Tiny Furniture

While Lena Dunham’s impressive feature-writing/directorial debut doesn’t score huge points for its technical aspects, this low-budget movie has a lot of charm, thanks to her presence in the central role of Aura, a recent college grad who has returned to New York City and the ritzy apartment of her mother (Laurie Simmons, Dunham’s actual mom). She gets a hostess job not worthy of her degree, allows a homeless artist to crash in her mom’s apartment, and frequently argues with her coddled sister, Nadine (Grace Dunham, her actual sister). While some of the film feels a little too amateurish, the movie has plenty of great moments, and Dunham certainly shows major promise as a filmmaker. Let’s see what she can do with an actual budget and real actors!