LENA DUNHAM CRITERION, REALLY?
I haven’t seen it yet, but I’ll go on record and say that Tiny Furniture was the best film of 2011 and will probably make the top ten in the upcoming Sight and Sound poll.
There are hundreds of films in the Criterion Collection; you can’t hope to like them all. As for the Fassbinder comparison, I’m sure many have described him as lowbrow and worthless before he became popular; we have the benefit of hindsight . She’s a young artist; give her a chance.
What’s laserdisc? I don’t understand that word
btw – she didn’t even want to shoot her film on a 5D. She said they really had no other choice.
I can’t wait for Criterion to release season 1 of Girls. Leave it to Dunham to pop Criterions’ TV show cherry.
Been there:
Ohh, that doesn’t count!
I will say that Criterion sure has improved their cover design. That ^ is atrocious.
@Santino
Umm…ok. ;)
I hope Criterion pops its’ animation cherry before they start experimenting with TV.
That doesn’t count either. It’s an anthology. Robert Altman doesn’t count either, nor does Bergman.
What about Louis Malle? Calcutta? What about Fassbinder? Berlin Alexanderplatz? Also, The Beastie Boys Anthology. Not made for theatrical distribution. Oh, An Angel at My Table.
You crazy, Santino.
Are any of those TV series? Not miniseries or specials but actually multi-season series.
The semantics gear is quite good for building momentum for backpedaling indeed.
—PolarisDiB
^ha! I like that sentence! I’m totally going to use it.
Brianhabana,
I wouldn’t defend Tiny Furniture to my death. I just think there are good reasons for Criterion to release it, as good as any reason they might have had to release Broadcast News and Blade Runner (on laserdisc!), for example.
@SANTINO “What’s laserdisc? I don’t understand that word”
You ain’t kidding. Although old sods like me treasured early CC laserdiscs of rare and canon titles (w/ added commentaries!), there’s a huge demographics of CC market who just started buying Criterion dvds only when they released Fear and Loathing In Las Vegas and those Wes Anderson films. We can’t expect them all to even remember or appreciate watching Magnificent Ambersons, 81/2, Alphaville, Bad Day at Black Rock or Playtime on a giant flying disc you have to flip over to watch Side B.
Tiny Furniture is o.k., nothing spectacular, but Criterion folks definitely know what they’re doing. The young, hip(ster) market is out there and CC surely will sell enough to break even.
O.K., I caught an episode of ‘Girls’ on HBO- holy shit! Heaven forbids that stinker ever end up on CC if they ever decide to do cable tv series.
^lol.
I haven’t seen Girls yet but I did just watch Tiny Furniture the other day. It’s about as mediocre as you can get.
Tiny Furniture is the most assured indie film I have seen in decades
I have yet to see Girls (don’t have HBO) but I have a bit of a crush on Lena right now
I wonder what it is about her that gets under so many people’s skin the way she does. And I’m not talking about just the people who appreciate her.
she seems fearless and is attractive in an endearing way while being unattractive to many (female woody allen)
@Dennis: Yeah, exactly.
And to anyone upset about the release of a particular film in the Criterion Collection — just don’t fucking buy it. It’s really that simple. They’re a big company, not your own personal DVD label. Look at everything they’ve given us. If they want to release Tiny Furniture, a movie that is likely a big seller these days thanks to Dunham’s newfound stardom, so be it. I like to see them release a contemporary film every now and then.
thanks for the clip after seeing the short shorts in Tiny Furniture I wanted to see the nudity!
I wonder what it is about her that gets under so many people’s skin the way she does. And I’m not talking about just the people who appreciate her.
I’ll preface by saying that I’m a fan of hers.
she is given artistic license to portray women in a certain light that someone of the opposite sex would get criticized as being misogynistic for.
tons of males have done worse (including her producer Apatow) without criticism; like Allen she puts most of the unpleasant aspects on herself
^it could be argued that the way she portrays men is similar to how Apatow portrays women in his films.
Apatow displays both with equal disdain.
I have only seen Tiny Furniture and it lost half a star for the rapey male characters without any real redeming values (cept they are literate). She describes her ex as a wimpy feminist and seems eager to get chocked or talked badly to be these new guys, maybe that is systematic of girls who have dated less manly men for too long.
I do admire that she gives herself attractive male leads without any one batting an eye, as Allen did.
Drunken Father Figure of Old
This board astounds me.
Me, too. If Criterion releases a movie you don’t like, just don’t buy it!