This was a real eye-opener! Even to old fogies like me, "Swing" is associated with being the music of our PARENTS. In "Swing Kids" we see it being very much the Rock'n'Roll of the 30's, with all the attendant counter-culture and generational rebellion elements that implies. When you add to that the setting of the film in the ascendant days of Nazism in Germany, the contrast is both amplified and rendered a much more serous business than just adolescent highjinks. I suppose when you strip away everything else, this is a "loss of innocence" movie, but that doesn't do justice to its meticulous production values, uniformly excellent acting, or tight scripting and direction. If the theme is old, the angle is new and very apropos: I was enrapt from beginning to end. (Look for Noah Wyle just before he became a medical student on ER!)
Review of Swing Kids
