The Puffy Chair (2005)

Trigger Warning: I am about to go into full tilt movie geek mode. If this offends you, kindly move along.

I don't know why I waited so long to explore Mumblecore movies. The very notion is right up my alley. Me, a guy who hates digital chicanery in movies, who decries bloated Hollywood franchises, who craves subtlety, who hates recycled/repurposed/regurgitated storylines.

A Halloween TV series, anyone?

Yes, I know I praise mindless slasher and action sequels, but enough is enough after a while.

Mumblecore is a loose-knit coalition that began in the early two-thousands. Filmmakers had low budgets, no special effects, loads and loads of dialogue, improvisation, and lack of conventional film structure. Rather like experimental theater in the movies.

Mumblecore roots are in the films of John Cassavettes, Hal Hartley, Richard Linklater, Woody Allen, and French New Wave. Important figures in the movement include The Duplass Brothers, Greta Gerwig, Lynn Shelton, and Joe Swanberg.

I watched and enjoyed some later movies that have Mumblecore roots, like Cyrus and Jeff, Who Lives at Home from the Duplass Bros. The films of Noah Baumbach are similar in themes and execution to Mumblecore.

This morning I watched the first feature from the Duplass Brothers, The Puffy Chair. Billed as a comedy, I found the movie funny in an uncomfortable, truly oddball way.

Mark Duplass, who was so wonderful in Safety Not Guaranteed, plays a musician/slacker named Josh. I think slackers populate a lot of these movies. He wants to strengthen his rocky relationship with the sweet and lovely Emily. Josh decides to buy a "puffy chair", the same model recliner his father once owned, from an ebay seller. The idea is to take a road trip down the east coast, pick up the chair, and surprise his father in Atlanta. The trip will hopefully bond Josh and Emily. They reluctantly pick up Josh's brother, Rhett, along the way.

If Josh is a slacker, Rhett is nearly comatose.

It's an emotionally volatile trip, with unexpected mishaps along the way. The situations are often ridiculous, but not much odder than some of my own twenty-something memories.

You think Sam Raimi used ShakeyCam? The hand-held cinematography in The Puffy Chair is relentlessly disorienting and dizzying. Intentional use of blurred images heighten the preposterous-yet-credible predicaments the trio find themselves involved in.

The recliner is not in the condition as described by the seller, and it must be repaired. This caused delays and more complications for the bewildered travelers. The chair begins to represent Josh and Emily's damaged relationship, which is the core of the movie. Is trying to bring a fuzzy chair down the back roads of America a fool's errand? Is there hope for the starcrossed lovers?

The Puffy Chair doesn't give resolute answers to the question. Viewers are left to ponder the fate of Josh and Emily. This kind of ending frustrates many movie fans, but I love open-ended conclusions. Most movies present clear-cut fates for the characters. How often does life do the same for us?

I'm off and running. I'm not about to go full bore Mumblecore on you, but I intend to continue to explore the movies these impassioned filmmakers produced.

Written by Mark Sieber