Aura (Lena Dunham) has just graduated from a mid-Western college and returns home to her successful photographer mother (Laura Simmons) and antagonistic younger sister (Grace Dumham) in Tribeca, Manhattan, New York. The adjustmant is difficult, but since we, the audience, know nothing about her from before she left for college, we don't really know if it's an actual adjustment problem or if she's always been an insecure whiner. Yes, she has to make decisions now she didn't have to before, like starting a career or even just getting a job, moving into her own apartment with a college friend or staying with her family. But the personality we're presented with is an aimless, unmotivated young woman who yearns to be taken advantage of by men. Was she always that person?
Okay, I'm not real keen on this girl or how she tackles her problems or doesn't (rather than eagerly grasp at life). I, too, had to face the same problems upon graduation a century ago and perhaps I was as unsuccessful as she is in this film, but I had a great time doing it. Thus, it's all about one's perspective and character, not an unsolvable situation which justifiably causes self pity and laying on the floor in the depths of ennui and confusion while toying with tiny doll furniture. Also, Aura has no savvy about people that I have always believed was a gene developed in the environmental niche of New York through Darwinian mechanics. You really have to have this gene to survive in an environment of physical danger from thieves, financial danger from con artists, and emotional danger from men like those Aura pursues. Or you just have no self-esteem and be desperate to replace a lover who broke up with you, like Ora. My heart would go out to her except I'd rather slap her out of it.
Giving credit to the filmmaker and actors, 'Tiny Furniture' rings very true. We all know girls like this. We all know situations like this. The guys Aura meets, the parties she attends, the gallery shows, the very streets are all quintessential Tribeca. If you're not familiar with the neighborhood, it used to be a warehouse/industrial area near the southern tip of Manhattan. People started sneaking into non-residential lofts, hiding from fire inspectors in the 1960's and stayed until it finally became legal to live there. Over time, it became a very artistic area, then trendy, and now since Robert DeNero made it famous with his Tribeca Film Festival, incredibly expensive and exclusive. Those who moved in before its most recent transformation struggle to keep their rents down and stay. Seems like Aura's mother is either very successful in her artistic pursuits because she has a vast, two story work space and living space or she's been there since the good old days. I, personally, would never move out no matter what strife existed in this small nuclear family. That kind of space in Manhattan or even anywhere in New York City is comparable to a sprawling estate in Pacific Heights for Tenderloin rent.
What makes is film most ring true is that the film is writer/director/star Lena Dunham's semi-autobiography, and her mother and sister play ... her mother and sister, and it takes place in her actual loft-home. Obviously, Lena Dunham exaggerates her inability to get off her duff, find direction and make something of her life. Not only is 'Tiny Furniture' a tribute to her ambition, but it's her second feature, following 'Creative Nonfiction' -- all by the tender age of 24.
Tiny Furniture
Writer/Director: Lena Dunham
Cast: Lena Dunham, Laurie Simmons, Grace Dunham, Jemima Kirke, Alex Karpovsky, David Call, Merritt Wever
Time: 98 min.
Opens December 10 at the Lumiere in San Francisco
Comments