Smith's Verdict

By Tanner Smith

I’ve made it no secret on this blog that I’m a fan of Mark & Jay Duplass (aka the Duplass Brothers), pioneers of micro-budget filmmaking. From directorial feats like Baghead to Cyrus, from producing gems like Safety Not Guaranteed to 7 Days, they make a great impression by making small films feel important.

And it began with their debut feature: “The Puffy Chair.”

After making no-budget improvised short films (some of which were accepted at the Sundance Film Festival) with very few resources, brothers Jay & Mark decided to make a feature film with the same spirit and passion that they put into the shorts. (And their parents, who are credited as executive producers, loaned them $15,000 to shoot it.) The result is “The Puffy Chair,” an indie-dramedy feature that focuses on relationship issues–for example, it’s one thing to say you’re going to commit to your significant other; it’s another thing to actually commit. (How did Kevin Smith’s “Clerks” put it? “Sh*t or get off the pot.”)

It’s as indie and as “mumblecore” as it gets, with then-unknowns casting their girlfriends and friends (and paying them $100 a day), using minimal camera equipment, and improvising a good chunk of the dialogue. But I’ll say this (and I don’t know if it’s controversial or not)–when it comes to the indie-mumblecore era that was prominent in the 2000s, I get so much more out of “The Puffy Chair” than I ever do with others. (All respect to mumblecore grads like Andrew Bujalski and Joe Swanberg, whose works I also admire–I like their later works better than their mumblecore entries.) Much of it has to do with the likability of the actors (which include Mark Duplass himself and his then-girlfriend/now-wife Katie Aselton, both of whom co-starred in the FX series “The League” and collaborated on Aselton’s feature film Black Rock, in two of the three leading roles), the universal theme of relationship trauma, the raggedy nature of the filmmaking, and some good laughs to balance out the emotional elements.

Mark Duplass and Katie Aselton star as Josh and Emily, a couple in their mid-20s. They’ve been together for years, but now, they’re simply coasting, with no real future plans in mind. Josh is waiting for either something really good or really bad to happen to decide for him whether or not he should propose–while Emily wants him to propose. In the film’s prologue, we see these two having fun together before she gets angry at his subtle ignorance and storms off, leading to him pulling another charming move (imitating Lloyd Dobler in “Say Anything”–except he left his Peter Gabriel CD at home) and inviting her on a road trip with him from New York to Atlanta for his father’s birthday.

On the way, they pick up Rhett (Rhett Wilkins), Josh’s neo-hippie brother. (This is news to Emily–she knew they were visiting him; she didn’t know he’d be the third wheel on this road trip.) And they’re also going to pick up a purple La-Z-Boy recliner (the titular “puffy chair”) that resembles one Josh & Rhett’s father had a long time ago and Josh purchased on eBay–they plan to deliver it as their dad’s birthday present. Being a road-trip movie, you expect things to go wrong and they do–Josh keeps showing his well-meaning but constant inefficiency (which causes friction amongst him and Emily), a motel night-stay goes wrong, the chair is terribly worn-out (can you get a chair reupholstered within 24 hours for a few hundred dollars?), Rhett meets a woman named Amber (Julie Fischer) which then leads to further complication, and so on. By the time they reach their destination at the end of the film, Josh has to make a decision with Emily, whether to grow with her or stop kidding himself for both their sakes.

The film is all about Josh & Emily’s relationship trauma, and we even get hints of some of the things that caused the complications–Josh used to be a musician (now he’s a booking agent) and his touring schedule resulted in much time away from Emily, and it’s also hinted that she caused him to leave his band. Is there a future for them? (A road trip may just be what they need to truly evaluate where they are at this point…) At times this dysfunctional-couple dynamic is painful to watch, but it’s always realistic and it’s also very funny, particularly in the ways the three main characters work off each other, the misadventures they go on together (particularly at the first motel, when they try to get a cheap room), and especially what the puffy chair in question must go through before the trip is over.

It’s all beautifully handled, and the ending to “The Puffy Chair” is both satisfying and bittersweet–though, you may not be all for it upon initial viewing; when you stop to think about it, however, it seemed very inevitable.

“The Puffy Chair” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2005 and was released theatrically in 2006. Little did Mark & Jay Duplass know that it would pave the way for a bright and successful career for both of them (and for Katie Aselton, who’s now a prominent character actress) and light the way for budding filmmakers they inspired.

By Tanner Smith

I KNOW, I KNOW!!! Steven Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds” isn’t a great movie. I’m as annoyed by Dakota Fanning’s Rachel as much as the next person. I’m not entirely sure why Tim Robbins’ crazy survivalist had to be there. And the arc with Justin Chatwin’s Robbie could have been handled a lot better. I KNOW! I’m not going to try and defend this movie like I always seem to do with Signs, a superior alien-invasion thriller. I’m aware of this movie’s faults……

But every time I watch this movie, all the good stuff in it is so freaking good that they make the movie worth seeing again and again!

Maybe I’m a little biased towards “War of the Worlds” because of my first viewing of it at age 13. My family and I saw it in a theater, on the biggest screen with the best surround-sound in the old Malco cinema in Jonesboro, AR–to me, it was INTENSE! Everything was blowing up, everyone’s running for their lives, I felt like I was there in the middle of it…honestly, I can’t think of another theatrical experience like it–it just blew 13-year-old Tanner away!!

I remember stepping out of the theater with my family afterwards and being relieved that everything was still here, we were still alive, everything was OK.

So what is it about Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds” that makes it so powerful?

Well, for one thing, Spielberg keeps the perspective on ground-level. We’re with Ray (Tom Cruise) every step of the way, so we see the horrible invasion through his eyes. We don’t even learn how far this attack has spread until HE finds out. It makes it feel more real that way. A lot of the time, we don’t even see the action–we just see the aftermath of it, such as an airplane that has crashed into the house where Ray and the kids were sheltering. There are also dead bodies floating along a river and a passing train whose cars are ablaze. This is like a dark version of “Close Encounters,” to reference another Spielberg film.

In addition to the twisted parallels of “Close Encounters,” there’s also this key difference of father figures–in “Close Encounters,” Richard Dreyfuss abandoned his family to pursue the aliens; in “War of the Worlds,” Tom Cruise tries to keep his family as far away from the aliens as possible.

The first attack, of which Ray is right in the middle, recalls some images of 9/11, made especially clear and terrifying when Ray returns home and realizes he’s covered in the ashes of the deceased. Spielberg, soon after making this movie, also made Munich, which was his way of trying to comprehend the war on terror–“War of the Worlds” is more about trying to survive it.

“Munich” is a great film–“War of the Worlds” may not be great, but I still love it.

My favorite scene: Ray and his kids manage to get the only car operating and escape the second wave (and again, we’re kept with the characters, at the car, so what we see of the action is very limited). Ray tries to explain what’s happening, Robbie tries to calm a panicking Rachel, and all while we’re focused on them riding in a speeding car, this all takes place in one shot! Spielberg, you madman.