Tiny Furniture
From the March issue of Clash.
Like a female hybrid of Kevin Smith’s engagingly smutty dialogue and Woody Allen’s awkward neuroses, it’s easy to see why Tiny Furniture earned its director, writer and star Lena Dunham two major awards at SXSW.
Aura (Dunham) returns to her mother’s loft after university with nothing to her name aside from a so far pointless film degree and a barely viewed YouTube channel. Stuck between the stages in her life, Aura’s existential crisis is deepened / supported by her excessively confident friend Charlotte (an impressive debut role from Jemima Kirke).
Although sharing mumblecore hallmarks, Tiny Furniture manages to distinguish itself from such comparisons due to the superior strength of its photography: the static camera shots provide a voyeuristic effect that’s heightened by the OCD tidiness of Dunham’s mother’s own home. But like mumblecore, the film’s script reverberates with smart pop culture references and comically abrasive one-liners, which compensates for the brevity of the narrative and the self-indulgent subject matter.
Tiny Furniture showcases a talent will surely develop more consistently engaging work in the future – and that’s a near guarantee as Dunham is now filming the HBO comedy Girls with the guidance of Judd Apatow.
