Review of Tiny Furniture (2010) by Dylan N — 07 Jan 2012

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?