Ari Gold (Adventures of Power) is a risk-taking art-making movie director. In a departure from his earlier work, The Song of Sway Lake is interested in human relationships, in the power of nostalgia and loss, and quite a bit more. It's a film that puts emotion before all else; and Gold, who also co-wrote the screenplay, realizes how places and objects, and especially music from the past can transport you and, like the central character, Ollie (Rory Culkin) can even get too strong a hold. Ollie returns to the lake house where his family has lived for generations and where his own father committed suicide some years earlier. He hopes to find an old record album that is a prized possession, which contains secrets and clues form his family's past, but is buried among the tons of albums and other collectibles stored in the vast house. Ari brings a friend along to keep him company, another lost soul named Nikolai, who seems to fit right into the property that sits on Sway Lake, like a hand in an old glove. It isn't until Ollie's grandmother Charlotte "Charlie" Sway shows up that things get very complicated. Ollie's is stuck in the past and this clashes with his present. it prevents him from growing up and from moving on with his life. Even during his stay in the increasingly busier lake house, he forms a romance with a local young lady, but his ability to connect always seems hampered by the weight of the past. The film itself almost feels like a gift from the past, it seems too overly earnest at moments and tapping into some vein that is dried out in these more cynical times. It's a movie that might have been made just around the time when Ronald Reagan came into office, the end of the innocence, as one singer song writer put it a while back. Youth is often difficult to leave behind as it is, let alone with you lose a parent and a way of life. When it's just snatched away from you. Some of this pain is palpable in Gold's movie. And you can hear it in the brilliant soundtrack composed by Ethan Gold, Ari's brother and collaborator.Finally, it would be a shame not to mention the that the film contains the great actor Elizabeth Pena's final performance on film. It's a hard thing not to feel that loss as well as you watch this singularly unique film.

Saw this film recently and found it mesmerizing! The scenery is spectacular , the acting by Rory Culkin, Robert Sheehan & Mary Beth Peil is superb and the music by Ethan Gold is very evocative of a bygone era! This film is currently on the festival circuit. See it if you can. Deserves a wide cinema release. Makes a change from all the action films. Beautifully observed work. The director Ari Gold deserves praise for the quality of the film. Simply stunning. No spoilers here but if you like to be entertained without loud music and like a genuinely heart- felt story you will love this! 10/10 Must See!

In 1992, Ollie (Rory Culkin) and his Russian friend Nikolai (Robert Sheehan) travel to Sway Lake and stay at the Ollie's family state where they hope to find a long lost Vinyl record of great value. Ollie is somewhat of a loser while Nikolai is a live-wire. The search for the long lost record is complicated by the arrival of Ollie's grandmother Charlie (Mary Beth Peil) who has fallen on hard times and hopes to sell the state. But she too wants to find the record that was specifically made by a swing vocalist for her wedding day back in post-WW2 times.THE SONG OF SWAY LAKE is directed by Ari Gold as a coming of age story for our two young pals in search of a unique vinyl record. It's also about legacy and what it means to leave something behind to be remembered. Ollie's grandfather was a war hero, and the Lake is name after him (Sway being the family name) as well as that record being specifically recorder for his grandfather on his wedding day, this record was going to have value someday and it was left at the state for future generations of the Sway family to find. However, the value given to it will depend of those who find it; it can either be monetary or it can be deeper than that. Ollie believes the record is rightfully his, while his friend Nikolai may have his own plans for the record, as he seduces (perhaps honestly) Charlie, despite being thrice his senior. THE SONG OF SWAY LAKE is hard to label, and therefore its value is that it's an unconventional story that avoids a formula, it tells its story like a recount of someone's memories, an anecdote rather than a by the numbers script, which makes it and its characters feel real as we witness the story of two generations of the Sway family. It's a drama and a comedy, sometimes even a tragedy. In many ways this is closer to real life, where there are moments of levity followed by moments of anguish. Review by Enrrico Wood Lagonigro –Senior Curator Oaxaca FilmFest

After the suicide of his father, a withdrawn young man travels to the family home on Sway Lake to retrieve a valuable record, only to encounter his shrewd grandmother with the same aim.As the many shots of Sway Lake itself reveal, this feature debut from director Ari Gold regards nature as a thing of beauty. Alas, what this film never manages to achieve is sharing a greater fondness for the characters and the drama before us.Bursts of Kerouacian hedonism and chauvinism from Ollie Sway (Rory Culkin) and his thrillseeking Russian friend Nikolai (Robert Sheehan) make way for a more melancholic film upon the arrival of Ollie's grandmother Charlie (Mary Beth Peil), who is looking to sell off the property. There is much focus on what once was, and a nostalgia that threatens to blinker the present for generations young and old.Charlie and Nikolai are the most interesting characters and have an engaging interplay as each is fascinated by a romanticised version of the other. Unfortunately, there is very little for them to actually go out and do together, putting this subplot in circles for much of the film.There is at least a little complexity to Charlie, who is at once cruel to those close to her and wistful for a lost husband and a lost era. A great hindrance to The Song of Sway Lake is its lead character Ollie being totally bland, and neither he nor his relationship with local girl Isadora (Isabelle McNally) is of much interest beyond bemusement that she would give such a weedy voyeur the time of day.At the core of the story is a hunt for a fabled record of much value, recorded and named after Sway Lake. Ollie is convinced his recently deceased father would've wanted him to have it as a work of art, while Charlie wants it purely for its monetary value. Charlie is the only surviving person to have specifically been left the Sway Lake record; how Ollie has any actual claim to it is one of the many things never fully delved into. Perhaps more interesting than this tired trope is Nikolai, who appropriates the Sway family history in substitute for his own lack of one.Unfortunately, there are only so many ways you can film someone looking through troves of vinyl, and the film meanders through them. This is a real shame as a soundtrack of Cole Porter and Fred Astaire show Gold's passion for music, which is also reflected in the attitudes of the Sway family, but a character's obsession with grading records is equally as unwieldy cinematic material.There seems to be an awareness that some of the film may struggle to capture an audience's attention, yet the nudity sprinkled throughout Sway Lake smacks of desperation. Particular focus is on Nikolai's body, and while the man is undoubtedly beautiful, it's hardly a substitute for an engaging plot line.Sway Lake is about time standing still and always moving, preserving the beauty of nature, the selfish joy of youth, the untouchable essence of love. There are many ideas present; perhaps too many for much of it to really resonate. Two affecting moments perk up the film in the final act, but ultimately cliché and melodrama sink the ship.