a list of things i liked and disliked about tiny furniture
Liked:
-Pacing was solid. I think I found it less witty than it was really structured.
-The side characters. Charlotte was great, I don’t know who she is (daughter of the drummer of Bad Company? OK) but I thought she brought something to every line of dialogue she spoke. I would have liked this movie far less without her. The others were cast appropriately and I found an eery, specific familiarity in almost everyone.
-The journal entries. Thought they were tight.
-I found SOME of it relatable. Your 20s can be tough, it’s right about that. It also doesn’t fail to point out how self-centered we can be at this age.
-The men seemed like assholes and lo and behold, they were assholes.
-The family playing the family. In my mind, the two stand-out scenes were the one with the mother at the end in bed, and the all-out fight with the sister at the party. I think it touched on real feelings and that came through.
-Lena Dunham. It was refreshing to see a girl be confident with her face and her body and not go out of her way to cover up her flaws or try to fit this boring standard of beauty and “perfection” we’re all used to by now. I liked seeing her show off the goods.
Disliked:
-Tagline: “Aura would like you to know she’s having a very, very hard time.” Aura’s character doesn’t feel sorry for herself 100% of the time - sometimes she takes risks and opens herself up to people and sometimes she takes shit and sometimes she doesn’t. But that fucking tagline.
-Upper middle-class “hardships”
-Too many pretentious art references
-Were the Youtube videos meant to seem shitty? Cuz they were
-Almost very conflict was resolved in the following scene. That bothered me. There were some really intense fights and traumatizing things said (that argument with her sister, Jesus!) and yet in the next scene they’re OK again, no damage done. I understand the whole being-there-for-your-family thing, and I fight with people close to me all the time, but the total lack of consequence negates all the drama.
-The ending. I like abrupt. This was so abrupt on such a small moment (a tiny moment, yeah I get it) that I felt it cheated the rest of the film.
-Lena Dunham. I found her delivery to be too subdued to be that interesting, with the exception of when she freaks out on her mother, which was appropriately childish and shrill (been there).
All in all, I’m shocked at how much I enjoyed this movie. I thought I was supposed to hate it, but I’ve been thinking about it all day. I guess I don’t like this sort of whiny, self-centered, privileged, directionless, “white people problems” thing that characterizes the 20 year old indie American filmmaking scene today, but it’s a lot of what’s being made. I do, however, like movies that feel personal—and this WAS personal. These moments in our lives where we feel lost and small are overwhelming and feel important, and are therefore not unworthy of exploration. I just wish we had more to say sometimes.
