Dance Party, USA Image
  • Summary: Apathetic seventeen-year-old Gus hangs around doing nothing with his buddy Bill most of the time. Gus likes to tell half-true stories about all the girls he's slept with and all the drugs he's done. Jessica is seventeen too. She doesn't seem to have much in common with anyone anymore – not even her best friend Christie. Every year this one guy Brian throws a 4th of July party. The party's never that great, but there's free beer, so people always go. Gus and Jessica meet each other there. They watch fireworks outside and light sparklers. Gus says that he's not the sort of guy she thinks he is. He tells her a secret he has never told anyone before. Expand
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 4
  2. Negative: 0 out of 4
  1. Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    75
    Dramatically simple but emotionally complex.
  2. Reviewed by: Darcie Stevens
    67
    Delving beneath skin level and examining the mind of an 18-next-week boy, Dance Party is challenging, gritty, and true.
  3. Directed with extraordinary empathy by Aaron Katz (who also wrote the story), Dance Party, USA is an admittedly slight movie, but one that is given heft by a yearning tone and a camera fascinated by the emotional shifts and shadows on a young person's face.

See all 4 Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. GM
    10
    Excellent work by Jessica, played by Anna Kavan.
    • 0 of 0 users said yes