Thursdazed and Confused — ‘Tiny Furniture’ (2010)

I wouldn’t consider myself an expert on the now-finished HBO series Girls, but I have seen the first three seasons. Though, in all fairness, the last time I watched an episode was three years ago, and since then I have gradually lost touch with it. If someone could have told me, however, that Lena Dunham’s cinematic prelude, Tiny Furniture, would play out like an extended episode of that show, then I’d begin to wonder why she would have bothered making an extended 98-minute proof-of-concept short for HBO executives. For $65 thousand, no less.

Maybe I’ve finally reached the point in my own post-grad life where films about such transitional periods are no longer endearing, or even some kind of cathartic viewing experience that’s reflective of mine and several others’ struggles. I’ll still watch the ones that have already found their way into my heart, and others I’ll try to give a chance, but wind up harping again and again on the tired character-based and situational archetypes such movies can’t help but fall back on because they’re what’s most familiar.

Or maybe that’s nearly exactly what this film does, albeit with a more admirably naturalistic, almost documentary-like vision that removes any and all glamorizing artifices. Admittedly, Hollywood has a history of romanticizing the young 20-something’s struggle for success, as if those days genuinely warrant an attempt at nostalgia, and fortunately Tiny Furniture skillfully avoids that misguided approach for something humbler — a limiting budget will go a long way in that regard, as well — and closer to reality than similar films can say. Dunham’s dialogue often comes up strongest in this respect, free-flowing between the depressing realism of patronizing platitudes and overall dishonest language.

In spite of the refreshing lack of a veneer over various familiar characters and plot devices, they’re nonetheless uninspired clichés to which any college graduate would have grown accustomed before they ever thought about applying to their soon-to-be alma maters. It’s disappointing considering Dunham has never been one to take the traditional route as far as numerous storytelling elements are concerned, and here it feels as though she’s leaving much on the table for a narrative that may ring more personally true, yet still falls under particular dram-com trappings.

Perhaps most frustrating of all is the lack of direction this plot conveys. There’s the stereotypical indie route of simply taking a ‘slice of life’ angle that doesn’t follow mainstream rise and fall storytelling, and then there’s not imbuing characters or plot points with a sense of purpose. Needless to say, Dunham’s picture falls quite under the latter. With any luck, that wasn’t on purpose to mimic the perceived directionless-ness of young post-grads aimlessly wandering their way through small potatoes earnings on their way to hopefully greater things. In that sense, the New York City setting makes this premise a little less relatable.

It is, however, fascinating to watch scenes involving Dunham with her real-life family, giving the movie an extra boost from the reasonably natural dynamics between all three, seemingly coming to life here through their respective performances. Perhaps the only sections of the narrative where the slice of life approach actually works, their unsurprisingly realistic portrayals of, well, perhaps themselves give the film an emotional core that ought to have been more greatly explored, or at least better contextualized within the screenplay’s plot progression.

Understandably, all’s been quiet on the Lena Dunham front as far as new cinematic projects are concerned. Girls has concluded, her feminist newsletter Lenny Letter must be taking up a fair chunk of her time, especially with a new book imprint on the way and she continues to show up in a variety of indie productions, so when a new cinematic venture arises is anyone’s guess. I just hoped that, whenever it arrives, it’s a more assured presentation of her noticeable skills.

2.5/5

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