A Nice Little Quirky Comedy

The Puffy Chair (4/5 stars)

The Puffy Chair is the first feature by the writer/director team of Jay and Mark Duplass, and it kind of shows. It is the sort of movie you might imagine yourself making with no budget, but all of the sincerity and attention to quality of character that you would want in your first creaton.

The premise is a little quirky like the movie itself. It is about a twenty-something male who purchases a big red puffy chair on Ebay as a birthday present for his father, and the road trip he goes on from New York City to Atlanta to pick up the chair and deliver it to his former home. He brings along his girlfriend, and on the way stops to visit his brother (who steals every scene he is in) who ends up tagging along for the ride.

It seems simplistic, and well, it is really, but the strength is really in the characters themselves and not in the plot. The boyfriend and girlfriend act so cutely ridiculous to each other, but they also are at the stage in their lives where they question who they are and what the point of everything is and where they are going. A little drama and tension inevitably develops between them along the way because he is a little bit of a screw-up and doesn't know or care what he wants, where she does and can't get it. The brother, who is a kind of burnt out hippie type, is absolutely hilarious. He thinks a chair can bring bad vibes to a road trip, he has a fake marriage with a girl he meets in a movie theater and decides it didn't work out all in the same day, amongst other funny things. I have known a few people like this guy in my life so maybe I find it more endearing.

The low budget makes the film feel sort of like a documentary almost, and everyone seems very genuine and real. I guess the credit probably goes to the acting, the quirky writing, and the nice intimacy of the directing but it works out on all accounts. I'd like to see what the creators make in the future, I imagine it would only be better.