Tiny Furniture (2010)

Featured Audience Ratings

• paul s

  
  I like Indie films - I really do, but all too often they seem to revel in their independent nature... or, to put it another way; just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should. So, before I go on to the review of Tiny Furniture, I'm going to offer up a… More
  I like Indie films - I really do, but all too often they seem to revel in their independent nature... or, to put it another way; just because you can do something doesn't mean that you should. So, before I go on to the review of Tiny Furniture, I'm going to offer up a little Indie primer. First, create a script where nothing much actually happens (under the pretense of this being a "character study). Secondly, throw in some absurd peripheral characters (to add "interest" - as in "these characters are interesting, if weird"). Third, give little "clues" - bits of cinematic shorthand that can be interpreted by the viewer (to make the film seem "deep" and "arty"). Now, looking at the primer, let's see how Tiny Furniture stacks up. Script - check, nothing much happens here - which, of course is by design. In this case, this "slice of life" holds the added burden of the morass that frequently occurs upon college graduation; especially when you realize that your area of study holds little to no help in procuring a job of meaning in the real world. The setup is certainly here for some serious exploration into the subject and how to deal with it... but here the film settles instead for laying out the issue and then beating it to death with a character unable to make any kind of positive move in her life. Not helping matters is a too forgiving mother who mentions that she herself (now a "famous" artist) didn't accomplish anything worthwhile while in her 20's. The odd supporting characters - oh yes, in abundance. Aside from the artistic mother who has her own odd set of rules, there's the brainiac younger sister (giving the script the opportunity to deal with sister envy), and then the best friend - who uses daddy, and daddy's credit card as some kind of restitution for mommy not being around (or some such drivel - it's never made quite clear). Add in two male interests - both grifters in their own way, and ridiculous in their actions and how our heroine reacts to them. After the artsy boy weasels his way into the heroin's home "just for a couple of days", he then has the nerve to call her an Indian giver when she finally asks him to leave weeks later. That she takes his browbeating fits the morass of her character, and is one of the flaws of the film - for no matter how down on herself she may be, anyone with any spine at all would have kicked the loser out the door and laughed at his protestations. The "clue" parts of the film are also there. Things that seem real on the surface, and yet the kind of thing that one could look at and say "aha! A deeper meaning! Example number one - After the grafter boy tries out all the beds in the flat (what is this Goldilocks?) he ends up on an inflatable bed in the heroines' room (which she explains she purchased a couple of years back... hmm, she's been to college for the last 4 years so WTF? Just one of several examples of playing fast and loose with the cinematic time line). The grifter then complains that the bed is losing air, which leads to the duo sharing the same bed - but not sleeping together. Later, after the grifter has been kicked out, there is a scene where she deflates the bed as she sits on it, slowly sinking to the floor - ooh, artsy! (I hope I don't have to explain the significance of this, if you've read this far). Another bit of lazy time line awareness is that over almost 2 weeks the grifter is reading the same short Woody Allen book - umm, the guy does NOTHING all day, has to spend hours waiting for her to return from work (as she has the only key to the flat), and yet he is unable to wade through a thin book given 2 weeks - what's he read, a word a day? The film also throws in a seeming obsession with underwear or the lack thereof - I suppose this could be construed as "freedom" as it mostly occurs when the odd girlfriend is around; and taking the freedom or lack thereof motif a bit further there are several scenes in which the chunky heroine is seen struggling into spanks - film shorthand for being trapped, or restricted - which is bs, for her choices were her own and she decided to run home to the only place she felt safe instead of looking the real world in the eye and saying "bring it on". Ultimately, what fails here is that I couldn't feel one ounce of empathy for the heroine, nor would I care to spend any time at all with any of the characters presented. I was especially pissed at the mother for allowing her daughter all that leeway while she attempted to "find herself". A little tough love would have gone a long way here - allowing her daughter to quit her job because it was "boring" is quite simply sending her the wrong message. Oh, your job is boring - well at least it's putting food on the table - so get used to it. We can't all be gifted and have life handed to us. Arrgh, this film's ethic pissed me off! Ok, now that that's out of my system - I have to admit that the acting was real enough - no hard feat considering that the writer is also the main character, and she used her real life sister and mother to portray the appropriate roles. In the end, you can look upon this as an art piece - the same kind of pop art that so many people look upon and go "ooh, this is deep" - but to me the Emperor is still buck naked and while yes, I did actually think about what the film was saying, I found this a bit heavy handed and obvious, wallowing a bit too much in artsy pretentiousness. Ha, I just know that someone is going to read my review and sniff "poor boy, you just didn't understand the finer points". Have to disagree, I think I understood just fine, just couldn't care less about any of them, or their perceived problems.

