Tiny Furniture Review
By David Kempler
Enjoyable as Chairs With Thumbtack Cushions
I like the title "Tiny Furniture". It makes me snicker. Unfortunately, I didn't care for much of anything else in writer/director Lena Dunham's piece that follows a family, where every member is as quick as a whip with their
oh so clever remarks. It reminded me of the hole that the television show, "MASH", used to fall into from time-to-time.
Some people are gifted and can fire off snide and witty remarks, but I have never seen it occur in a group, as it does in this self-indulgent, look-at-how-bright-and-cool-I-am film. Maybe Dorothy Parker and her friends at the Algonquin Round Table were capable of such wonderful conversation. Maybe.
As "Tiny Furniture" opens, Aura (Lena Dunham) has returned home from college, after graduating, and joins her mother, Siri (Laurie Simmons), and sister, Nadine (Grace Dunham), in their house. They are her real-life mother and sister, as well. All three of them spout affected platitudes about each other and life, in general. One is more self-involved than the other, creating an aura, if you will, of a place you would run out of if you were ever unfortunate enough to find yourself amongst these utter bores.
Amazingly, all of the other characters are just as annoying as these three unbearable females. None is more grating than Jed (Alex Karpovsky), a filmmaker in town to take meetings. Aura invites him to crash at her mom's apartment and he obliges. A thoroughly tedious relationship slowly evolves between Jed and Aura, but there is no feeling between them and no chemistry in the least. I imagine that is part of the message of the writer/director, but all it does is add to the malaise that grips everyone in the film and everyone who has made the mistake of watching it on the screen.
My best guess is that all of this is supposed to represent the confusion of family life and especially the uncertainty of finishing one's education, only to be confronted with the great abyss of the "real world". It doesn't matter, though, because there are no solutions or epiphanies here, nor even any real insights as to why people behave the way that they do. It's more of an exercise of let's see how empty we can all appear. Mission accomplished. This is one empty non-adventure, featuring no personal growth or any emotions, other than snarkiness.
