MovieChat Forums > Tiny Furniture (2012) Discussion > what happened to young filmakers who act...

what happened to young filmakers who actually told stories???

posted 13 years ago by mulholland_empire
20 replies | jump to latest

and made them extremely compelling????

i mean look at the first films of-

polanski- knife in the water
von trier- element of crime
argento- bird w the crystal plumage
lumet- 12 angry men
lynch- eraserhead
malick- badlands

these directors where all young when these films were made and they werent just some garbage about finding there place in life right after theyve finished college. there was a compelling plot and each director made there mark in the film world.

now we have young filmakers like dunham, and sean durkin who made that god awful marcy may marlene. whats happening with young filmmakers these days?? then there was this other one i saw i think it was called cold weather and it was another piece of crap from a young director.

im guessing its just the times we are living in but it is really sad. i think the only movie i saw last year that i liked by a young filmaker was drive. but it was not the first film by that director.

the last two great young filmmakers i can think of are chris nolan and darren aronofsky, and they have both been around for a while now.

can anyone think of any other young filmmakers recently who have made great first films???

[–] GrigoryGirl 13 years ago

All those films you listed are light years better than Tiny Furniture.

You can add...

Tarkovsky-Ivan's Childhood
Welles-Citizen Kane
Visconti-Ossessione
Godard-Breathless

[–] mulholland_empire 13 years ago

yes those are def more. i have thought of more since i last posted her.

gaspar noe-i stand alone
wes anderson-bottle rocket
steve mcqueen-hunger
andrea arnold-fish tank(although im not sure if its her first)

all are great first films, and the directors where all young when they were made

[–] jerrellejames-1 13 years ago

Andrea Arnold was pushing 50 when Fish Tank was made. Steve McQueen was nearly 40 when he made Hunger.

But these directors were all in their 20s when they made their directorial debuts:

David Gordon Green - George Washington (2000)
Kevin Smith - Clerks. (1994)
The Hughes Brothers - Menace II Society (1993)
Quentin Tarantino - Reservoir Dogs (1992)
John Singleton - Boyz n the Hood (1991)
Steven Soderbergh - sex, lies and videotape (1989)

[–] mulholland_empire 13 years ago

wow i did not realize andrea arnold was that old. i thought she was much longer, but it makes sense because fish tank feels like a very mature film.

i did think of 3 more directors tho too add

todd solondz-welcome to the dollhouse. i think he was only in his 30s wen he made it.

the coens where also in there early 30s when they made blood simple

pt anderson-hard eight. he was only in his 20s

and how could i have forgotten k smith and qt lol

[–] CitrusWithFuschiaTrim 13 years ago

Though of course Solondz made his less-than-thrilling debut feature some 6 years before Dollhouse. I've plenty of time for his films generally, but i'd take Tiny Furniture over Fear, Anxiety & Depression any day.
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I suppose on a clear day you can see the class struggle from here.

[–] kinggsone 13 years ago

You couldn't have put much thought into this. The people you listed, those type of directors "auteurs" as some people call them, do not come along often. For every Polanski there are 50 Brett Ratners. In my opinion, this girl is somewhere in between the two, maybe even above average considering how much garbage hits film every year.

I guess my main point is, you shouldn't expect every new young filmmaker to be Polanski. It's just not fair. Also, I feel like Dunham doesn't deserve this. There are many people in the industry who are far worse.

[–] mulholland_empire 13 years ago

im not expecting every new director that comes along to be polanski lol.

but when they have the acclaim that dunham and tiny furniture did you have to wonder what the hell is going on. you would think the film was going to be something speacial as a first film by a young writer/director with all its acclaim and comparison to woody allen.

directors/auteurs call them what you want they are all reaching for the same thing, creating art through filmmaking, so of course they are going to be compared.

and there are people in the industry who are far worse but most do not get any credit which makes sense, i guess where im heading with this, is that, no there is nothing average or above average about tf or dunham.

[–] jac91604 13 years ago

I agree with the OP. What happened to story telling?

Your first film doesn't have to be a masterpiece.

But the trick to good filmmaking is to grab the audience within a certain of amount of time. Who are these people? Why should I care? What are they doing?

