Tiny Furniture [Criterion Collection] [2 Discs]

Director: Lena Dunham Lena Dunham

Overview

"A recent college graduate keeps stumbling as she steps out into the real world in this independent comedy drama. Aura (Lena Dunham) has just graduated from a university in the Midwest, receiving a degree in film theory that even she seems to realize is essentially worthless. With no real prospects she returns home to her mother, Siri (Laurie Simmons), a successful photographer living in New York City. Aura's 17-year-old sister, Nadine (Grace Dunham), is about to graduate from high school and is choosing which college to attend in the fall; Aura is ostensibly back home to help Siri and Nadine during a hectic time, but they don't appear to particularly need or want her assistance. Aura befriends Jed (Alex Karpovsky), a minor celebrity thanks to his surreal YouTube videos, who insists he's in New York to take meetings for an upcoming TV project; he soon invites himself into Aura's bedroom as a semi-permanent guest, though he clearly has no interest in any sort of romantic or sexual relationship. With little else to do, Aura takes a job at a nearby restaurant and becomes smitten with Keith (David Call), one of the cooks; while he seems attracted to her, he also has a girlfriend and it isn't until they're both stoned one night that he makes his move in a rather unusual setting. Tiny Furniture was written and directed by Lena Dunham, who also plays Aura; Laurie Simmons and Grace Dunham are her mother and sister in real life as well as in the film, which was mostly shot in Simmons' actual apartment. The film was named Best Narrative Feature at the 2010 South by Southwest Film Festival."

Product Details

Release Date:	02/14/2012
UPC:	0715515091718
Original Release:	2010
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	1
Presentation:	[Wide Screen]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround]
Language:	English
Time:	1:39:00
Sales rank:	44,448

Special Features

Director Lena Dunham talks about filmmaking and autobiography in a new interview with writer and filmmaker Nora Ephron; New interview with writer-director Paul Schrader; Trailer; Creative Nonfiction, Dunham's first feature film, with an introduction by the director; Four short films by Dunham; Plus: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Phillip Lopate

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Lena Dunham	Aura,Nadine
Laurie Simmons	Siri
Rachel Howe	Candice
Alex Karpovsky	Jed
Amy Seimetz	Ashlynn
David Call	Keith
Merritt Wever	Frankie
Sarah Sophie Flicker	Julia
Garland Hunter	Noelle
Jemima Kirke	Charlotte
Isen Hunter	Jack
Teddy Blanks	Composer

Technical Credits

Lena Dunham

Lena Dunham	Director,Screenwriter
Kyle Martin	Producer
Alicia Van Couvering	Producer
Micah Bloomberg	Sound/Sound Designer
Jeff Peixoto	Gaffer
Julia Newman	Script Supervisor
Gene Park	Sound/Sound Designer

Editorial Reviews

Lena Dunham took the independent film world by the lapels with Tiny Furniture, a solipsistic look at modern-day New Yorkers, and one particular New Yorker's angst-ridden transition into adulthood. In addition to writing and directing, Dunham also plays the lead, and her actual mother and sister play her mother and sister in the film. So this solipsism has a logical basis: it's a movie about a gloomy, self-absorbed character who's basically the filmmaker herself -- not symbolically, but actually. And with that much meta, there can't help but be plenty of navel-gazing. It's clear that excessive introspection and wallowing are what Dunham intends to dramatize -- what she sees as the shortcomings of her characters -- but then it's up to viewers to decide whether they feel enlightened or frustrated by her confrontational approach. Dunham makes little effort to cast any of the characters in a sympathetic light -- you want to shake them, actually -- and gives them the eccentric speech patterns of jaded intellectuals, so that the dialogue has a kind of stylized naturalism that consistently calls attention to itself. Dunham means to examine the purgatory into which young adults are thrust upon exiting the comfortable confines of the university setting, facing the world with degrees in such things as philosophy and film theory, which don't point them logically toward a career. It's not the most original perspective on post-collegiate uncertainty, but there's value in it. What's unclear is why Aura's fumblings are more worthy of our attentions, especially when she's always undermining our desire to root for her with behavior that is alternately too rash or too passive, and never demonstrates much generosity of spirit. The oddball rhythms and vanity-eschewing frankness of Dunham's debut make it a film worth noticing, and ultimately seeing, but it's easier to respect than to like.