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Puffy Chair, The
EMAILPRINTRoadside Attractions
Generally favorable reviews
Based on 17 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 16 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Comedy
Written by: Mark Duplass
Directed by: Jay Duplass
Release Date:
Theatrical: June 2, 2006
DVD: January 23, 2007
Running Time: 85 minutes, Color
Origin: USA
Summary
RATING: R for language
Starring Mark Duplass, Kathryn Aselton, Rhett Wilkins, Bari Dahan, Gerald Finnegan, and Julie Fischer
The story of three very different people and a giant purple puffy chair in a too-small van. -- and one of them has to go before the trip's end. (Roadside Attraction)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White
Ripe with characters and events reflecting the psychic travails of today's young adults.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Shawn Levy
In a film culture in which contrived tomfoolery and overinflated emotions stifle in their effort to provide comedy and romance, something as light and precise as The Puffy Chair feels like more than an exception; it feels like fresh air.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly Scott Foundas
The Puffy Chair is the funniest, saddest and most emotionally honest "romantic comedy" to come along in years, even if I've yet to encounter many over the age of about 35 who like the film, or even get it.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones
It's all so goddamn realistic and reminiscent of real-life love (and how often does that happen onscreen?) that The Puffy Chair would be hell to watch if it weren't so funny.
Read Full Review >Film Threat Don R. Lewis
The scenes feel real and both Duplass and Aselton do a great job duking it out. The Puffy Chair combines great original comedy and solid acting to make a fun movie.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
A charming, if limited, romantic comedy that examines post-collegiate angst with easy, unself-conscious humor.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Crust
A pointed and nicely observed screenplay that guides us on an often funny journey through familiar terrain made fresh by their off-center sensibility and three fine performances.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
Under the cover of what seems like a charmingly slapdash style, the Duplass brothers have created a disarmingly shrewd movie.
Read Full Review >New York Post V.A. Musetto
Combines a wise script with funky performances, especially by Aselton, who could give Jennifer Aniston a run for her money.
Read Full Review >TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Billed as a dark comedy, brothers Jay and Mark Duplass' shaggy, ultra-low-budget tale of a tense New York-to-Atlanta road trip is more accurately a relationship-hell drama peppered with strangled laughs.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Reece Pendleton
The movie may not amount to much, but the genial tone and exceptionally good performances from the three leads make for a winning debut by the Duplass brothers.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Melissa Levine
Like "Funny Ha Ha," Andrew Bujalski's casually raw 2002 faux–cinema vérité indie about a bunch of shiftless twentysomethings, The Puffy Chair uses simple, unadorned dialogue and intimate, off-the-cuff performances to get at the underlying issues.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir
While it would be accurate to call the film a comedy, the Duplasses are trying to wrestle something closer to Chekhov than to farce out of the lives of these semi-likable, highly recognizable people.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Ty Burr
Ostensibly a road-trip farce, Chair really depicts the highway to man-child hell: The laughs come from the gulf between how mature the characters think they're being and what emotional toddlers they are.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Jessica Reaves
An enjoyable road movie that feels both comfortable and completely fresh.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen
It's a slacker flick, it's a relationship pic, it's a road movie all under the same hood.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Dana Stevens
Its fidelity to its characters’ view of the world -- although they are presumably college graduates, they seem never to have read a book or expressed an opinion -- is more a liability than a virtue. The Puffy Chair is as modest as their ambitions and as narrow as their curiosity about the world beyond themselves.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 4.6 (out of 10) based on 16 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Danny G. gave it a9:
For two brothers to create a movie on a shoestring budget that is this entertaining...they have succeeded in every way. This movie has more life and emotion than most of the sh!t that is churned out on a weekly basis in the mainstream theaters. We can relate to these characters and their struggles, both with each other and with themselves. The soundtrack is interesting and complements the movie well. Overall a standout in a sea of films that attempt to speak the struggles of 20 something in the 2000s.
Gregory H. gave it a0:
A pure waste of time. Tale of two brothers who we could really care less about. Irrational behavior guides it. A very dumb movie in every sense of the word. Does nothing to improve inter-generational understanding. These Gen-Y-ers were about as shallow as they come. This film was even worse than watching reality TV.
Stephen gave it a1:
Really...ah...not good. I mean nothing is all that compelling and unless you really, really care about spoiled white twentysomething wanna-be hipsters...then I wouldn't bother. The script does have some good dialog but it is overwritten and feels like a first draft. Kathryn Aselton turns in a nice performance. If art is life with the boring parts taken out, this film is true to life.
Dan S. gave it an8:
Haven't seen this since Sundance '05, but I remember liking it and finding it humorous.
Stephen S. gave it a6:
I think you have to give this one an extra point for its levels of risk and honesty, so a 6 rather than a 5. Debutant director Duplass takes many chances with the audience, some of whom may have fits of ennui at the one hour mark. There isn’t quite enough depth or content in the script. But the three leads are terrific, and Duplass never takes the easy or dramatic way out. Kathryn Aselton is wonderful, a new Maggie Gyllenhaal and then some. At the end, the fact that it’s kind of about relationship failure seems neither here nor there.
Walter S. gave it a6:
There are some wonderful sequences here - particularly the scene at the motel and the travesty of the wedding. The acting is superb. You'll see more life in these characters than in 95% of the movies coming out of Hollywood. Kathryn Aselton's first-rate performance is the stand-out. The movie was incomplete though. Was it heavily edited? Too rushed and ultimately left me unsatisfied. Certainly worth seeing if you are a fan of this "genre" (if you can call it that).
Eloquence gave it a1:
smug. pretentious. nausea-inducing.
