Quiet City

Basically the antithesis of art. It's almost like the director wants to make movies but has nothing to say so he just films his friends talking about like you know like whatever like they like want (this is how they talk). Still, it's charming in some places but if my friends were this boring I would've killed myself years ago.

Okay Movie

Star Rating: ★★★

Where most films' scripted dialogue cuts out awkward pauses or the verbal punctuation that's usually marked with "um" and "like," this film leaves that stuff in, so that we see the real-life spaces between the thoughts and sentences we're meant to hear. In fact, that describes other aspects of the film-making, too. We don't go from a conversation in a diner to Charlie's apartment without also seeing the characters walk from one to the other. We see the action or non-action in between the action.

A restrained and subtle Gen-X "romance" and an artier, more realistic version of *Before Sunrise*. Nice filmmaking to boot.

Considerably better than Katz's debut "Dance Party USA" at distilling onto film a slice of the lives of twenty year olds in the 00's. Though not quite Andrew Bujalski level, Quiet City easily earns a place in the Mumblecore canon. My biggest beef with it is that we never find out what the hell happened to Samantha, and stranger yet, even after visiting her empty apartment Jamie and Charlie never seem to give it another thought.

It's not Before Sunrise, but it's not bad.

Kind of earthy.