Tiny Furniture (2010)

What makes it different from others?

Overrated

Masterful Cinema

if their story seems completely bonkers, almost like a feverish work of fiction, you ain't heard nothing yet.

Aura (Lena Dunham) moves back with her mother Siri (Laurie Simmons) and sister Nadine (Grace Dunham) after graduating from college in Ohio. She broke up with her boyfriend of two years and aimlessly trying to find her way. She plans to move in with her school friend Frankie (Merritt Wever) after she finishes college. Siri is a successful photographer taking pictures with tiny furniture working with Nadine and assistant Candice. While attending a party, Aura meets Youtuber Jed (Alex Karpovsky) from Chicago and reconnects with childhood friend Charlotte (Jemima Kirke). She gets a job as 'hostess' at a local restaurant where Keith (David Call) is the chef. It's only in the daytime when the restaurant is closed. While her mother and sister are away, Aura invites Jed to stay.This is interesting for anybody who likes Lena's TV show Girls. It's essentially an embryonic Girls with Lena's real mother and sister. The funniest one here is Jemima. My problem with this is that I couldn't stand Aura. She's whiny which I never took Hannah to be. It's two sides of the same coin. Lena is able to tune Hannah to be a much more likable character whereas Aura never achieves. Nevertheless, it is still interesting to see the genesis of Lena's ideas and this has the semi-autobiographical feel.

Tiny Furniture is a film about exploration. The film its self was made as an exploration. Both Lena Dunham herself, and her character, are exploring their interests, using whatever resources they have available to them to discover who they are. Dunham uses her friends and family as actors, whatever camera she could get her hands on and her family's loft. This makes the whole story and theme feel consistent and realistic. A film about just leaving college shot on professional cameras with a million dollar budget just doesn't have the same raw feeling.The plot line is no action film, and it shouldn't be. The lulls and gradual character development are in line with the theme of the film, growing up. It can feel a little bland at times, but its real. It pulls the viewer in. It makes the viewer believe they are the one who just left college and are now stuck in their childhood home with no job and no aspirations. The characters develop just enough to be believable without over doing it.It is unfair that people are degrading this film because it is based on Dunham's personal life and experiences. She made a film about what she knows, and it works well for her. The comedy is intelligent and often subtle. The actors, brilliant (save for Dunham's younger sister). It feels real and relatable. Everything about this works. This is a brilliant film which hopefully will continue to gain viewers as Dunham becomes more prominent in the TV world.

I was influenced to watch this film by the score it achieved on IMDb - 6.3 when I checked. I'm obliged to assume this was a misprint - presumably it should have been 0.3.The alarm bells started to ring with the credits - someone named Lena Dunham topped the cast and also wrote and directed this effort. Apparently she was 24 years old at the time. Okay, Mozart wrote his first symphony at the age of eight - but this is no symphony, it isn't even elevator music.The lead character is a young female, single, a little overweight (which I mention because she emphasizes it in the film), recently graduated and unemployed, living in New York with her mother and younger sister.What passes for a plot includes every imaginable cliché that might reasonably be crammed into 98 minutes:- inter-generational conflict, sibling rivalry, the search for affection, meaningless sex, blah, blah, blah. I imagine this film is at least partly autobiographical. Unfortunately, to describe it as tiresome is to indulge in gross understatement.The most positive thing I can say about this film is that the performances were, by and large, credible.Why the high scores on IMDb? Beats me! All I can say is, do yourself a big favour and watch something on television instead - anything!

Certainly this film will not be everyone's cup of tea. But I'm a sucker for movies that are light on plot and heavy on letting us just hang out with some interesting characters for awhile. The dialogue here is so natural I thought perhaps they were simply ad libbing. The chemistry between the mother and daughters is totally real (makes sense -- they are a real family), and the film perfectly captures the that feeling of lacking any direction following graduation from college. It's true that nothing much happens in the film -- it's more about the nature of relationships: renewing old ones, letting friends go, trying out new lovers, choosing the wrong people -- all while trying to figure out what it means to be an adult.