In these hard economic times, so many 18- to 24-year-olds are returning home to their parents after going away to college that they've been given a name: the "boomerang generation." It is important for mothers and fathers to establish ground rules before allowing their grown kids to move back in. And it is critical to keep the communication lines between the generations open. Tiny Furniture is a creative exploration of the adventures of one member of the boomerang generation who has moved back in with her mother — not an easy or pretty experience for either of them.

Aura (Lena Dunham) has just completed four years of college in Ohio and wants to take some time off to consider her options. She is still in shock over the end of a romantic relationship. Siri (Laurie Simmons), her mother, is a successful artist, and her younger sister Nadine (Grace Dunham) is an ambitious teenager who has just won a national poetry contest. Aura's arrival home is barely acknowledged and this reinforces her feelings of being a loser.

This feeling of disappointment is amplified when Aura has trouble getting out of bed the first morning home. She goes to a party and reconnects with Charlotte (Jemima Kirke), an attractive and idiosyncratic young woman who is desperately looking for companionship. Aura also meets Jed (Alex Karpovsky,) a filmmaker who is in town for some important meetings about his career. Learning that he needs a place to camp out, she invites him to stay in her family's spacious Tribeca loft while her mother and sister are off looking at colleges. When he agrees, Aura thinks things may be turning around for her. Through Charlotte, she lands a job as a restaurant hostess and is immediately attracted to Keith (David Call), a handsome chef who is disgruntled about his job and angered by the immigrants he has to work with who are, in his eyes, lazy and irresponsible. Although he has a girlfriend, Keith flirts with Aura and she feels affirmed.

Lena Dunham wrote, directed, and stars in Tiny Furniture, which presents a bittersweet portrait of a lonely, confused, and thin-skinned 24-year-old New Yorker. In a period of transition, she struggles to define herself as a daughter, sister, artist, friend, and lover. Things do not turn out as she expects. There is a rift with her mother who is critical of her personal slovenliness and lack of direction. There is the mysterious disappearance of all the wine in the loft and the houseguest who has overstayed his welcome. Aura has a selfish side which comes through in her relationships with Charlotte and her college buddy — who Aura treats shabbily when she arrives in New York City to find an apartment with her, as promised.

We identify with Aura's vulnerability as she tries to juggle and do justice to all the relationships in her life. We wonder what will become of this awkward and self-doubting young woman. She will perhaps, continue to be given a safe haven by her mother. But eventually Aura will have to test her wings in the real world with nothing to carry her but the wayward wind and her own energy and resilience.


Special features on the DVD include: an interview with director Lena Dunham talking about filmmaking and autobiography; an interview with writer-director Paul Schrader; "Creative Nonfiction" - Dunham's first feature film; four short films by Dunham; and a booklet featuring an essay by critic Phillip Lopate.