Tiny Furniture (2010)
71%RT Audience Score: 54%
Awards & Nominations: 5 wins & 8 nominations
Agonizingly funny, Tiny Furniture marks an observant study of a failure to launch and an auspicious debut for writer-director Lena Dunham
Tiny Furniture is a movie that’s like a slice of life, but not the good kind of slice like pizza. It’s more like a slice of stale bread that you accidentally left out on the counter for too long. The characters are all kind of annoying and self-absorbed, but in a way that’s almost endearing. It’s like watching a train wreck in slow motion, but you can’t look away. Lena Dunham definitely has a unique voice and style, but whether or not you’ll enjoy this movie depends on how much you can tolerate watching people make bad decisions and complain about their lives.
Production Company(ies)
Distributor
IFC Films
Release Type
Streaming, Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Vinegar Hill, Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA
MPAA / Certificate
Not Rated
Year of Release
2012
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby SR
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Aspect ratio:2.35 : 1
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Runtime:1h 39m
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Language(s):English
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Nov 12, 2010 Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 1, 2014
Genre(s)
Comedy/Drama
Keyword(s)
starring Lena Dunham, Laurie Simmons, Grace Dunham, Rachel Howe, Merritt Wever, Amy Seimetz, David Call, Alex Karpovsky, Jemima Kirke, Kyle Martin, Alicia Van Couvering, directed by Lena Dunham, written by Lena Dunham, comedy, drama, box office performance, budget, reviewed by Chris Chang, Tara Brady, Tim Robey, Peter Bradshaw, Nigel Andrews, Emma Dibdin, Mattie Lucas, Jamie Neish, Lindy West, David Sterritt, Sean Burns, starring Lena Dunham as Aura, Laurie Simmons as Siri, Grace Dunham as Nadine, Rachel Howe as Candice, Merritt Wever as Frankie, Amy Seimetz as Ashlynn, IFC Films, MPAA rating, failure to launch, photographer, restaurant, cult internet star, New York City, college graduate, relationships, work in progress, coming of age, personal, self-absorbed, insecurities, privileged
Worldwide gross: $416,498
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $536,959
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,721
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 58,556
US/Canada gross: $391,674
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $504,956
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,323
US/Canada opening weekend: $21,235
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $27,377
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,394
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $65,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $83,800
Production budget ranking: 2,145
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $45,126
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): $408,034
ROI to date (est.): 316%
ROI ranking: 440
Laurie Simmons – Siri
Grace Dunham – Nadine
Rachel Howe – Candice
Merritt Wever – Frankie
Amy Seimetz – Ashlynn
Director(s)
Lena Dunham
Writer(s)
Lena Dunham
Producer(s)
Kyle Martin, Alicia Van Couvering
Film Festivals
South by Southwest
Awards & Nominations
5 wins & 8 nominations
Academy Awards
All Critics (98) | Top Critics (40) | Fresh (78) | Rotten (20)
an interpersonal chamber-piece that succeeds as well as it does thanks to the unabashed intimacy it has with its own diminutive subject matter. Call it a mumblecore mumblepiece.
November 13, 2013
Chris Chang
Film Comment Magazine
TOP CRITIC
Dunham’s satirical intentions can’t quite compensate for the pain of spending almost 100 heartless minutes in the company of irredeemably unlikeable characters.
March 30, 2012 | Rating: 3/5
Tara Brady
Irish Times
TOP CRITIC
It’s best enjoyed, like Aura’s life, as a work in progress, promisingly tangy and archly amusing.
March 30, 2012 | Rating: 3/5
Tim Robey
Daily Telegraph (UK)
TOP CRITIC
Dunham’s critics are circling but this is well-written and funny.
March 29, 2012 | Rating: 4/5
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian
TOP CRITIC
Dunham’s on-screen mixture – essentially all the S’s (sadness, structurelessness, serendipity) – is stirred so skilfully it makes recent indie cinema of extemporisation, from mumblecore to Miranda Otto, seem like am-dram.
March 29, 2012 | Rating: 4/5
Nigel Andrews
Financial Times
TOP CRITIC
A painfully authentic anti-coming-of-ager.
March 29, 2012 | Rating: 4/5
Emma Dibdin
Little White Lies
TOP CRITIC
A refreshingly frank and unencumbered narrative, just as funny and charming as it is melancholy and moving.
August 5, 2019 | Rating: 3/4
Mattie Lucas
From the Front Row
Through Dunham’s spot-on, methodical compositions, each and every interaction between characters, each sly glance and body movement represent the varying characters’ personalities and attitudes more than dialogue ever could.
August 14, 2018 | Rating: 4/5
Jamie Neish
HeyUGuys
Tiny Furniture is an observant portrait of those frustrating, entitled, complicated, unflattering moments when you suspect you could be everything but feel like nothing.
August 29, 2017
Lindy West
The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
Taken at face value, Tiny Furniture is an amiable comedy-drama with an unlikely heroine and an assortment of quirky supporting characters. The picture is more intriguing, though, when you consider its unusual casting.
February 28, 2016
David Sterritt
Tikkun
Dunham offers glancing and at times devastatingly funny hints at the world beyond our protagonist’s blinkered narcissism.
May 3, 2015
Sean Burns
Philadelphia Weekly
As Aura is unable to see past the immediate moment, the plot is structured in a way that provides no foreseeable linear direction to an inevitable destination.
June 2, 2014 | Rating: B
Landon Palmer
Film School Rejects…
Plot
About a recent college grad who returns home while she tries to figure out what to do with her life.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
Merritt Wever steals the movie in her brief time onscreen which speaks volumes to the last category.
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