''The Puffy Chair'' is a 2005

mumblecore Mumblecore is a subgenre of independent filmHoberman, J. (August 14, 2007).It's Mumblecore!. ''The Village Voice''. Retrieved on July 27, 2008.Lim, Dennis (August 19, 2007)Mumblecore – The New Talkies: Generation DIY ''The New York Times''. Retr ...

road A road is a linear way for the conveyance of traffic that mostly has an improved surface for use by vehicles (motorized and non-motorized) and pedestrians. Unlike streets, the main function of roads is transportation. There are many types of ...

film written and directed by

Jay A jay is a member of a number of species of medium-sized, usually colorful and noisy, passerine birds in the Crow family, Corvidae. The evolutionary relationships between the jays and the magpies are rather complex. For example, the Eurasian m ...

and

Mark Duplass Mark David Duplass (born December 7, 1976) is an American filmmaker, actor, writer, and musician. With his brother Jay Duplass, he started the film production company Duplass Brothers Productions in 1996. Duplass has written and directed films, ...

. It stars

Katie Aselton Kathryn Aselton (born October 1, 1978) is an American actress, film director and producer. She directed and co-starred in ''The Freebie (film), The Freebie'', which was shown in the non-competition "Next" category at the Sundance Film Festival i ...

and Rhett Wilkins. The film had its world premiere at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

in January 2005, and went on to screen at

South by Southwest South by Southwest, abbreviated as SXSW and colloquially referred to as South By, is an annual conglomeration of parallel film, interactive media, and music festivals and Convention (meeting), conferences organized jointly that take place in m ...

in March 2005, winning the Audience Award. The film was released on June 2, 2006, by

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

and

Roadside Attractions Roadside Attractions is an American production company and film distributor based in Los Angeles, California, founded on July 27, 2000, by Howard Cohen and Eric d’Arbeloff, specializing largely in independent films. Lionsgate Lions Gate ...

Plot

The film concerns the relationships between men, women, brothers, mothers, fathers, and friends. The protagonist discovers on

eBay eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...

a replica of a lounge chair that was used by his father long ago. The resulting road trip to pick up and deliver the chair as a birthday present for the father in

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

takes interesting twists.

Cast

as Josh *

as Emily * Rhett Wilkins as Rhett * Julie Fischer as Amber * Larry Duplass as Josh's Dad * Cindy Duplass as Josh's Mom * Jim Whalen as Doctor

Production

The film was made for $15,000, money borrowed from the Duplass's parents. All of the film's actors were paid $100 a day, with extensive

improvisation Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...

used. It was lensed with

Panasonic AG-DVX100 The Panasonic AG-DVX100 was released in October 2002. Its 60Hz version was the first consumer-affordable digital camcorder capable of recording video at 24 progressive frames per second. The last revision was the DVX100B(E) (2005). The camera ...

. The scenes set in North Carolina were actually filmed in the small town of

Milbridge, Maine Milbridge is a town in Washington County, Maine, Washington County, Maine, United States at the mouth of the Narraguagus River. The population was 1,375 at the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census. The town was incorporated in 1848. It contains ...

, hometown of Katie Aselton; in fact, the filmmakers stayed with Aselton's parents during production.

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

in January 2005. Shortly after,

and

acquired distribution rights to the film. The film went onto screen at

on March 11, 2005. The film won the Audience Award at the festival. The film was released in a

limited release __FORCETOC__ Limited theatrical release is a film distribution strategy of releasing a new film in a few theaters across a country, typically art house theaters in major metropolitan markets. Since 1994, a limited theatrical release in the Unite ...

on June 2, 2006.

Critical reception

''The Puffy Chair'' received positive reviews from film critics. It holds a 77% approval rating on review aggregator website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, based on 52 reviews, with an average rating of 6.78/10. The critical consensus reads: "First-timer Duplass offers a realistic and thoughtful romantic comedy." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film holds a rating of 73 out of 100 based on 17 critics, indicating "Generally favorable reviews''. Scott Founders of ''

Variety Variety may refer to: Arts and entertainment Entertainment formats * Variety (radio) * Variety show, in theater and television Films * ''Variety'' (1925 film), a German silent film directed by Ewald Andre Dupont * ''Variety'' (1935 film), ...

'' gave the film a positive review writing : "The delicate art of reupholstery, as it applies to furniture and human relationships, gives weight to the comic machinations of “The Puffy Chair,” the smart and painfully funny debut feature by filmmaker brothers Jay and Mark Duplass. tis an unusually human comedy of manners that, even when it falters, feels like a breath of fresh air pumped into an asphyxiating genre. Warm Sundance reception suggests dirt-cheap pic could develop a strong word-of-mouth following, particularly among college auds(sic)." Nick Schager of '' SlantMagazine.com'' gave the film 2.5/4 writing : "the film never quite strikes a comfortable or graceful balance between silliness and solemnity, so that when the informal story eventually transforms into a sobering portrait of a crumbling relationship, the effect—compounded by the often-unlikable self-involvement of its characters—is more off-putting than appealing."

References

External links

* *
Wired magazine: Netflix Presents
{{DEFAULTSORT:Puffy Chair 2005 films Camcorder films 2000s road comedy-drama films 2005 romantic comedy-drama films American road comedy-drama films American independent films American romantic comedy-drama films Duplass Brothers Productions films Mumblecore films 2005 directorial debut films 2005 comedy films 2005 drama films 2005 independent films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films