About a recent college grad who returns home while she tries to figure out what to do with her life.
The film is itself a bit light and aimless – nothing gets very real for Aura, and the nature of any potential change or recovery from her torpor remains obscure – but it’s got bags of baggy charm, and some brilliantly observed scenes.
Playing like a mumblecore The Graduate set in the affected milieu of the Tribeca art crowd, Tiny Furniture announces Dunham as a talent to watch.
Comparisons to Woody Allen and Wes Anderson are perhaps a little premature, but their influences certainly play a part. Tiny Furniture has been crafted in minute detail by a young filmmaker clearly bursting with ideas, quite the opposite of the film's main protagonist.
Much-maligned it may be, but the so-called mumblecore movement continues to turn out gems. Lena Dunham's lo-fi, witty treatment of a semi-autobiographical tale adds another dozy to the canon.
A painfully authentic anti-coming-of-ager.
Extremely well-written, often funny and very touching.
Smartly observed and bitterly funny, the deadpan Tiny Furniture feels true to life for an entire generation struggling to find a job and make their mark on the world.
It’s best enjoyed, like Aura’s life, as a work in progress, promisingly tangy and archly amusing.
Stylistically assured as well as sporadically funny.
General release. Check local listings for show times.
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