Dejected by his failure to achieve fame as a New York City indie-rocker and unable to figure out just when it was that his life took a sharp turn for the worse, a small-town boy who had once harbored big dreams for the future sets out on a cross-country adventure to give his father a birthday the old man will never forget in director Jay Duplass' nostalgic road trip comedy. Josh (Mark Duplass) may not have found the success he was hoping for in the big city, but he's determined not to go back home empty-handed. When an eBay browsing session leads Josh to a vintage Lazy Boy recliner just like the one that used to grace his childhood living room, the loving son opts to purchase the purple relic and deliver it to his father as a surprise birthday gift. Josh's simple plan is suddenly complicated by the appearance of his emotionally demanding girlfriend, Emily (Kathryn Aselton), and his granola-munching brother, Rhett (Rhett Wilkins) -- who both insist on joining him on his homeward-bound mission. While the hapless would-be rocker sets out with them on a mission to deliver a piece of his childhood to his father back home, he might also learn a thing or two about himself and his relationships in the process. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Review by All Movie Guide
All Movie Guide
liked it.
It's not easy to make romantic baby talk sound realistic on film. Scripted shmoopy talk tends to be full of clichés, rather than expressing the untranslatable language that evolves from the personal experiences and inside jokes of two people. That The Puffy Chair gets this delicate touch down perfectly is one of the earliest indicators what kind of film it will be: it's so natural, it gives the audience the experience of eavesdropping on its three principle characters during one defining weekend. A truly grassroots effort by the Duplass brothers -- Jay (who co-wrote the script and directs) and Mark (who co-wrote and stars) -- The Puffy Chair finds that difficult balance between presenting outrageous plot developments and rendering them realistically through the eye of their handheld camera. In fact, since we've come to understand these characters well enough during the short time we've known them, their stumbling blocks -- actual and emotional -- seem like logical outgrowths of their personalities and the dynamic between them. Mark Duplass and Kathryn Aselton are perfect as the couple whose relationship is unraveling. Though the audience is invited to sympathize with each at different junctures, both display frailties that make them instantly relatable. They become quickly defensive at times, show unusual patience at others, and always try to paste things together by resorting to the familiar, such as that fallback private language. Rhett Wilkins, as Josh's brother, seems to function primarily as comic relief, but he's a soulful, eccentric contributor to their journey as well -- another complex character who'll turn on a dime from deep introspection to instant gratification. Like most good road movies, The Puffy Chair uses the trip to probe the psyches of its characters. But it's a rare asset indeed to make these characters utterly real -- and devastatingly funny -- at the same time. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide