Review by Spencer Gordon
Photo provided by Tiny Furniture
Tiny Furniture
Directed by Lena Dunham
Starring Lena Dunham, Laurie Simmons, Grace Dunham
Not Rated
The latest film playing at the great Bijou Art Cinemas is an independent film called Tiny Furniture from Lena Dunham, who directed, wrote, and acted in the movie. Dunham pulled a Zach Braff, who created one of my favorite films of all time by directing, writing, and acting in Garden State. I was hoping that this independent film would be another diamond in the rough, and impress me with its storytelling and down-to-earth acting. Instead I was treated to a film that was just too independent for its own good. With a worthless plot and unlikeable main character, this was the most boring film I have seen in a long time.
Tiny Furniture is about a recent college graduate named Aura and her unwanted return home to live with her artist mom and high school sister in a Manhattan loft. Once home she rekindles an old friendship with her eccentric friend Charlotte, and becomes friends with a YouTube comedian named Jed. The rest of the film follows Aura day after day for about two weeks as she has a hard time adjusting to this new life as well as trying to figure out what to do for a living.
There is a rather annoying habit that many independent films out there today pick up: being “too indie.” Basically, an independent filmmaker tries to find a new way to tell an everyday story, but ends up creating something that is simply unbearable to watch. Tiny Furniture is one of those films and then some as Dunham tries to make her main character important and relatable when she herself portrays the character as bitchy, uninviting, and feeling way too sorry for herself.
I am aware that the time after graduating college is a pretty hard one in anyone’s life as they try to find themselves. But for a type of character that is just asking for my sympathy, Dunham literally did everything to make me not care for this character. She just burnt bridge after bridge in her life that would have otherwise helped her. The choices she makes are so bad that the story becomes unbelievable. By the end of this movie, I was looking at my watch more than at the bad film in front of me.
Besides the story being so uneventful, the movie doesn’t help itself by providing some very mediocre performances by its leads. Dunham is directing herself as the lead character, but the performance she got out of herself was dry and unappealing. By directing her own acting, I feel that Dunham just couldn’t get a good performance out of herself. She also has her real sister and mother act as her family in the film, and they were decent with her little sister having some nice scenes. One thing that make a director great is the way they work with their actors to get the performance they want, and I feel directing a family member can really jeopardize that overall quality.
I really was hoping for something better with this indie film, but I was very disappointed. I wanted to see an underground indie gem that usually arises from filmmakers in charge of the whole project. The ingredients were there in the pot, but the person mixing was just too “indie” to provide the right ingredients. The tag line of the film is, “Aura wants to let you know that she is having a very, very hard time.” Well Aura, I had a very, very hard time sitting through two hours of your film. Instead, try to go see Monsters at the Bijou before it’s too late.
Grade: D for dull.
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