Image Courtesy Benten Films

Today marks the denouement of the long, slow climb of Aaron Katz's films Quiet City and Dance Party USA from obscurity – Dance Party's second time out of the can was at a 2006 film festival in a barn in northern Minnesota – to national acclaim. The DVD release is a landmark for the Portland-bred indie filmmaker whose talent, previously spoken of in the grassroots by a respectable MySpace following, finally captured the attention of The New York Times in August during the IFC theatrical run of "The New Talkies: Generation DIY."

This DVD set marked my first taste of Katz-- but certainly not my last. Watching the two films back-to-back was an odyssey through the early 20-something years of longing and futility, the cornucopia of desire that defines young adulthood. While I wasn't 100 percent impressed with the delivery, I was intrigued. Katz got my attention.

The DVD packaging suggests that Dance Party USA is little more than a glorified B-side, and so ever-backwards, I watched that film first, seeing it serve as a kind of aperitif for Katz's idiosyncratic dialogue and atmosphere. I cringed my way through more than one scene but ultimately went along with it all and actually enjoyed the ending's ambiguity. Dance Party is a fairly respectable debut, particularly in comparison to the "early short" bundled with the DVD, The Lunch Box. Something of a low-rent homage to Buster Keaton, it's more of an ego exercise than Katz's other films, funny but lacking the ambience and originality of his later work.

Juxtaposed with Dance Party, Quiet City is far more sophisticated. Katz paints a lush, watercolor portrait of Brooklyn, and his two principals, Jamie (Erin Fisher) and Charlie (Cris Lankenau), are more articulate without sacrificing the characteristic awkward naturalism. Having watched Dance Party first also allowed me to witness a phenomenal directorial arc that culminates in the incredibly moving final scene of Quiet City, a scene that silently, surely, sums up the brief but rich entanglement of Jamie and Charlie. The overall effect is ever so slightly evocative of Sofia Coppola.

I can't speak well for the quality of the commentaries: Even under the best of circumstances, they bore me. For the sake of fairness, I gave the commentaries of both a 15-20 minute fair shake and got a few valuable nuggets of trivia. For instance, Dance Party's soundtrack originally was to have a '60s-type Phil Spector flavor. That was food for thought, given the spareness of composer Keegan DeWitt's score. A golden-oldie tack would have changed the mood of the film entirely (and may have contributed more than a dash of bitter irony).

Most interesting was the shout-out to Katz's alma mater North Carolina School of the Arts, also university home to Fisher and some of the best actresses in the biz today, including Mary-Louise Parker and Jennifer Ehle. Between Fisher and Dance Party's Anna Kavan, it is clear Katz has a talent for choosing leading ladies. Both women have a Mona Lisa-like luminosity and reserve that serve his vision well.

The icing on the cake is an extra on the Quiet City disc: Joe Swanberg's Quiet City. We come to find out that Katz sent fellow 'mumblecore' director Joe Swanberg a copy of his script during pre-production, and ever-prolific Swanberg turned around and shot a 6-minute parody with a digital still camera starring himself and Tipper Newton. The no-budget short captures the pathos of the original and injects it with the humor of The Compleat Works of Wllm Shkspr (Abridged)-- which is to say, I laughed my ass off. It's good to see someone ditch the genre's fumbling earnestness for a spell and dabble in some healthy self-mockery. There's only so much awkward social intercourse one can digest in one sitting, but I'll give Katz the chance to reel me in again with whatever comes next.

For more information on the DVD release, visit www.bentenfilms.com.

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