Tag: Tiny Furniture

My Most Anticipated Criterion Releases for January 2012

Let me introduce you to a habit, I mean… a hobby of mine. I am an admirer (addict) of the Criterion Collection of unique and important films. What they do for these movies is wonderful, in most cases, presenting them in the most pristine and enjoyable presentation available for home viewing. So, anytime new titles are released, I get all excited like a schoolboy daydreaming about his very own Official Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle, with a compass in the stock.With it being mid-January, I figured I would get you up to speed on the film fixes I am most eager to get high off of for 2012, so far…

Release Date: 2012, January 17th (Blu-Ray, Spine #593)

BELLE DE JOUR (1967) directed by Luis Buñuel and starring the ravishingly beautiful and talented Catherine Deneuve. In the spirit of full disclosure, it has been so long since I saw this film in college, a time in which I often struggled to stay conscious through relatively early morning screenings, that I am ecstatic about finally revisiting the film, especially on blu-ray.

Release Date: 2012, January 24th (Blu-Ray, Spine #594)

GODZILLA (1954) is the monster that started it all, the original king of giant Japanese creature films and the very best… except for KING KONG, but that doesn’t count. It’s not Japanese, but I love them both! From what I’ve gathered, this will feature a gloriously pristine, unprecedented transfer. I can’t wait!

Release Date: 2012, January 14th (Blu-Ray, Spine # 597)

TINY FURNITURE (2010) is one of my favorite films from SXSW that year and for the year in general. Unique, off beat and sarcastic, the film is a modern sort of coming of age story for a young woman seeking her own direction and purpose in life while dealing with her mother and sister, whom she now lives with after graduating college. This smart, slightly rigid comedy is a masterful breakout feature film debut and definitely deserving of the Criterion monicker.

SXSW Review: TINY FURNITURE

TINY FURNITURE is a remarkably successful comedy, smart and witty, from a young and promising filmmaker. Lena Dunham wrote, directed and starred in this somewhat quirky tale of Aura, a young woman recently graduated from college. Having returned home to her often oblivious and distant mother, she finds her life takes a backseat to her mother’s art and her younger sister’s needs. Aura struggles to find her place not only at home with her family but also in the world, as she grapples with what to do with her life, post-college.

Aura’s mother Siri (Laurie Simmons) is a strange and peculiar woman, devoted to her work over her children, but isn’t fully self-aware of this flaw in her character. Aura’s sister Nadine (Grace Dunham) is a bit of a spoiled brat, hogging what little attention is to be had from their mother treating her own sister as an unwelcome intruder in their home.

For such a young filmmaker like Lena Dunham, TINY FURNITURE is an amazing first outing and promises a bright future. The visual storytelling has a slightly surreal feel to it, especially while at her mother’s home/studio… white, sterile and very modern-artsy. Dunham uses this setting as a platform for metaphorical humor, particularly the white cabinets.

The dialogue and humor in TINY FURNITURE is clever, fast-paced and points to a common theme throughout the film of cynicism about the world and life in general. Aura attains a job as a day hostess, which she grows to hate. Aura’s questionably British friend Charlotte (Jemima Kirke) pushes her to be more spontaneous, while her college pal Frankie (Merritt Wever) pulls her towards a more sensible view of the world.

Meanwhile, Aura juggles relationships with two guys, both of whom are less than ideal and have their own peculiarities. In essence, TINY FURNITURE is a film about an unpretentious young woman surrounded by pretentious people, as she attempts to discover her own path in life.

Each of these relationships helps Aura to formulate her own sense of self, one which continues to be a work in progress by the end of the film. There’s a clear element of SEINFELD that has embedded itself into the tone of TINY FURNITURE, but it’s a subtle influence, whether intentional or not.

Overall, TINY FURNITURE is a creative, fresh and funny story about a young college graduate that we all can relate to in some way, not just the New Yorkers. There’s a pleasing philosophical undercurrent that runs through Dunham’s film, which makes the audience think as they’re entertained.

Overall Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

SXSW Preview: TINY FURNITURE

During the week or so leading up to the start of SXSW 2010, I’ll be providing a glimpse into some of the films I am looking forward to at the festival. SXSW will feature many great films, many more than I can cover, ranging from narrative fiction to documentary, comedy to horror, foreign to animation, independent to studio films.

SYNOPSIS: 22-year-old Aura returns home to her artist mother’s TriBeCa loft with the following: a useless film theory degree, 357 hits on her Youtube page, a boyfriend who’s left her to find himself at Burning Man, a dying hamster, and her tail between her legs. Luckily, her trainwreck childhood best friend never left home, and ill-advised romantic possibilities lurk around every corner. Aura quickly throws away her liberal-arts clogs and careens into her old/new life: a dead-end hostess job, pathetic Brooklyn “art shows,” drinking all the wine in her mother’s neatly organized cabinets, competing with her prodigious teenage sister, and desperate sex in a giant metal pipe. Surrounded on all sides by what she could become, Aura just wants someone to tell her who she is.

Tiny Furniture Trailer from Lena Dunham on Vimeo.