Review of Tiny Furniture (2010) by Chris C — 15 Jan 2011

*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.