• Jennifer X

  
  Ohhhh myyyy goddd this filmmmmmm!!!! I have so many thoughts about this film, it made me sooo uncomfortable. Okay, so I do not getting my hair cut for a number of reasons, but one of them is because I hate staring my face in the mirror for like 40 minutes straight. I start becoming… More
  Ohhhh myyyy goddd this filmmmmmm!!!! I have so many thoughts about this film, it made me sooo uncomfortable. Okay, so I do not getting my hair cut for a number of reasons, but one of them is because I hate staring my face in the mirror for like 40 minutes straight. I start becoming aware of the way I hold my face, and the zillion zits I have on my forehead, the irrregularity of my cheeks, all this stuff. That's how "Tiny Furniture" makes me feel. It has such a commitment to portraying the honest-of-goodness stuff of real life, its reality so, so close to my own, that it makes me feel horrible. I go to movies for escapism and aspiration, to dream of being as pretty and graceful as Rachel McAdams or to meet a man as debonair as George Clooney. And for a while I can fool myself that this dream is obtainable. But when someone is holding up a mirror to your life, albeit slightly distorted but close enough to REALLY resemble it, you realize what a horrible, wasteful, selfish lifestyle you lead and that there is no way you will ever amount of anything. All the men are misogynistic, all the women are submissive and fat. And see, these words I'm typing sound like an exaggeration, but this is the truth we've all mentally blocked from our minds. Lena Dunham is out with a vengeance to prove that this is 100% the case.

• Spencer S

  
  Lena Dunham is a newcomer that should be sought out and watched with intensity. She wrote, directed, and starred in this film, as well as her sister and mother who play...her sister and mother, but not really. Well, actually yes, really. For instance, in this very autobiographical… More
  Lena Dunham is a newcomer that should be sought out and watched with intensity. She wrote, directed, and starred in this film, as well as her sister and mother who play...her sister and mother, but not really. Well, actually yes, really. For instance, in this very autobiographical film her mother (Laurie Simmons) portrays an artist who photographs very small furniture and in real life Laurie is most famous for photographing dollhouses. Much of this feels symptomatic of Dunham's real life, but skewed in order to show her as an ingratiated dilettante after graduating from school in Ohio and coming home to mooch off her family who are plenty happy to see her get herself together. Aura's problems, which aren't all too radical, are handled with some level of kooky false love for herself and the men she throws herself at. Much of this is Aura hating herself and thinking she's the victim of a family that disenfranchises her for some disgusting symptom of family dysfunction, while at the same time she has no path to follow in life and can't figure out if anyone's against her or just sick of her. Even though she's obviously spoiled and unaware of the travesties of her life, she's actually really likable as a character. We've all been lost without a paddle and unable to help ourselves because of a morbid sense of rejection, yet Dunham takes it to a self destructive level that feels realistic but also painful to watch for the audience. There are also these relationships she's trying to cultivate with two men who essentially seem to only placate her self esteem before crumbling it with their insincerity. The family antics as well keep you empathetic to Aura until she messes up again. The cast was brilliant, the writing was cause for celebration, and it was apparently mostly shot in Simmons' actual apartment, lending to a vibe that creeps into voyeuristic. Though this has been defined as mumblecore, the script was tight and the actors stuck to the material pretty well. Really, one the most dazzling films of 2011 and one of the better indies I've ever seen. Look for Dunham next on the HBO show Girls, which she also wrote, directed, and stars in. I really have high hopes for it.