[–] beierfilms 13 years ago

Story telling is getting replaced with what I'd consider masturbating on film. I think for a lot of young filmmakers, story telling is just too much work and they'd much rather just make a half-assed film in which they present the audience with a poorly disguised account of their lives. It's lazy but there are often enough people who come from similar backgrounds who will see the movie and defend it as "real" or "raw."

[–] preciouslilywhite 13 years ago

i wasn't a fan of this movie, but it really seems like you are defining 'storytelling' as a story with a beginning, middle, and end, which is not how all stories go, and certainly not how life goes. i believe dunham was trying to portray a moment in life realistically, and it was indeed realistic- the odds that 4 weeks in the life of a person going through a rough time is going to have a neat climax and resolution are slim.

i think this was a great effort for a young person, and even though i didn't necessarily like it, she was clearly not trying to do what you think she failed at doing.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] mulholland_empire 13 years ago

"a fine film on a minuscule budget"

a miniscule budget but the film is as atrocious as my english.

go crawl back under your hole mumble core fan boy. let us know how you like the next aaron katz or xavier dolan films.

[–] Drusilla (565) 8 years ago

Funny you mentioned the Woody comparison. I never knew Tiny Furniture was compared to him. I am not a Lena Dunham fan but love Woody Allen films. At one point, while watching this, I said that something reminded me of Woody. Which kind of makes it plausible considering I did not know that going in. She doesn't have to be as great as him but it doesn't mean there isn't something there. It could have even been shitty Woody.

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Since there is no more IMDb I find myself responding to 5 year old threads as if they are current. And I don't care.

[–] TeaBunny 13 years ago

You couldn't see people watching Eraserhead and saying, "What a piece of crap! It made no sense and everything was so depressing! What kind of story WAS that?" I could totally hear my mom saying that when it came out. Now she would "get" David Lynch more, and she liked Twin Peaks. She would not LIKE Eraserhead but she would understand Lynch is weird.

TF is a slice of life movie; there are TONS of them out there, you either like them or you do not.

Also: I heard so many people rank on Clerks and a lot of people still do. "Bad acting, terrible writing blah blah" I love Clerks and there is NO story there at all. It's a slice of life movie like I mentioned above.

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"Love means never having to say you're ugly." - the Abominable Dr. Phibes

[–] FletcherofLocksley 12 years ago

I agree, and I'm especially surprised because I read that Lena graduated with a degree in Creative Writing. Not a generic Cinema degree. Creative Writing -- she should know the three act structure, and she should know about active/passive characters.

Geronimo

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] thebubbleincident 11 years ago

With regard to the acclaim the film received: you are all forgetting that Lena comes form a very rich and well connected family.

[–] Penisinfurs46 9 years ago

There is no story-telling connection between any of the films you listed or Tiny Furniture at all. They all (including Tiny Furniture) operate within their respective genres to a highly skilful degree and that's that.

Also, there are hundred of films being released every year by first-time directors which could be mentioned in the same sentence as those mentioned above, you just have to look a little further than the top 10 rack in Tescos.

"All I want, is to enter my hoes justified"

[–] chas437 9 years ago

The bar has really been lowered. I've seen most of Dunham's work, Girls, TF, Nobody Walks, based on all the hype.

I'm just not seeing much in Dunham's writing. All the nepotism aside, it seems Dunham gets a huge amount of credit for being some sort of hipster, neo-feminist. It seems like a certain crowd likes the idea of her, but does anyone think this is actually good writing?

Its callow, uninspired work. I guess its feminist in that it puts forth the idea that women can be fat, lazy, self indulgent slobs, just like men. Wow, now that's profound....

Lena Dunham is typical of the cultural malaise of the ultra PC hipster movement.

She'll be a TV panelist soon, that's what her future holds.

[–] ena-volog 8 years ago

I know this post was years ago.

But I would like to say that there are very few female directors out there. And it's important for women to tell stories, even if the story is surrounding "fat, lazy, self indulgent slobs - just like men", as you put it.

Our culture and how we view the world is shaped by movies and tv shows. It's not an accurate representation of the world if most entertainment is defined by the white, male gaze. So I applaud Lena in both Tiny Furniture, Nobody Walks, and Girls because she isn't afraid to tell her story and she is an inspiration to aspiring young directors.