Swing Kids

Germany in the '30s: Peter (Leonard) and Thomas (Bale) are devoted to Swing, record collecting and wild dancing. They aren't oblivious to the activities of the Hitler Jugend, though it takes time for the pfennig to drop. The dice are fatally loaded when it comes to fellow swingster Erwin. Bespectacled, wise, humane and crippled, he takes an inevitable early bath, leaving the two friends to choose between conformity or an increasingly risky rebellion. The dance-hall scenes have a wonderful febrility, as have the counterpointed HJ rituals. This appears to be a youth movie, but even the dumbest teen will gather there was more to Nazism than sending kids with long hair into the army. The use of token Jews turns the stomach, and it's hard not to conclude that the Swing Kids' idealisation of America is the real message.