Review of Tiny Furniture (2010) by Jeff T — 24 Dec 2010

To many people, Tiny Furniture has the potential to be an incredibly annoying, navel-gazing film about a subject we're all too familiar with: post-college ennui. But to me, Tiny Furniture was hilarious and refreshingly devoid of any Hollywood glitz and shine. Lena Dunham, who wrote, directed, and starred in TF, has no qualms about putting herself in humiliating (and quite funny) situations. Likewise, the character she portrays in the film, Aura, is amazingly unselfconscious. Ok, I'll admit it. Part of why I liked TF so much is because Lena/Aura is a chubby, plain girl who walks around in her underwear half the movie, doesn't wear makeup or flattering clothes, and doesn't try to present herself as anything other than herself. It's one thing for a stereotypically gorgeous actress to "play ugly"--a la Charlize Theron in Monster or Nicole Kidman in The Hours. It's another thing entirely for an normal-looking actress/filmmaker to play, well, normal. It's kind of jarring (in a good way) to see this kind of unselfconscious realism on the big screen.

It helps that Tiny Furniture is extremely autobiographical. I say "extremely" because it's not like Lena Dunham wrote the story of her life and then hired a cast and crew to render that story on the big screen. Instead, Lena herself plays the Lena character (renamed Aura in the movie). Lena's famous artist mom plays Aura's artist mom. Lena's younger (and taller, and prettier) sister plays Aura's young (and taller, and prettier) sister. The set where the film takes place is Lena's mom's actual loft in Tribeca, NYC. Basically, the film is Lena's life--only the names have been changed.

The plot is pretty simple and leads to no real conclusions. Aura graduates from college in Ohio (Lena Dunham went to Oberlin in real life) and then moves back in with her mom and sis. She gets a crappy job as a restaurant hostess and hangs out with her glamorous/trashy friend. She fights with her sister and has one of the most humiliating and hilarious sex scenes I've ever witnessed with a weird dude from her work. The end.

So I can totally see how many people would leave the theatre and be like "What the hell was that!? Why should we care? Nothing happens!" Ah! But I'm not most people! I think Lena Dunham is on to something. I mean, we're used to seeing "autobiographical" films that are glammed up for the camera, and reading memoirs that take obvious liberties with what "really happened". In these films and books, the author/filmmaker usually tries to win the affection and sympathy of the audience by presenting the character who represents them in the most attractive and sympathetic way possible.

Lena Dunham doesn't do this. She doesn't present herself as particularly attractive or sympathetic. She presents herself as kind of whiny, kind of self-absorbed, but also kind of nice and kind of funny. The world she lives in might technically be called glamorous, but she herself is not. So, in other words, in both personality and looks, the Lena/Aura character is normal. Not beautiful, not hideous. Not sympathetic, but not wholly unsympathetic either. Just normal. Like any woman you might be friends with or work with--or might even be yourself. And this is why the movie is a pleasant surprise to me. I can't think of any other movies written, directed, and starred in by a young woman who is completely willing to present herself in a wholly unflattering light. I like it. Tiny Furniture is a great start to what I hope will be a long, successful career for Lena Dunham.