Quiet City (2007)

88% of critics liked it
(16 reviews)
61% of users liked it
(1,764 ratings)

In Aaron Katz's idiosyncratic and unpredictable drama Quiet City, Georgian Jamie travels from her Atlanta home to Brooklyn, to visit her friend Samantha. When Jamie arrives, however, Samantha seems to have disappeared from her residence - her phone is disconnected and she cannot be located. By sheer… More In Aaron Katz's idiosyncratic and unpredictable drama Quiet City, Georgian Jamie travels from her Atlanta home to Brooklyn, to visit her friend Samantha. When Jamie arrives, however, Samantha seems to have disappeared from her residence - her phone is disconnected and she cannot be located. By sheer happenstance, Jamie runs into a stranger, Charlie, when she stops him to ask for directions. The two strike up an instant rapport and spend the rest of the day and night together - eating coleslaw, attending art exhibitions and experiencing Manhattan nightlife. The picture thus becomes an exploration of how relationships can spring from chance meetings between strangers, amid the most unfamiliar of circumstances and environments. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 1 hr. 21 min.
Directed By: Aaron Katz
Written By: Aaron Katz, Erin Fisher, Cris Lankenau
Genres: Art House & International, Drama

In Theaters: Aug 29, 2007 Wide
On DVD: Jan 29, 2008
Studio: IFC

Critic Reviews

Frank Scheck, Hollywood Reporter
Formally impressive but tedious.
Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News
Although the movie is hardly more ambitious than its young protagonists, there's a lot of value in a lazy day. Quiet City knows where to find it.
V.A. Musetto, New York Post
A talkfest like this is ripe for disaster, but Quiet City succeeds thanks to its two leads, Erin Fisher as Jamie and Cris Lankenau as Charlie. They're attractive and likable, and they hold our interest throughout.
Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com
A contemplative widescreen experience that views its landscape -- the borderline-industrial hipster neighborhoods of Brooklyn, N.Y. -- with painterly patience.
Stephen Holden, New York Times
Tender and sad, it is a fully realized work of mumblecore poetry.
John Anderson, Newsday
Quiet City often attains a floating, poetic buoyancy that pulls a fast one on gravity.
Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
It's a wonderfully goofy movie that was a fun watch.
Anton Bitel, Film4
Quiet City may be modest in budget and muted in its ambitions, but for anyone who imagines that truly independent American cinema is dead, this most chaste of romances is a quiet film worth shouting about.
Shawn Levy, Oregonian
Quiet City is a slight film, but it's so pure and precise and honest that it takes on stature beyond its actual size. As a work of art, it makes a big noise indeed.
Nathan Rabin, AV Club
In place of Before Sunrise's verbal fireworks, the aptly named Quiet City offers something more like linguistic sparklers -- modest, yes, but charming all the same.
Maitland McDonagh, TV Guide's Movie Guide
Callow, self-centered, often infuriatingly inarticulate but filled with possibility; Katz and leads, who improvised much of their own dialogue, capture the contradictions with enough fragile charm that it's hard not to wish them well.
Mark Holcomb, Time Out New York
Proof positive that life's mundanities are even more tedious projected onto a movie screen.
Don R. Lewis, Film Threat
In order for such a small film like this to work, you have to kind of fall in love with the leads, and both Fisher and Lankenau make that easy to do.
Sky Hirschkron, Stylus Magazine
Quiet City was the festival highlight, for me.

Read all 14 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

Luke B

Couple meet by chance, they talk, go to the park, visit friends, go to an art gallery and then a party. That's all there is to it, plenty of dialogue which keeps the interest as does the interaction of the leads though it still feels forced and not so natural. This may be down to… More
Couple meet by chance, they talk, go to the park, visit friends, go to an art gallery and then a party. That's all there is to it, plenty of dialogue which keeps the interest as does the interaction of the leads though it still feels forced and not so natural. This may be down to the awkwardness of the characters themselves. Cheap and cheerful it's a very simple film that some would argue shouldn't even be classified as film. It's more like forced realism or an orchestrated documentary. This is what real reality TV would be like if you took away the stupid "plots", manipulative editing and dodgy soundtracks.