Lena Dunham

[onedimension]

The Elegant Dandy Fop wrote:
Where is the forum's collective sign not only over Tiny Furniture, but the inclusion of Nora Ephron on it?

Not only is Nora Ephron involved, but Nora Ephron is interviewing Dunham "about filmmaking and autobiography," i.e., here, hit this softball off the tee with a corked bat, look we moved in the outfield walls for you, oh look, a homer!

On the bright side, here's-three-chords-played-middlingly-by-Lena-Dunham-start-a-band!, I've decided to become a filmmaker

[jbeall]

I dislike mumblecore to begin with, so no personal animus toward Dunham, but I fully expect to join the griping once I've seen TF. That said, the sheer level of vitriol has me intrigued enough to watch it when I'd usually avoid the film as soon as I knew it was mumblecore.

[hearthesilence]

I think Tiny Furniture was actually the first mumblecore feature I've seen (assuming it does fall under that genre). It's "well-done" I guess but I didn't think it had anything worthwhile to say. It felt predictable, something you'd cynically expect a privileged college grad to make - very shallow and obnoxiously immature.

[Brian C]

I think people should have to give some sort of notation in each Tiny Furniture post to indicate whether or not they've actually seen the film. This has all the signs of a classic pile-on; its middling box office would seem to indicate that many more people are posting here about it than have seen it.

(Haven't seen it)

[domino harvey]

I saw it and offered anecdotal evidence about the circumstances surrounding my viewing

[knives]

Ditto.

[Professor Wagstaff]

Announced for Valentine's Day 2012.

Seriously. With Paul Schrader's involvement.

And Phillip Lopate.

Why are the people I care about getting dragged into this?

[Musashi219]

Tiny Furniture gets two interviews, an additional feature film, four shorts, and a essay booklet.

Three Outlaw Samurai gets one essay.

What. The. Fuck.

[Ashirg]

I don't think you will be happy if they included Dunham's shorts and second feature on Three Outlaw Samurai disc....

[SamLowry]

I guess I alone am ecstatic that Criterion has released this & that it has done so now. It's just what I needed to cure me of my compulsion to own every Criterion title during the B&N 50% off sale. I can now cancel my appointment with my therapist and no longer need to attend a 12 step hoarding group. Thanks Criterion for curing me of my addiction (although you were in part to blame for it in the first place).

[jbeall]

They may take awhile, but Criterion always makes things right. Have faith in the wacky C, grasshopper.

[Jazzkammer]

Am I the only one that is considering blind-buying Tiny Furniture? I've only seen one other "mumblecore" film - The Puffy Chair, but for me it was one of the most unexpectedly pleasurable films of the last decade. It had a kind of down-to-earth, sincerity (and familiarity, given that I am in the same age category as the characters) that I find very rare in cinema.

My logic is that if Tiny Furniture is anywhere near as good as that Duplass brothers film, then it is more than worthy of being in the Criterion Collection and worthy of my money.

Tiny Furniture gets two interviews, an additional feature film, four shorts, and a essay booklet.

Three Outlaw Samurai gets one essay.

What. The. Fuck.

It's easy to pack new film releases full of special features, for obvious reasons. These days, the studios and producers deliberately make supplemental material expressly for the purpose of giving added incentive for consumers to buy the movie.

Thus it is completely understandable (though unfortunate), that alot of older classics suffer from a dearth of supplemental material, because, in the time that the film made its original splash, there was no incentive for studios or the film's producers to commission such documentaries and interviews to be made. Which leads us to Criterion having the option of either not releasing the film at all, or releasing it as a lower-priced bare-bones version. Surely we must be grateful that Criterion is choosing the latter.

[Buttercream]

Am I the only one that is considering blind-buying Tiny Furniture?

I will be purchasing it, though I've seen it. Does anyone know if those are her "YouTube" shorts?

[knives]

Am I the only one that is considering blind-buying Tiny Furniture? I've only seen one other "mumblecore" film - The Puffy Chair, but for me it was one of the most unexpectedly pleasurable films of the last decade. It had a kind of down-to-earth, sincerity (and familiarity, given that I am in the same age category as the characters) that I find very rare in cinema.

My logic is that if Tiny Furniture is anywhere near as good as that Duplass brothers film, then it is more than worthy of being in the Criterion Collection and worthy of my money.

