Sometimes an Independent Film works just a little too hard to be just that....an Independent Film. TINY FURNITURE is a small film that got a lot of attention last year from critics and film festivals around the country. Written by, directed by, and starring Lena Dunham, it is far from an egotrip, but also far from a completely fulfilling cinematic experience. Dunham plays Aura, a 22 year old recent Ohio college graduate who returns to her mother's apartment in NYC with absolutely no clue as to what her future is going to be. Her mother is a successful Artist/Photographer who lives in one of those apartments in Manhattan that no Artist/Photographer could ever afford in real life. Aura's exsistence is spent in a meaningless job as a Hostess in a small cafe. Two very different men enter her life. One is a homeless "artist" and the other is one of the Chefs at the cafe where Aura works. While she wonders if one or both of these men are interested in her, she also balances the few girlfriends that she has with a hostile relationship with her younger sister and a condescending one with her mother. The dialogue is witty in a "nobody really talks like this" kind of way, the locations are far from Woody Allen's version of NYC, and the characters are oh so full of angst and depression over "what comes next". It all adds up to a pleasant but sluggish and empty experience for an audience. It's not a bad film, just a hollow one.
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