![Tiny Furniture (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] (2010)](/wp_content/uploads/2012/02/515pUhIO5BL._SL500_AA300__150x150.jpg "Tiny Furniture (The Criterion Collection) [Blu-ray] (2010)")
TINY FURNITURE (2010, Blu-ray released February 14, 2012 – MSRP $39.95)
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Tiny Furniture is something all together new. It’s so much more than the spawn of new-media and do-it-yourself filmmaking. Or the ‘mumblecore’ scene. It transcends its origins and influences and marks the beginning of something new and powerful – raw, honest, digital filmmaking with an eye toward narrative, design and composition. It’s a remarkable and worthy, yet controversial addition to The Criterion Collection.
- “Lena Dunham got her start making YouTube videos, but she emerged as a major talent thanks to the breakthrough success of this exceptionally sharp comedy, which garnered the twenty-four-year-old writer-director-actor comparisons to the likes of Woody Allen. Dunham plays Aura, a recent college graduate who returns to New York and moves back in with her mother and sister (played by the filmmaker’s real-life mother and sister). Though Aura is gripped by stasis and confusion about her future, Dunham locates endless sources of refreshing humor in her plight. As painfully confessional as it is amusing, Tiny Furniture is an authentic, incisive portrait of a young woman at a crossroads.“
Tiny Furniture marks my introduction to the films of Lena Dunham – the self-made, home-made-filmmaker who gained fame when one of her YouTube shorts made the website’s front page and shot to millions of views overnight. I hadn’t had the pleasure of screening one of her films before this one but was aware of her rise to relative fame and of the type of films she was working on. And by that classification, having read so much about her, her films and their place in the ‘mumblecore’ scene, I was expecting the worst when I sat down with Criterion’s new Blu-ray disc of the film. My expectations couldn’t have led me further astray.
As self-indulgent as Tiny Furniture might seem on the surface, it exhibits all the hallmarks of great craft. There’s incredible restraint and design at work here and I freely admit to being bowled over by their liberal use in this spawn of new media. Yes, Dunham’s semi-autobiographical tale of a privileged young Manhattanite struggling with a litany of first world problems can come off as twee and eye-rollingly-typical of its milieu but everything is in service of the narrative. And with a cast of very natural performers – including her real-life mother and sister – Dunham’s cast nails just the right tone to maintain a sense of realism while adding a touch of elevated humour. This is great, new stuff.
Tiny Furniture was shot digital and makes a flawless transition to Blu-ray. The Canon 5D footage, composed and captured by wunderkind cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes, looks fantastic and pure in this very attractive high-def presentation.
From the included booklet:
- “The film was shot with a Canon 5D digital camera, and the entire production was completed in a fully digital workflow. The final color-corrected DPX files were output to Rec. 709 high-definition color space for BD and DVD release.“
The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio is clean and clear but rather front-focused, as you’d expect from this kind of chatty drama. It’s pretty perfect for what it is.
From the included booklet:
- “This film features a fully digital soundtrack. The 5.1 surround audio for this release was mastered at 24-bit from the original audio master files using Pro Tools HD. “
The special features on the disc are, as per Criterion’s norm, quite excellent but I can’t help but note the lack of a commentary track on this bad boy. Dunham is rather open about her process, as she makes clear in her sit-down with Nora Ephron and in her introduction to her debut feature Creative Nonfiction, also included here, and it’s a shame she isn’t given more space to go into detail about the production. That said, her chat with Ephron is candid, as is her intro. Paul Schrader talks about the the film for a few minutes and attempts to give it some context within this fairly recent genre of movies. The package is rounded out with four of Dunham’s short films, the trailer and a fold-out booklet with an essay.
Special Features:
- New digital transfer, with DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack
- Director Lena Dunham talks about filmmaking and autobiography in a new interview with writer and filmmaker Nora Ephron
- New interview with writer-director Paul Schrader
- Creative Nonfiction, Dunham’s first feature film
- Four short films by Dunham
- Trailer
- PLUS: A booklet featuring an essay by critic Phillip Lopate
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