Saturday, October 20, 2012

Quiet City (2007)

At any one point in my life there are only 10 to 15 films that I consider to be infinitely rewatchable. There are many films that I'll watch perhaps once a year, but there are comparatively few that I'll watch more than that. Of course my list fluctuates and morphs as my tastes and interests evolve. But some films are branded on my brain, and they continuously call me back; Quiet City is one of those films.

A mumblecore anthem for a profoundly disaffected generation of insatiable seekers. Sentimental and romantic, but also deeply honest, beautifully captured and elegantly scored. The ethos is ex Cassavetes with a flair for modish and gritty impressionism. He carefully arranges the city of  Brooklyn before the camera, layer upon layer until you can't imagine a more beautiful or a more hopeless place to live than in Quiet City's plaintive and reflective brick and asphalt soliloquy.

Not ironic enough to be tragically hip and not direct enough to be raw cinema vérité - Katz manages to navigate the fertile cusp of the mundane with compassion and aplomb, telling his own story while telling everyone's.

Director: Aaron Katz

Cast: Erin Fisher, Cris Lankenau, Sarah Hellman, Joe Swanberg, Tucker Stone, Liz Bender, Karrie Crouse, Keegan DeWitt, Daryl Nuhn, Michael Tully, C. Mason Wells

No comments:

Post a Comment