Movie_Muse_Reviews The saga of the Millennial college graduate who moves back home and begins a maddening search for direction — that's what Lena Dunham sets off to depict in "Tiny Furniture" and she does it in the most Millennial way possible: completely DIY including casting her mother and sister to play — her mother and sister.Dunham captures the mundanity of post-undergrad life at home, even though her character Aura's life is a little more unusual; home is a Manhattan loft where mom (Laurie Simmons) is an a photographer/visual artist (she actually is in real life) of solid notoriety. Sister Nadine (Grace Dunham) lives there too, but she's in the no-pressure zone of high school. There isn't so much a plot synopsis as a list of friends new and old and other influences who make Aura's new life as a young adult and dreams of becoming a successful artist complicated and messy.The authenticity of Dunham's voice as a writer rings clear. A lot of it is the semi- autobiographical form; it's impossible for any peers watching (and maybe some a little older) not to relate in some way to Aura's "struggle." It might be nice if more stuff happened in the film instead of a whole lot of stuff that could be stuff but doesn't ever become stuff, but there's also something refreshing about taking it in as a contemporary portrait of an emerging generation. Also, you could argue that there's a certain poetic truth to the fact that nothing really happens.The "action" is how Aura navigates internal and external pressures. Everyone around her, for example, seems to have found a measure of success. Her mother, for one, has been successful forever; she meets a successful-ish YouTube star in Jed (Alex Karpovsky) who's talking to networks about a TV show and even her sister was recognized nationally for her poetry, which Aura can't help but demean. Then there's her oldest childhood friend, Charlotte (Jemima Kirke, Dunham's actually oldest childhood friend) who sports the couldn't-care-less attitude that plays in contrast to it all.Aura's first foray into the "real world" involves getting a job, since that's what people are supposed to do, but of course being a daytime closed-hours hostess at a restaurant is a far cry from her aspirations, even though she seems to believe its in her best interest. Throughout the course of the film, Dunham exposes a bit more of Aura's psychology, namely the complex nature of her relationship to her family and home in the specific and broadest sense. Done for as low a budget as possible, the actors here are all amateurs but it doesn't show. Dunham's strength is obviously her writing, but she's a sufficient stand in for the average 22-year-old, and as a director, she makes the most of it with some interesting shot framing to bring varying perspectives to the talk-heavy action."Tiny Furniture" is a really impressive debut for a fledgling filmmaker, especially one whose talent is writing and simply needed to round up a cast and crew to realize her story into some kind of finished product. It could certainly use a plot, but Dunham is able to effectively touch on the melange of post-college emotions in the 21st century in a way that's yet to be articulated, and which she effectively continued to expound upon in her HBO series "Girls," which this movie made possible. Dunham recognizes the complexity of her generation. There is a self-centered component, there's a familial dependency, but there's also a mixed bag of influences and life philosophies that can take hold of the wheel at any moment. We are pitiable and pitiful, lost yet driven, naive and all too aware of how the world works.~Steven CThanks for reading! Visit Movie Muse Reviews for more

Danna Hinton I honestly tried my hardest to enjoy this film, but I just didn't. I consider myself a fairly broad film watcher but this one was tough to get through. The plot was slow to unfold, the humor was dry, and "the pipe sex scene" was completely unnecessary.As a person in their twenties who is often categorized as a millennial, I vividly remember my days in 2009 when the after college disillusionment was starting to set in. The lead female character I found hard to identify with, and I doubt many of my peers find themselves in a pipe with a stranger having sex just because they are stuck in a rut and life after college has left them disillusioned. I will refrain from ever saying that I hate a piece of art because it is art and it will speak to someone in some unique way. I'm simply saying this film just didn't work for me.

scarletminded I wanted to watch this movie to see what the big deal with Lena Dunham is. I don't think I found it here or a reason to watch Girls, which I assume is the same plot as this film is. Dunham's technique is good. I liked to way she set up static shots. I know people complain about static shots, but I find them refreshing after seeing shows like American Horror Story go crazy with the hand held off and on focus shots. She did a lot with a little money. Not sure why she didn't admit her parents paid for the film. That is funny to me. "Mommy I want to make a film, can I have 50k?" "Yes, dear, let me get my checkbook and you can also use my swanky pad and we can act in it too!"The one thing that bothered me was the constant reference to Aura being a genius. I guess Dunham subconsciously made her path. It is almost like she was pushed into a débutante ball and upon her discovery, Judd Apatow grabbed her on his arm. I wouldn't be surprised if all these people knew each other. It's sort of a roll your eyes moment, since I know a lot of people who have talent that will never get half the salary and attention Dunham gets. It's not only her, but a lot of people who make films.Overall, this movie reminded me a lot of Beeswax. It has that mumblecore flavor, despite Dunham saying it had a script. It comes off like it didn't have one. I was introduced to characters that I thought would end up doing something, but none of them did. It didn't have much of a plot and ended flat like Beewax did. It's OK. I don't hate it but I wouldn't go out of my way to see it or Girls, which I think is the same thing. I think the pipe sex scene was done in a different yet same way for Girls.I do have to say, Lena Dunham can whine. Her spoiled brat antics in this film are real and I think that is because she is playing herself. When she got into a whiny fight with her mom, that was the best "acting" in this film. It was also a late entry into SXSW and won. Is that fishy or what? I feel sort of bad for those folks without rich parents who turned their entries in on time.

evanston_dad This quiet, unassuming movie about a recent college graduate who moves back in with her mom and sister while trying to figure out what to do with her life got under my skin and stayed there.Director Lena Dunham, who also stars in the film as Aura, has a knack for putting together individual scenes that play as if nothing of much significance is happening in them, but that when put together as a whole reveal an awful lot about the lives of her characters. Much of the film follows Aura as she aimlessly hangs out with friends, meets guys, gets a job. She's awkward and maybe an easy target, but she's also sweet and harmless and easy enough to root for. She gets on her mom's nerves and vice versa, fights with her sister, and overstays her welcome in her mom's house. We've seen it all before, right? Not really. "Tiny Furniture" may be about subject matter we've seen done a hundred times, but it felt like a totally unique take on it. In fact, it's not until the film's final moments, and when you're thinking about it afterwards, that you realize the movie isn't really that much about Aura's ennui and lack of direction; it's about her relationship with her mom, a fact that's easy to overlook by the small amount of screen time the mom has. By the end of the movie, Aura's increasingly destructive and increasingly disturbing behavior seems less like a lonely girl's attempts to fill the boring hours of her day, and instead like the ever-more-desperate attempt of a child trying to force an absentee parent into taking notice of her.This is a really wonderful movie with tiny nuances in the direction and acting that set it apart from other indie films like it.Grade: A