• Alice S

  
  The reputation of this movie is more interesting than the movie itself. Lena Dunham surely deserves accolades for writing, directing, and starring in her first feature film. She cobbled together her real-life mother and sister to star as Aura's mother and sister - both of whom… More
  The reputation of this movie is more interesting than the movie itself. Lena Dunham surely deserves accolades for writing, directing, and starring in her first feature film. She cobbled together her real-life mother and sister to star as Aura's mother and sister - both of whom performed quite well. The lighting, costumes, digital film quality, and stark white set design look professional and ambient. Dunham herself is a fine actress, capturing the mental, physical, not to mention, utter sartorial lassitude of Aura, a recent graduate from an unnamed Ohio college that I totally guessed was Oberlin, and after some online research, found to be Dunham's actual alma mater. Knowing that Oberlin attracts free-thinking nonconformists of the hipster variety (not necessarily a disparaging statement), I'm not so surprised that a pseudo-intellectual, Mumblecore-esque, slice of life originated there (yes, a disparaging statement). The rhythm of the dialogue is natural. All the characters sound different: Aura is disaffected and childish, Charlotte is worldly and blase, Jed is pretentious and quick. The narrative unravels halfway through though. Aura doesn't really seem to have "a very, very hard time" (as espoused on the movie poster) upon entering post-graduate ennui at first. People get angry without much exigence. It's not quite clear how her and Keith's affair starts and ends. Aura isn't presented as an attractive or experienced girl, so what attracts Keith to her? Is he "slumming it?" How does she acclimate so quickly to such a tawdry tryst? What's her damage, and how will she deal?

• Randy T

  
  Lena Dunham's autobiographical exposé successfully encapsulates the attitude of a generation of cynical literates who perpetually view their glass as half empty. To Dunham's credit, I found myself caring about her characters even though they're shallow and naive and… More
  Lena Dunham's autobiographical exposé successfully encapsulates the attitude of a generation of cynical literates who perpetually view their glass as half empty. To Dunham's credit, I found myself caring about her characters even though they're shallow and naive and ripe with a false sense of entitlement. Anyone who can make a film this good about the plight of overprivileged ingrates has a bright future in the industry.

• Drew S

  
  Tiny Furniture is typical low-stakes mumblecore. Committed performances and a general knack for comedic setup don't do much to disguise the fact that all the main characters, for their gormless whining and mincing, are a collection of privileged white kids wandering through… More
  Tiny Furniture is typical low-stakes mumblecore. Committed performances and a general knack for comedic setup don't do much to disguise the fact that all the main characters, for their gormless whining and mincing, are a collection of privileged white kids wandering through situations engineered to feel familiar to an audience, but without any real insight. It more or less plays like a half-complete highlight reel of all the insecurities you work to forget after you graduate. Its sociological mimicry is admirable, and Lena Dunham has obviously steeped herself in scenes like this as she tried to carve out a career in film; she has a careful eye for her milieu. The problem is that she doesn't construct any sort of meaningful, imaginative narrative out of her real-life experiences. Tiny Furniture is much more about the "is" and not the "what will be," and when working with such a shortsighted bunch of characters, a little admission of outside perspective would have helped to make the film much more mature.

