Girls: Season One (2012)

Creator: Lena Dunham

This show about a mid-20's aspiring female writer living in modern-day New York City initially caught my attention due to its refreshing authenticity. The main character, Hannah, was slightly overweight who was definitely not your average Hollywood starlet. There was sex, and it was not glamorous and wild. The cast of characters were people who I could imagine meeting in the real world, flaws and all. Much of this is because creator/writer/director/actor certainly brought much from her own life into the show and that brings a lot of authenticity and honesty into the characters and situations.

Hannah is by no means the greatest person and is certainly not very "likable," and that's not a flaw. It's actually a strength. Hannah is self-obsessed and she believes that the problems she has in her life are unique to her, even though clearly they are not. This self-obsession is the main constant of the season. It's the reason she has most of the problems in her life, and it's the reason she can't solve most of those problems. While Hannah and her friends represent a small slice of humanity, this theme is what enables it to expand into other facets of culture and different types of people. The show does comment on society occasionally, but it's above all about individual problems (if it could do both it would be as good as Mad Men). As good as the show is, there is definitely room for improvement as well. The momentum of the narrative could be done better, and there are lots of moments on the show that could have a greater impact with a better visual eye. But Dunham is young, and if she is someone who learns and improves from the past, then she is definitely going to be a filmmaker to watch.

Grade: B+

Tiny Furniture (2010)

Director: Lena Dunham

 Biopics that follow a person from their youth to their death are usually met with the criticism that they are unfocused and not all that powerful. This is because it is hard to encapsulate that many years of a persons life into a two-hour movie where the audience demands simple coherence in the theme and subject. Lives are complex, unfocused, and they've got big pacing and tone issues. That's why movies that capture a certain moment in a life have found more success and are usually much better.

Lena Dunham's Tiny Furniture is an example of that now-popular tradition. It is about a female who just graduated college and is struggling in that moment of post-graduation and pre-adulthood. The film spans maybe a couple weeks at most, and it does a fine job of capturing that part of a life specific to this culture. This only works because the movie is very honest and authentic, partly due to the autobiographical nature of the film. But I will say that while the movie as a whole is very effective, there are definitely unnecessary scenes that do not accomplish anything. Dunham seems to be a bit of an episodic storyteller, and that does not always work to her advantage. But then there are scenes like the final one in the movie that really do a wonderful job of capturing a person a turning point in their life, and the troubles and thoughts that accompany that moment.

Grade: B+