Quiet City

Much like Hannah Takes the Stairs, Aaron Katz's Quiet City focuses more on dialogue than on plot. I mean, here's the plot, in a nutshell. Girl flies to a strange city to meet her friend. Girl meets strange boy and asks strange boy for directions to diner so that she can meet her flaky friend that is always late and sometimes never shows up (I mean, we see where this is going, don't we?). Strange boy accompanies girl to diner, into diner, after diner, and several days following. There's some other people involved; an art show and after party; and some six degrees action to make the plot a bit more interesting; but that's about it.

But it's a nice film. That's really all there is to it. This is yet another film by another "ultra-indy" filmmaker, focusing on twentysomethings and the way they communicate. The scene, cutely coined mumblecore seems to lump together a group of filmmakers (coincidentally, all of them seem to like each other and/or work together) who all seem to be focused on the ultra-indy tactics like self-distribution, microbudgets and digital marketing of their own films. It's interesting how the six degrees theme in the film, Quiet City seems to ring true for this whole mumblecore thing. These guys all started out individually, but we've seen quite a collaboration this year. I'm anxious to see what's next for the "mumblecorps"?

I must admit I don't know anything about independent films('mumblecore', is it?), but I stumbled onto this one after seeing more commercially successful indie films like Donnie Darko, Memento and Interview. 'Quiet City', a beautiful sounding title I might add, pleasantly surprised me. As another reviewer mentioned, the writers/directors focused on dialog, which is a refreshing experience for this blockbuster frequenter. I've seen some other small films where they take on too heavy subjects like really finding the meaning of life or why we die etc. Which, for me, made those movies come across pretentious because in my humble opinion it's pretty arrogant if you think you have a quick, easy answer for life's most difficult questions. It's not wrong to have a vision of your own but if you're not Stanley Kubrick (see: 2001) you probably shouldn't touch the subject (especially as a young filmmaker). 'Quiet City' did not make this mistake, the dialog seemed realistic and honest and the acting was very natural. No big climaxes or plot twists but a little taste of the good simple life in New York.

Nice, but only for people who like alternative film.

'Quiet City' opens with Jamie, an attractive young woman from Atlanta, arriving in New York to visit an unreliable girlfriend, who fails to show up at the diner where they had arranged to meet. A random stranger, Charlie, is asked for directions, and he subsequently offers to let her stay at his scruffy apartment. The camera follows the pair throughout the next day while they try to contact Jamie's pal, take a walk in the park, visit a friend of Charlie's to retrieve a hat, go to a gallery opening and then on to a party.

The film's minimalist plot is thematically similar to Richard Linklater's "Before Sunrise", but its production values are far more basic and it lacks the mythic element. The two protagonists are neither as articulate nor charismatic as Linklater's Viennese lovers, and their relationship is considerately less intense. However it becomes fascinating to observe a friendship develop through commonplace activities and banal conversation. Much of the film's success is due to Erin Fisher's easygoing Southern charm as Jamie - her beautiful eyes and enigmatic amused smile gradually dismantle Charlie's slacker exterior to expose a person worthy of her affection. If anybody cares to give an even break to a film lacking conventional dramatic elements, it could provide some subtle pleasures.

I might not be an aficionado of the "mumblecore"-genre, and this film didn't make me one either. But it did give me a minor crush on the female lead (and writer) Erin Fisher, maybe that's a good thing.

So in this film we see a cute girl from Atlanta (Erin Fisher) who visits New York, can't get hold of her friend, and then instead hangs out over 24 hours with a random slacker (Cris Lankenau) she meets at the subway station in Brooklyn.

It's cute, and you do get to feel that the boy and girl are connecting over an intense period, but it didn't really made an impression on me. Maybe it wasn't dramatic enough, maybe the realism bored me, maybe the long shots were a bit too long, or maybe it was the "American" dialogue.

What I mean by that is that they use all of these "pause words" a lot. I even spent a few minutes counting them (by opening the subtitles in Word): "like" (229 times), "you know" (28 times), "kind of" (39 times), "sort of" (22 times), "uh" or "um" (43 times), "I don't know" (22 times) and "really" (55 times).

It isn't that much dialogue in the movie, so that is a LOT of pause words, all of which are basically unnecessary for saying something. (Sarah Hellman's two-minute random monologue might have accounted for half of the "like"-quota, for instance. How ditzy is it possible to come across as?)

Even if this is how Americans actually talk, for us europeans it sounds like they have no vocabulary and are very slow thinkers who need to insert a lot of "pause words" just to get through a sentence.

"Mumblecore" might be supposed to be ultra realistic, but I am pretty sure it could benefit such movies to tighten up the script, thereby making it more interesting and transcend boring reality just a little bit.

Finally I have to make the obligatory reference to "Before Sunrise" and say that it's unfortunately much more interesting, substantial and memorable than "Quiet City", even if the two movies are a bit different in style and shape.

I realise this review will blow all my chances of ever getting to flirt with Erin Fisher (and Sarah Hellman), but it's mostly meant as a warning for people who are interested in "real" movies, and also as a message to the director Aaron Katz.

A movie like this would have been much more interesting if the dialogue was better and more meaningful, and if it just had more of a "real" movie-feel about it. Right now it seems like something anyone could improvise over two days. And that's unfortunately not a compliment.

But of course I would rather have a thousand indie-movies like these instead of the usual predictable Hollywood-crap. I only wish they could be better than this.

Katz's third feature is a rather sweet offering about a boy and girl who meet accidentally and form a close friendship over the space of a weekend. It's best viewed without too many expectations - the rough cinematography and absence of plot will disappoint some film-goers, however both the characters and the performances are convincing and endearing, and the mood is suitably quirky throughout.

Yes, the movie is somewhat self-indulgent; some scenes would have benefited from a trimming-down, yet the narrative flow is unhindered by the slower pace. Although Katz doesn't emerge from 'Quiet City' as a director with an agenda, after his tedious comment on teenage rape, 'Dance Party USA', it's perhaps for the best that he sticks to observational film-making, and leaves social commentary well alone.