• Eric B

  
  The premise of "Tiny Furniture" -- recent college graduate moves back home and tries to "find herself" -- sounds like a precious bore, but director/writer/star Lena Dunham's refreshing script will blow away anyone's low expectations. Dunham has a great… More
  The premise of "Tiny Furniture" -- recent college graduate moves back home and tries to "find herself" -- sounds like a precious bore, but director/writer/star Lena Dunham's refreshing script will blow away anyone's low expectations. Dunham has a great ear for dialogue and an unusually good feel for the irregular explosions between family members that are quickly forgotten. She also has a remarkable lack of personal vanity -- you'll rarely see a lead actor so comfortable to show every complexion blemish and extra pound. Dunham's character Aura has a photographer mother (played by her real photographer mother) and a tempestuous teen sister (played by her real sister). Their performances are so natural that you wouldn't guess they are amateur actors. They live in an attractive New York townhouse of consciously minimalist decor (a repeat gag involves trying to find things in a long row of identical white cabinets). Aura has a close college friend who's planning to move east to room with her, plus a long-time best friend already in town (scene-stealing Jemime Kirke). She gets a trivial job as a restaurant hostess and dabbles with two different guys, neither of whom are likely to give her a sustained relationship. There's not much more to know, and Dunham doesn't force any unnatural resolutions to her characters' issues.

• Glenn G

  
  *INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARD NOMINEE - yes, it's that time of year where I get to see all of the nominated films and vote prior to the February 26th broadcast. This one is nominated for BEST FIRST FEATURE, BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY, and BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY. It came as no surprise to me… More
  *INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARD NOMINEE - yes, it's that time of year where I get to see all of the nominated films and vote prior to the February 26th broadcast. This one is nominated for BEST FIRST FEATURE, BEST FIRST SCREENPLAY, and BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY. It came as no surprise to me that writer/director/actor Lena Dunham scored a series deal with HBO after seeing her adept, incisive feature debut, TINY FURNITURE. This micro-budget, semi-autobiographical gem stars Dunham, her real life sister and mother, and was shot in their own home, yet the authenticity doesn't stop there. Dunham plays Aura, a recent college graduate who returns home to figure out her life. She fights with her self-absorbed family, she gets a shitty job, reconnects with an old friend, and pursues a couple of men following the dissolution of her college relationship. That's about as much plot as you're gonna get here, but the joy is in the telling. Aura seems at first glance like so many sad, disaffected loners we've seen before (think Napoleon Dynamite) but a much sweeter, socially forward character emerges, and the movie takes on a much more fully-rounded tone. What emerges is a portrait of an artist as a young woman, lost and in need of a little positive reinforcement from someone...anyone. She can't get it from her mom, her sister, or many of the people she encounters along the way, and so she makes mistakes and lashes out at the wrong people sometimes, but there's always a quietly sweet undertone to this character that I loved. This is droll humor with a real beating heart, instead of the snide, hipster laughs we've been accustomed to in the past. A sadly grotesque climactic scene inside a corrugated pipe had me laughing and moved simultaneously and perfectly sums up this truly wonderful accomplishment. Special praise to Jemima Kirke, who plays her gorgeous, wild child lifelong friend and turns her bitchy, stoned-out character into something memorable and touching. Since she'll be appearing in Dunham's HBO show, GIRLS, I predict future stardom for this great discovery.

• Jeff T

  
  Mumblecore is one of those movements that you either dig or not. I kind of dig it - little, handmade films that are young, rambly and right-now-funny. TINY FURNITURE is as close to mainstream as this movement has produced, and it's a good example of the advantages these films… More
  Mumblecore is one of those movements that you either dig or not. I kind of dig it - little, handmade films that are young, rambly and right-now-funny. TINY FURNITURE is as close to mainstream as this movement has produced, and it's a good example of the advantages these films provide. Written, directed by and starring a 24? less? year-old, it captures in many ways exactly what it's like to be just out of school and completely adrift. If it's a little on the flatline side, that's by design, and the last 20 minutes pay off in a way that make the flat stretches before worthwhile. This may all seem like weak praise, but that's not true. I like this movie very much, and can't wait to see what Lena Dunham has up her sleeve in the years to come.

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