Movie Review: Tiny Furniture

It’s been a while since I shared a post of Indies I feel are amazingly worth watching. I've been busy, and working a lot blah, blah; I’m happy to report that this weekend I ended my relentlessly long Indie drought with a few irresistibly witty and exceptionally funny films that I couldn’t wait to blog (and rave) about. I know my Fan-tic (my attempt at a play on the word frantic) rants are quite transparent when I find films that I absolutely love, however, once in a great while I do happen to find films that drives love to entirely new heights of euphoric Indie ecstasy. For me, that film is most definitely Tiny Furniture.

I’ve been meaning to watch Tiny Furniture for so long, I can’t even recall, but I could never find it in theaters near me since it was a limited release. I mean, the film was almost a ghost for so long I almost forgot about it; I’ve never had such a hard time gaining access to an Indie that I was super stoked about checking out. Then cometh the big uproar of praise for its director/writer/creator Lena Dunham after her new T.V series Girls (BTW I’m so addicted to this show, and if you haven’t caught an episode, you are seriously missing out) won massive acclaim resulting in an Emmy nomination, and poof! I was finally able to grab copies of the film everywhere I turned. I can honestly say the wait was worth it. From the opening scene to the very last, I laughed uncontrollably, I awed, I screamed from mortification (seriously. You’ll understand when you see it), I laughed -this time louder than before-again, and awed some more. It was so refreshing, so witty, so honest, and so well done I can’t even stand it. Lena Dunham is a friggin' genius, and speeding to the top of my favorite writers list.

Enough of the gush; here are the specs.

Tiny Furniture was written and directed by Lena Dunham, and stars Dunham (Aura), Jemima Kirke (Charlotte) , Amy Seimetz (Ashlynn), and Laurie Simmons (Siri) and Merritt Wever (Frankie).

Aura, a freshly graduated liberal arts major, is having quite a difficult time trying to gain a sense of identity and figure out what she wants out of life. Amidst her inner struggle, bruised by a failed relationships, and feeling overwhelmed by her lack of direction, she decides to move back to her family’s TriBeCa loft to allow herself time to figure things out. She starts work as a hostess at a local restaurant where she then meets and falls into what appears to be an accidental relationships with two obnoxiously self-absorbed men; it soon becomes apparent to Aura that figuring out life is only half the battle, compared to the larger charge of figuring out what she wants/needs from herself.

I know that a lot of people might view this film as whiny rich girls complaining about nothing, but I really enjoyed how realistic, and completely exposed the characters are. Dunham didn't try to mask Aura's selfishness under the typical euphemisms  of self discovery, she just simply allowed the characters to be displayed as they would in reality; immaturity, longing, flaws and all. The layers of this film are so rich, and well done, and I really loved, loved, LOVED it. Thumbs up to Lena Dunham!