the movement had he been able to get funding for his next projects—pays homage to old Hollywood by shooting in shadowy, noirish black and white, along with Eternal Sunshine cinematographer Ellen Kuras, although this could also be for budgetary reasons. I’d never thought I’d see a Prohibition-era crime drama with the low-budget, scrappy 16mm look of Clerks, yet the filmmakers make this approach work. This is such a fascinating piece of true-crime media, as it deconstructs the sensationalism surrounding the Leopold and Loeb trial, and attempts to empathize with the ways in which they were both the perpetrators of a horrific crime (in this case, a disturbing yet brutally simplistic and off-screen child murder) and the victims of constant homophobia and antisemitism throughout this media frenzy of a trial. It achieves this without glorifying the killers, but it also manages to avoid becoming what it critiques.
Swoon makes for an engaging and still-powerful study, although it does have its faults. The story starts to sag in the middle once we see the questioning of Leopold and Loeb, as it’s sandwiched between a terrific first half-hour with little dialogue and a powerful courtroom finale. It sometimes tries to fill in the blanks in the plot with some slightly-forced newsreel segments and voiceover explaining major points to us without showing them; I get that they’re going for an homage to old-school newsreels, but it doesn’t quite work.
It’s still unfortunate that not many people have seen Swoon, since despite it not completely holding up, it’s such a significant part of the New Queer Cinema movement and a refreshing, deconstructive take on a story we’ve seen so many times before.
Be gay, do crime: the movie. Decades after multiple Hitchcock films focused on queer-coded serial killers, Swoon brings that subtext to the forefront, but also serves as a biting critique of true-crime sensationalism. Writer-director Tom Kalin—an incredibly talented New Queer Cinema filmmaker, who could have been one of the great filmmakers of the movement had he been able to get funding for his next projects—pays homage to old Hollywood by shooting in shadowy, noirish black and white, along with Eternal Sunshine cinematographer Ellen Kuras, although this could also be for budgetary reasons. I’d never thought I’d see a Prohibition-era crime drama with the low-budget, scrappy 16mm look of Clerks, yet the filmmakers make this approach work. This is such a fascinating piece of true-crime media, as it deconstructs the sensationalism surrounding the Leopold and Loeb trial, and attempts to empathize with the ways in which they were both the perpetrators of a horrific crime (in this case, a disturbing yet brutally simplistic and off-screen child murder) and the victims of constant homophobia and antisemitism throughout this media frenzy of a trial. It achieves this without glorifying the killers, but it also manages to avoid becoming what it critiques.
Swoon makes for an engaging and still-powerful study, although it does have its faults. The story starts to sag in the middle once we see the questioning of Leopold and Loeb, as it’s sandwiched between a terrific first half-hour with little dialogue and a powerful courtroom finale. It sometimes tries to fill in the blanks in the plot with some slightly-forced newsreel segments and voiceover explaining major points to us without showing them; I get that they’re going for an homage to old-school newsreels, but it doesn’t quite work.
It’s still unfortunate that not many people have seen Swoon, since despite it not completely holding up, it’s such a significant part of the New Queer Cinema movement and a refreshing, deconstructive take on a story we’ve seen so many times before.
