American Swing

Aroview: Documentary charting the rise and fall of the iconic 'Plato's Retreat', New York's first-ever swingers club in the sexually revolutionised 70s.

Despite the edgy subject matter, dir. Hart approaches it as curious scholar rather than pervy voyeur, less concerned with sordid tales than with the oddly 'normal' personalities behind the hugely popular middle class retreat. Ultimately, all the 'eyewitness' accounts and grainy photos of well-fed white flesh equate to a good-times-turned-sour generalisation, and one is left wishing Hart might have explored the greater historical connotations of such uninhibited sexuality.