Certainly, the sex was exciting, as well as controversial. But Plato's Retreat also represented an effort to think through the mores behind monogamy, to challenge assumptions and imagine an alternative.
Comment
04/07/09
American Swing (2009)
52
%
Tomatometer
How does the Tomatometer work 
Reviews Counted:23
Fresh:12
Rotten:11
Average Rating:5.2/10
Consensus: While American Swing covers a fascinating subject, its amateur documentary treatment does it no favors.
Runtime: 81 mins
Genre: Education/General Interest
Synopsis: In 1970s New York City, Plato's Retreat was an epicenter of sensual excess. The renowned sex club was a thriving destination for patrons who wanted to leave their inhibitions at the door. This... [More]
Director: Jon Hart, Mathew Kaufman
Reviews for American Swing
A scary reminder of the potentially-disastrous physical and emotional consequences of indiscriminate mating.
04/06/09
The pearls of wisdom are best extracted from the minds of those who stood on the front line, people who walked into the seminal fluid line of fire and lived to tell the tale.
04/06/09
The film treats Levenson's rapid descent as if someone had turned on the lights at a sex party: scurrying away with pity and irritation that the good times had to end.
04/03/09
Top CriticCan't get it up.
04/03/09
There's glossy surface engagement as an artifact snapshot of the sexual revolution, but everything about American Swing is only thumbnail-deep; it doesn't have, ahem, the rigorous thrust necessary to leave a lasting impression.
03/31/09
A poorly-done documentary that manages to make the phenomenon of swinging boring.
03/31/09
An essential document to the rich history of New York, "American Swing" is too short sighted for the vision of its controversial subject.
03/29/09
American Swing doesn't have a particularly well-defined point of view, but it is a succinct, entertaining and valuable record of a time that in some ways now seems as remote as the Roaring '20s.
03/27/09
In the end, the impression isn't that much different from one given by the club's own hairy habitues -- lots of sleazy charm, pounds of gold chains and a smarmy shallowness that goes very, very deep.
03/27/09
A lively and moderately engaging documentary, but its lack of thorough explorations leave you feeling slightly empty, underwhelmed and yearning for more insights.
03/27/09
Although American Swing pointedly goes out of its way to include positive testimonials from several women who patronized the club, it leaves you feeling queasy.
03/27/09
Top CriticAmerican Swing is an entertaining, oddly affectionate portrait of Plato's Retreat's Larry Levenson, and a brash, grainy, warts%u2013and-all Polaroid of an era of sexual history.
03/26/09
Interesting and concise documentary about the positive and destructive effects of casual sex.
03/26/09
Directors Jon Hart and Matthew Kaufman don’t delve deeply enough into the psyche of club founder Larry Levenson or the culture he exploited. But they do present an entertaining snapshot of his brief reign as New York’s self-appointed King of Swing.
03/26/09
American Swing could use the flair of similar portraits of disco-era debauchery like Boogie Nights or Inside Deep Throat, but it’s even-handed in capturing the operation’s ambition and hubris. Just don’t bring an appetite.
03/26/09
Repetitive, narratively fractured, and padded with more hardcore inserts than hardcore facts, this amateurish documentary about the disco-era Manhattan sex club Plato's Retreat skimps on context and basic information. It's a fan site on celluloid.
03/26/09
A shrewdly made documentary about the rise and fall of Plato's Retreat, the infamous Manhattan sex club of the '70s and '80s.
03/25/09
Such a sociologically rich subject deserves better than a reductive K-tel treatment.
03/25/09
Though sweetly reminding us that some outer-borough suburbanites did find liberation at Plato's, the film tries -- and fails -- to swing both ways, nostalgically glorifying its subject only to smugly revel in Levenson's ignominious demise.
03/24/09
Latest News for American Swing
April 06, 2009:
Cautionary documentary revisits rise and fall of Plato's Retreat. 
More...
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