Dance Party, USA is not the rollicking good time that the title might suggest. Now I understand that this might lead you to believe that I did not enjoy the film. That perhaps feeling duped by the film's seriously misleading title, I tossed the disc into the garbage, fuming over the film's preposterous lack of dance party fun.
Okay, so there is actually one party in the film, but it is decidedly not a dance party but it is the kind of party we've all probably been to at one point or another. It's the kind of awkward house party where everyone shambles around making stilted conversation and eventually something gets broken. Movies always try to make these parties look more exciting than they actually are. Except in this film, the party is pretty damn accurate, and that mood doesn't really let up even after the party stops. In this film, the awkward house party is pretty much a way of life.
With or without an actual dance party, this is still actually a really good movie. I don't know if I can go so far as to call it great - I honestly doubt it will stand the test of time - but it's damn good and it's only a little over an hour so it won't kill you to watch it. In fact, it'll probably be good for you, although it might be an acquired taste for a lot of viewers.
Aaron Katz operates within a genre known colloquially as "mumblecore." This is really kinda vague, but if you've ever seen a film by Andrew Bujalski or Joe Swanberg then you have an idea of what we're dealing with here. If you haven't, well, there's really not much to explain. As weird as this sounds, part of the charm of mumblecore is that not much really happens. We're usually treated to a bunch of fairly inarticulate people sitting around talking - mumbling, if you will - about the kind of bullshit that you and I might sit around talking about after we've had a couple drinks.
I realize I'm probably making this sound pretty awful, but maybe there really isn't a way to describe this genre and make it sound appealing. Mumblecore can be extraordinarily self-indulgent, but as a low-budget, lo-fi art form it's also endearingly populist. Aaron Katz and a bunch of his film school buddies made Dance Party, USA for next-to-nothing with very little equipment. And it shows. The film is definitely rough around the edges, but this can really be part of the charm if you just learn to see the flaws as part of what makes the film so awkwardly and honestly human.
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