Review of Tiny Furniture

Aura is 22, a recent film school graduate recently dumped by her boyfriend of two years, who's left for Colorado to find his family roots. Aura's own family consists of her successful artist mother, who lives in TriBeca and has a studio where she takes photographs of objects next to doll house-sized furniture. Her sister is a pretentious high school student who seems to excel wherever Aura fails. The film follows Aura as she tries to fit back into the life she left behind, and as she struggles to find her way into the next stage of life. This is a really beautiful look at insecurity and the subtle ways that people go about trying to placate and impress others. Aura meets two men, a self-absorbed YouTube "artist" whom she allows to take advantage of her generosity, and a bored sous chef with an appetite for pills. Both men, along with several friends and her own family members, serve to highlight how insecure Aura really is, and show that deep-down she has a kindness that others know how to exploit. As Aura struggles to find herself and somehow realize who she is and where she's going, viewers are treated to a rare glimpse of how deeply sad she is, and ultimately trapped by her tendency to want to please.