Dance Party, USA

Boys are boys.

An hour long film presents a story of under-seventeen teens desperate with new instincts awaken and communicating opportunities a life promises.

They are on different stages of sexual liberty while one of them attracted to a same gender mate surely, is overactive in pillow exercising, bearing a secret of a dark experience with a younger girl.

Unlike "Don's Plum", this movie is concentrated at intimate talks between characters in pairs rather than touching sexuality-related topics in a group.

It's a low budget movie. Actors perform well and everything looks natural. Probably, they will overgrow this age as all viewers did.

Well, and where outside some third world countries dance parties differ?

This movie consists mostly of dialog between some inarticulate high school students. It takes place over a Fourth of July holiday. The time period appears to be in the 1970s, since there are no cell phones or compact discs, but rap music is played at a party. I could see no significance in setting the movie in a time different from when it was made. Did the filmmakers think they understood the previous generation better than their own?

As expected, the main focus is on sex and relationships. The first twenty minutes could have been cut to a few, since all that was required was to introduce us to the four main characters and establish a downbeat mood and a level of conversation where the most serious is, "Hey, how's it going?" or "What's up?" A rambling monologue about a Nebraska trip by a character who was never to be seen again seemed pointless, unless it was inserted to annoy us in the same way the guy was annoying his listeners.

The friends Bill and Gus are initially Beavis and Butthead stand-ins, but at least Gus shows some small movement toward maturity over the course of the film, whereas Bill remains totally vacuous. Anna Kavan, as Jessica, the girl whom Gus can finally see as a person rather than a sex object, creates an appealing character.

I wonder where the adults were. We see Jessica's mother in one brief scene, otherwise the teens seem to have the run of things with no limits on their drinking.

The movie has the look of a high school film project, and maybe it was. Anyway, it proves that anyone can make a movie these days.

I found it helpful to turn on the English subtitles.

I'm not sure writing that you enjoyed a movie is enough. I admit being new to this style of film and viewed the directors films in reverse order. I began with "Cold Weather" and enjoyed it very much. For me it came down to wanting to spend time with these actors, and I did. Next I watched "Quiet City" and enjoyed that film as well. As with the previous film I found myself wanting to spend time with the two lead actors. That is as descriptive as I can get. There is no point in saying any more about it. Watch the films and let the stories unfold. The last one "Dance Party USA" was a bit harder to follow, being older than the lead actors definitely plays into that. But there is something there and the young actress Anna Kavan is a revelation. Her lovely smile at the kitchen table during the party will stay with you long after.. I was sorry to see she has not made any more films. Thank's to the pod-cast for introducing me to the films of Aaron Katz and am looking forward to his new movie "Land Ho"

This picture saddened me. I know it represented only a segment of the teenage population, but to believe and I do that some of our young people are unable to express their feeling verbally is troubling. The young actors in this picture seemed to dialog by guessing what the other intended. In the other reviews I became aware of the genre that is being called 'mumblecore.' In my mind this is a tragic step backward in film making. It not only bores but annoys. As much as I would have liked the characters in this picture, I was given no reason to do so. When the picture ended so abruptly, my guess is that the film maker ran out of film, and that didn't bother me one iota.

for all its flaws, and there are quite a few (as to be expected from such a low budget, first time feature), i was rather moved by this film. what i liked about it - and what i thought set it apart from "typical" mumblecore movies - was that it was actually about something; namely, the exploration of a certain type of person. you know him, or you've seen him at parties, the guy who loudly professes his conquests, bragging about the girls he's slept with. in this film, you discover that his behavior is actually a front for his insecurity. when i saw the film, i was actually shocked that this guy, gus, was going to be the main character. in mainstream films, he's the loudmouth friend that is always relegated to supporting roles. not so here. and, by the end, we come to understand and perhaps even sympathize with him, knowing that he's taken the first small steps toward a different life.