From the first few scenes of Tiny Furniture, it becomes clear that Aura (writer-director Lena Dunham) is not an altogether unfamiliar character: fresh out of college and hopelessly adrift, she winds up crashing at her mother's place. But Auras down-to-Earth plight is exactly the appeal of this smart, funny and deeply personal New York comedy that recalls Annie Hall-era Woody Allen. Dunham, a 23-year-old emerging talent whose cast includes her real-life mother and sister playing variations on themselves, take an intimately autobiographical approach without sacrificing her sense of comic timing.

Reeling from her ex-boyfriends decision to dump her in favor of a trip to Burning Man, Aura contemplates the possibility of a filmmaking career while reconnecting with an old childhood friend. As she raids her mothers wine cabinet, drifts through random house parties and engages in an unexpectedly platonic relationship with a traveling animator (Alex Karpovsky, co-star of the 2010 Rooftop Films feature Lovers of Hate and director of previous Rooftop entries The Hole Story and Woodpecker), Aura reflects on her transitory lifestyle with a uniquely sardonic wit.

Dunham's neurotic charm is enhanced by the movie's parallels to her real life. Like Aura, Dunham dabbles in the world of webisodes (she created the online series Tight Shots and Delusional Downtown Divas), and her mother is a successful photographer (local artist Laurie Simmons). However, it's the minutiae of Aura's life - from her aimless family brawls to an awkward sex scene - that endow Tiny Furniture with a fresh sense of originality that has led to widespread acclaim for the movie since it claimed one of the prizes at the South by Southwest Film Festival earlier this year. The first feature made with the Canon 7D still camera (with the assistance of noted cinematographer Jody Lee Lipes), Tiny Furniture has a polished feel that allows viewers to absorb the elegance of Aura's world.

Shot on location in New York last fall, Tiny Furniture takes advantage of both the city's bustling environments and the colorful personalities within it, resulting in a memorable tale with equal dashes of emotional clarity and energetic humor-filled inspiration.

tinyfurniture.com

- Eric Kohn