The Song of Sway Lake

Name: The Song of Sway Lake
Genre: Drama, Romance, Musical
Released: September 21, 2018
Duration: 100 min
Rating: 51
Cast: Anna Shields, Brian Dennehy, Elizabeth Peña, Gary Arzberger, Isabelle McNally

2018

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Mixed or average reviews based on 10 Critic Reviews

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The Song Of Sway Lake

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Movie Details & Credits

The Orchard | Release Date: September 21, 2018 | Not Rated

Starring: Anna Shields, Brian Dennehy, Elizabeth Peña, Gary Arzberger, Isabelle McNally, Jack Falahee, John W. Bard, Mary Beth Peil, Robert Sheehan, Rory Culkin

Summary: A young man’s plot to steal a valuable jazz record from his grandmother’s lake house is derailed when his accomplice falls for the matriarch.

Director: Ari Gold

Genre(s): Drama, Romance, Musical

Rating: Not Rated

Runtime: 100 min

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Critic Reviews

Anthony Ray Bench

Sep 20, 2018

The film’s absurdly strong performances, music, and aesthetics all bring to life a wonderful film you won’t want to miss. Read full review

Movie Nation Roger Moore

Sep 20, 2018

Bit actor and sometime director Ari Gold and his co-writer/collaborator Elizabeth Bull conjure up a warm, wistful movie about nostalgia itself — its traps, and its rewards. Read full review

Ben Kenigsberg

Sep 20, 2018

The film seems unclear on how to unpack all its baggage, but the sense of detail and place carry the day. Read full review

Marjorie Baumgarten

Sep 19, 2018

While not always dramatically successful, The Song of Sway Lake earns big points for originality. The film has a distinctive tone, look, and setting, which are supported by strong performances (one of them by the greatly missed Elizabeth Peña, who died in 2014, making this her final film appearance – somehow appropriate to this movie about how the past can impinge on the present). Read full review

Noel Murray

Sep 20, 2018

Gold does an excellent job of evoking the past. But there’s nothing really holding the film’s most poignant moments together: no narrative drive, and no sense of a larger world. This song has a catchy melody, but the arrangement is a mess. Read full review

Walter Addiego

Sep 19, 2018

Ari Gold’s The Song of Sway Lake is saturated with a kind of melancholy nostalgia, and viewers who can accept that will find other virtues as well in this flawed film. It’s a story of familial unhappiness passing down through generations, impressive before it begins to lose focus. Read full review

Nick Schager

Sep 20, 2018

The Song of Sway Lake never finds a thematic center around which to pivot its action. Read full review

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linafaustinaze

Mar 18, 2020

I thorougly enjoyed the movie from the very beginning. First of all, the atmosphere of is very nice and pleasant. The movie portrays Sway lake as a very unique place, that makes you want to visit it, put your body in its clear waters. The landscapes are magnifying itself and the scenes areI thorougly enjoyed the movie from the very beginning. First of all, the atmosphere of is very nice and pleasant. The movie portrays Sway lake as a very unique place, that makes you want to visit it, put your body in its clear waters. The landscapes are magnifying itself and the scenes are filmmed flawlessly. Not to mention the soundrack, the old records and Ethan Gold music, which fits perfectly in the ambience. The main story in it is deep and involving, with well developed, specific characters. It is modest, warm, intelligent and subtly humorous. In my opinion, the movie is essentially about the friendship that develops between the main characters. It feels authentic and sincere. Whether we wish to acknowledge it or not, greed, prejudice, ignorance, weakness exist within all of us, and it seems to have existed in the real life of men who were Nicolai and Olivier. Only by having significant experience together, they had discussions which led to a strong, enduring friendship. It made me believe in it and I couldn't avoid some tears in the end. Totaly a masterpiece.… Expand

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SaraClements

Oct 15, 2018

The Song of Sway Lake is a nostalgic trip back to your grandparents’ house during the summer—when the sun was hot, the breeze was cool, and the subtle crackle of their records didn’t stop you from dancing. Sway Lake is introduced to us in narrated love letters between Hal (Brian Dennehy) andThe Song of Sway Lake is a nostalgic trip back to your grandparents’ house during the summer—when the sun was hot, the breeze was cool, and the subtle crackle of their records didn’t stop you from dancing. Sway Lake is introduced to us in narrated love letters between Hal (Brian Dennehy) and Charlie (Mary Beth Peil) Sway—theirs is a love story forever embedded in its waters. The song “Sway Lake” by the Eden Sisters begins to play as the lake’s rich history is introduced through vintage-style newsreels, depicting its past as a popular retreat for New York’s elite. But the sisters, the lake, and its history are all an impeccably crafted creation from the mind of writer-director Ari Gold.

The film includes an incredible array of young and veteran talents, who shine from beginning to end as the story follows young music collector Ollie Sway (Rory Culkin) on his journey to find a rare recording of “Sway Lake” that belonged to his father. With his only friend Nikolai (Robert Sheehan) in tow, they head to Sway Lake—the place of Ollie’s youth, and the place where his father committed suicide. For Ollie, the record could be the key to unlocking the many secrets that the lake holds. But while Ollie knows the record’s value surpasses currency, his grandmother, Charlie Sway, intends to sell it.

In the middle of all the film’s emotional conflict is romance—romances of the past and present, all intertwined in the melodies of lost time. All of this is displayed in many idiosyncratic ways. Eric Lin’s stunning cinematography of the lake’s scenic views—from its still blue waters to brightly coloured forests—is some of the best work of the year. All of it perfectly wrapped in a soundtrack of classic hits and jazzy score. What adds most to the film’s authenticity is the physicality of its use of memory. When characters reflect on their past, it is more often than not depicted in flashbacks. However, in this case, memory is treated as though it’s a character in and of itself. When Charlie reflects on the swims she used to take with her husband, water appears in her hands. When Ollie thinks of his father, he appears behind him. Everyone interacting and confronting their memories as though they were real. And nothing awakens memory quite like song.

The film sways along its narrative exquisitely in this tale of love, youth, and death. The film’s ode to song is obvious, as Gold continually displays its power to return memories once lived. And as the end credits show: Memories will never fade if the record keeps on spinning.… Expand

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