#597: DUNHAM, Lena: Tiny Furniture (2010)
DUNHAM, Lena (United States)
The Booklet
Commentary
Creative Nonfiction
Tiny Furniture [2010]
Spine #597
Blu-ray
Blu-ray
Lena Dunham got her start making YouTube videos, but she emerged as a major talent thanks to the breakthrough success of this exceptionally sharp comedy, which garnered the twenty-four-year-old writer-director-actor comparisons to the likes of Woody Allen. Dunham plays Aura, a recent college graduate who returns to New York and moves back in with her mother and sister (played by the filmmaker's real-life mother and sister). Though Aura is gripped by stasis and confusion about her future, Dunham locates endless sources of refreshing humor in her plight. As painfully confessional as it is amusing, Tiny Furniture is an authentic, incisive portrait of a young woman at a crossroads.
99 minutes
Color
Color
5.1 Surround
2:35:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2012
Director/Writer
Lena Dunham was 24 when she wrote and directed Tiny Furniture.
The Film
The Film
Meh.
“A subgenre of independent film characterized by naturalistic acting and dialogue (sometimes improvised), low-budget film production, an emphasis on dialogue over plot, and a focus on the personal relationships of people in their 20s and 30s.”
Andrew Bujalski has been described as the “Godfather of Mumblecore.” His 2002 directorial debut, Funny Ha Ha, is generally considered to be the first mumblecore film.
The plot of Funny could easily swap out with the above synopsis of this film.
Nevertheless, Dunham is remarkable as a writer, actress, and director in her first real feature film, said to have been made for $65,000. This is no slapdash, loopy attempt by someone who didn’t know what they were doing — in fact, the opposite seems to be true — Dunham carefully considered every single shot, composed each and every scene, and wrote a script which is witty, outrageous and tender all at the same time.
She employs both her mother (Siri: Laurie Simmons) and sister (Nadine: Grace Dunham) in important roles, works with a talented cinematographer (Jody Lee Lipes), and composer (Teddy Blanks) — and the result is an uncannily very good film.
There are moments — few and far between — when the script announces itself a little too self-consciously … Aura has just returned to her home in posh New York. Her sister, Nadine, is standing on a table while her mother photographs all the tiny furniture around Nadine’s ankle. The sisters are bickering:
AURA
“I think you’re being mean.”
NADINE
“I think you’re being oversensitive.”
AURA
“I just got off a plane from Ohio; I’m in a post-graduate delirium.”
NADINE
“I think you sound like you’re in an epilogue to Felicity.”
That’s a little forced.
But later:
Aura needs to change a light bulb in her room. She is standing in front of a massive background of dozens of pure white cabinet compartments:
AURA
“Mom? Mom? … Siri?
SIRI
“What? I’m on the phone …”
AURA
“I need a light bulb.”
SIRI
“In the white cabinet …”
The joke is completely visual, and at the same time gives Aura the opportunity to discover her mother’s old journals — setting in motion a major plot point, but with such subtlety that one wonders how a 24-year-old could have pulled all this off.
SIRI (knocking on Aura’s door)
“Aura?”
CHARLOTTE (Jemima Kirke)
“Hi Siri!”
SIRI
“Oh! Greetings. Long time. You reek of cigarettes, and I owe your mom a call.”
CHARLOTTE
“Oh, I wouldn’t worry about it. She’s pretty distracted by this sheep-herder she’s fucking …”
SIRI (to Aura)
“All the frozen entrees are gone, with the exception of this (holding the bag with the frozen dead hamster) …”
CHARLOTTE
“Oh my God, is that your dead rat?”
AURA
“I’m really sorry, I have not found a place to bury Gilda yet, but I will buy you new ones. My paycheck comes next week.”
CHARLOTTE
“I wouldn’t get too excited about that paycheck … it’s pretty disappointing. After a while, I just stopped picking mine up.”
SIRI
“I know who ate everything. This is not a boarding house. This is not a food bank. This is not a bed-and-breakfast. This is my home. I paid for this food. It’s not for you to share.”
(To Charlotte) “Do you have the same sense of entitlement as my daughter?”
CHARLOTTE
“Oh, believe me, mine is much worse.”
A superb film, and the beginnings of a promising career.
Film Rating (0-60):
56
The ExtrasThe Booklet
Ten-page wraparound featuring an essay by critic Phillip Lopate.
“Comedy evolves. We long ago bid adieu to the physical acrobatics of Buster Keaton, the wisecracks of Bob Hope, the witty repartee of Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. The now-reigning comedy of embarrassment, seen in the films of Judd Apatow and the Farrelly Brothers and all the loss-of-virginity farces, seems particularly appealing to younger viewers, who can relate to the awkward silences of crushes, being stuck with someone who is clearly physically undesirable, or being oneself the nerdy companion of some reputed hottie, that power imbalance being the kernel of the jest — though by the final credits, said nerd usually ends up with said hottie. Lena Dunham’s work is related to this mainstream comedy of embarrassment, but she takes it one bold step further, producing a much more subtle and sophisticated comedy of chagrin. And in Dunham’s world, there is no happy ending, only an enlightened realism”
Commentary
None.
Interview 1
Interview 1
with Dunham, talking about filmmaking and autobiography with writer and filmmaker Nora Ephron.
A love-fest between two great filmmakers (who happen to be women). They speak of the gender thing, which — thankfully — is becoming less and less of a problem these days, with serious filmmakers like Kelly Reichardt, Jane Campion, Chloé Zhao — and so many others — on the scene.
Interview 2
Interview 2
with writer-director Paul Schrader.
“I think the main thing that really sets it apart is its sense of composition. Part of the notion of these do-it-yourself films is that they are just kind of made on the spot; and the camera sort of happens to be here, just because I happen to be here holding it when I was talking to so-and-so, and it’s the opposite of Tiny Furniture — it’s an extremely composed film. It’s anamorphic; virtually every set-up is pre-thought out; the actors are hitting marks … now that is not a quality of Mumblecore; the quality of Mumblecore is we follow the actors; the camera is in service to the event and the event is not in service to the actors. But you look at a number of scenes in Tiny Furniture and you realize that if these actors don’t move in a certain way, at a certain moment — that composition is going to fall apart, and that composition is extremely important to the director. So what Lena Dunham is sending you as a signal is that this is a composed work — this is not just me finding this world; this is me structuring this world — not only in terms of the dialogue, but also in terms of the composition. This is a structured film. It only appears to be a non-structured film, and in that way, I think, it is able to live a kind of original life.”
Creative Nonfiction
Dunham's first feature film, with an introduction by the director.
Not bad — LD encloses a fictional screenplay her character is writing inside the actual setting where we glimpse her chaotic, visually rich collegiate life.
Four short films
Four short films
by Dunham.
Pressure (2006)
Orgasm/sneeze
Open the Door (2007)
She won’t buzz her parents in until they deliver some lines for her …
Hooker on Campus (2007)
She dresses up as a hooker and takes on all comers. The funniest part is when a concerned feminist approaches her and offers to find her food and shelter.
The Fountain (2007)
She strips down to a bikini and washes her hair and brushes her teeth in a campus fountain. A security guard eventually confronts her. Bits of this early YouTube hit are featured in Tiny Furniture.
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