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I think of Swell as a soap opera. Done in half-hour episodes it would be appealing - in both cast and scenery - but pretty boring. In the form it's in, we only get the sexy bits, served with just enough exposition to help us join the dots. And that's plenty. Possibly too much.

There is real anguish on display here, in a wonderful early work from a distinguished film maker.

The house band is the true hero in this moderately entertaining melodrama about an assortment of "freaks and weirdos" (in the Lady Gaga sense) at a summer camp for broadway wannabes in upstate New York.