Nice effects though.

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Plato's Retreat was a legendary sex club in New York City that was for several years the go to place for libidinous adults to get down and party hearty after it opened in 1977. This appropriately seamy and somewhat rough around the edges documentary offers a wealth of enjoyable and illuminating interviews with various individuals who either knew founder Larry Levenson or frequented the joint back in the day: Levenson's sons, various Plato's Retreat regulars (who come across as disarmingly candid and unashamed everyday schmo types), comedian Professor Irwin Corey, filmmaker Melvin Van Peebles, the ever-outspoken Al Goldstein (who openly admits that Levenson was a shallow bore due to the fact that he was just all about sex), writer Buck Henry, former mayor Ed Koch, and porn stars Fred Lincoln, Ron Jeremy, Annie Sprinkle, and Jamie Gillis. Among the topics discussed are Levenson's amiable happy go lucky persona, the wild anything goes "if it feels good, do it" hedonism of the 1970's, how the rampant nudity and open unabashed sexuality that was pervasive in Plato's Retreat enabled everyone to shed their inhibitions, prostitution in the club, the fact that Plato's Retreat offered a comfortable and nonjudgmental atmosphere where everyone was accepted, the incredibly disgusting buffet table, Levenson's problems with the IRS and subsequent downfall (he wound up working as a cab driver towards the end of his life), and the dreaded AIDS epidemic putting a kibosh on everyone's fun. The key thing that makes this documentary so effective and provocative is its admirable refusal to either glorify or vilify Levenson and the sexual freedom his club represented; instead both are presented warts'n'all without apology and it's up to the viewers to make up their own minds what to think about all of this. Set to a funky-throbbing soundtrack and loaded with plenty of incredible raw newsreel footage of Plato's Retreat in its swinging heyday (the TV ads in particular are simply amazing!), this one is well worth seeing.

It was a very grounded movie of course built in the concrete slabs of New York's Bad Side. The very notion of swinging poses a threat to individuals sturdy in there long term relationship. However that's how it began a complacent experimentation with couples into a daring position of new romance. To me it showed the germlike possesiveness that spread into heavier waves throughout the time-span of wreckage and renewal. All planned by one destroyed businessman - yet love is diverse in it's care and steams of fanatiscism do carry the broken to a position of identity.Conservatives will know this as a beautiful ephemeral trash building of eternal reclamation.

The infamous Plato's Retreat, where everything sexual took place, had a tragic death as the AIDS epidemic swept New York. It was a victim of its own success. Plato's was, after all, where couples willing to swing went to fulfill their dreams of having intercourse with different partners. The founder, Larry Levenson, boasted his joint gave him the opportunity to have sex with about ten different women each night. Soon after the initial success, as the club attracted a different type of crowd, prostitutes and other element invaded the premises.As anything trendy in Manhattan, Plato's Retreat had a quiet beginning, but after word got out that orgies could be had for a relatively small amount, there was standing room only. In interviews with some of the people who participated in the activities inside, we are told what the place meant for different swingers. In retrospect, how much of the accounts that come out in the documentary are real and what are not.Directors Jon Hart and Matthew Kaufman try to concentrate on the life of Larry Levenson, the founder of Plato's. When all is said and done, Mr. Levenson was a victim of the club's own success. He had a high price to pay serving time in jail for tax evasion, something that usually get a lot of promoters in high waters. Mr. Levenson came from a modest household in Queens. After the club opened, he became the big shot he probably was looking to be most of his life. Plato's Retreat was a good way to lose one's own inhibitions, after all, everyone that went to have a good time was no different from everyone else. It is pointed out how ordinary people felt great because they went only for the sex, not beauty, something that is not the case in most other venues in the city where beauty and style is the dominating reason of being seen at those places. Plato's Retreat only lasted a few years at the Ansonia, then it relocated to a 34th Street location, but by then all the hype and the fear of contracting AIDS took a heavy toll on the people that went there for the anonymous sex that could be found there.

This rather superficial documentary relates the meteoric rise and nearly as quick demise of Plato's Retreat, a New York City swingers club, and its founder Larry Levenson. If you've never heard of the club, swinging or Levenson, this movie isn't a bad primer on all three. It's also got a lot of photos and film shot inside Plato's Retreat that features several square acres of nudity and sex acts. But while you might come away from American Swing with some basic knowledge and prurient delight, you won't have any greater understanding.Swinging is where people in a relationship openly have sex with others, usually a couple bringing another person into the bed or two couples swapping partners. Plato's Retreat was a place where mass quantities of swingers and voyeurs gathered to engage in everything from orgies on down, only taking time out for disco dancing and bad buffet food. The film is a collection of interviews with clubgoers, famous and not, about their experiences at and impressions of the club and snippets of TV talk shows featuring club founder Larry Levenson.The story of Plato's Retreat is fairly predictable. It starts out in the late 70s as the last naïve gasp of sexual liberation, starts to get a little seedy after a few years and is then wiped out the threat of AIDS in the mid 80s. The interviews are almost universally about how much people enjoyed their time at the club, though a few references to more unpleasant realities seep in. The footage of Levenson make him look like a low-rent hustler caught up in the idea of himself as an agent of personal and sexual freedom.American Swing isn't bad as documentaries go, but you're always waiting for the filmmakers to go deeper into their subject…and I don't mean that as a double entendre. The movie never examines of questions any of the things said about Plato's Retreat or its founder and never draws any connections. For example, the film ends with a string of testimonies from people who talk about Plato's Retreat as though it were the best time of their lives, but that comes right after the end of Levenson's life is sadly detailed. He wound up a cab driver so hard up for money he lived in his own basement so he could rent out his home, feeling forgotten and ignored by all the people he thought were his friends. American Swing never really draws the connection, though, between those people talking about their selfish satisfaction and their selfish disregard for the man who made that satisfaction possible.This documentary is about as sharp and penetrating (again, not a double entendre) as one of those celebrity profiles in the back of Parade magazine. It's not a bad distraction. There's just not much you can learn from it.