While I don't enjoy the Duplass brothers films much (I maintain they're merely okay and suffer from horrific mise-en-scene) there's at least something I can see why people would appreciate. If they're top of the heap (and I certainly consider them the best mumblecore I've seen) than this film is just a solitary step above Swanson. You can't go much lower in the genre than this.

[domino harvey]

You could watch a good effort of the genre, like Mutual Appreciation, instead

[Buttercream]

You can't go much lower in the genre than this.

I haven't seen too many Mumblecore works, but when I saw Tiny Furniture it felt more in line with a strain of 'indie' works that are preoccupied with manners in an Obama-era America of strained consumer culture. A comedy of service-job manners, if you will. I located Tiny Furniture somewhere along the lines of Life During Wartime or The Future, or even Please Give. Though I haven't seen any Swanberg and only a couple Duplass'.

[tarpilot]

Or Cold Weather, the best neo-noir of the last 10 years

[knives]

You could watch a good effort of the genre, like Mutual Appreciation, instead

That does look good.

You can't go much lower in the genre than this.

I haven't seen too many Mumblecore works, but when I saw Tiny Furniture it felt more in line with a strain of 'indie' works that are preoccupied with manners in an Obama-era America of strained consumer culture. A comedy of service-job manners, if you will. I located Tiny Furniture somewhere along the lines of Life During Wartime or The Future, or even Please Give. Though I haven't seen any Swanberg and only a couple Duplass'.

I think that's putting more thought into it than the director did, but even if we do consider that as a possibility I have to ask to what end and more importantly does it matter when the film is so poorly made as to be irritating until it is rightly forgotten?

[Buttercream]

I think that's putting more thought into it than the director did, but even if we do consider that as a possibility I have to ask to what end and more importantly does it matter when the film is so poorly made as to be irritating until it is rightly forgotten?

A fair question, and all I can say is that without putting on any airs I genuinely enjoyed Tiny Furniture. I would defend it as operating at a different metabolism that is often found in women directors who, consciously or not, develop a language outside of those prescribed by a predominately masculine aesthetic, similar to the disconnect found in many films by women New German Cinema directors. Again, if no one likes it and it's forgotten then what good is it doing. But I think some experiences can be stifled by prevailing modes of expression. I can't say Tiny Furniture is the work of a genius, but I don't think it's the work of a nincompoop either.

[knives]

So are you suggesting then that it is working as a masculine work and if so how does that shade it as unique? Also I must admit that outside of concerning themselves with women characters and issues I don't see how one can say that women usually use a different film language than men. Varda for instance from a purely grammatical standpoint is reasonably similar to other french film makers of the period (in fact I'd argue that her husband and Rohmer are far more feminine in grammar). Ditto Coppola with van Sant and Gallo. I don't think in technical terms there is any difference that can be discerned via gender.

[matrixschmatrix]

I don't think there's some magical force that means women make fundamentally different works than men, but there are some movies that feel refreshingly like alternatives to the overwhelmingly masculine outlook of most cinema- it's one of the things I really like about An Angel at my Table, and Meek's Cutoff.

I think it's reasonable to say of a movie made by a woman or several women, that feels different in a way that perhaps reflects a creative process that isn't controlled largely by men- so that most large Hollywood movies still wouldn't qualify- that it's interesting for that reason. It just seems sad if the best example of such a movie that comes to hand is fucking Tiny Furniture.

[knives]

Fortunately it's not even in the running.

[Gregory]

... Varda for instance from a purely grammatical standpoint is reasonably similar to other french film makers of the period (in fact I'd argue that her husband and Rohmer are far more feminine in grammar). Ditto Coppola with van Sant and Gallo. I don't think in technical terms there is any difference that can be discerned via gender.

Demy, Rohmer, Coppola, and Van Sant's styles seem pretty varied to me. What does it mean to say they're "feminine in grammar"? (I've only seen one of Gallo's films as a director.)

[knives]

I'm sorry I should of said subject rather than grammar there and didn't intend to suggest that the French New Wavers were anything like my American examples (I think they can be similar with their minimalist movies to the point where you could make a nice little triple feature between Gerry, The Brown Bunny, and Somewhere).

[Murdoch]

You could watch a good effort of the genre, like Mutual Appreciation, instead

My experience with mumblecore is limited to say the least, but I thought Bujalski's Beeswax was a genuinely good (maybe even great) movie. It managed to make a fairly compelling, splice-of-life story out of little more than a vintage clothing shop and a guy studying for the bar exam.