David Call Movies

A recent college graduate keeps stumbling as she steps out into the real world in this independent comedy drama. Aura (Lena Dunham) has just graduated from a university in the Midwest, receiving a degree in film theory that even she seems to realize is essentially worthless. With no real prospects she returns home to her mother, Siri (Laurie Simmons), a successful photographer living in New York City. Aura's 17-year-old sister, Nadine (Grace Dunham), is about to graduate from high school and is choosing which college to attend in the fall; Aura is ostensibly back home to help Siri and Nadine during a hectic time, but they don't appear to particularly need or want her assistance. Aura befriends Jed (Alex Karpovsky), a minor celebrity thanks to his surreal YouTube videos, who insists he's in New York to take meetings for an upcoming TV project; he soon invites himself into Aura's bedroom as a semi-permanent guest, though he clearly has no interest in any sort of romantic or sexual relationship. With little else to do, Aura takes a job at a nearby restaurant and becomes smitten with Keith (David Call), one of the cooks; while he seems attracted to her, he also has a girlfriend and it isn't until they're both stoned one night that he makes his move in a rather unusual setting. Tiny Furniture was written and directed by Lena Dunham, who also plays Aura; Laurie Simmons and Grace Dunham are her mother and sister in real life as well as in the film, which was mostly shot in Simmons' actual apartment. The film was named Best Narrative Feature at the 2010 South by Southwest Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A bickering New York couple on the verge of divorce is placed in the Witness Protection Program and relocated to Wyoming after witnessing a murder. Meryl and Paul Morgan (Sarah Jessica Parker and Hugh Grant) have all the money a couple could want -- it's love they're running short on. Upon witnessing a contract killing and being targeted by the triggerman, the couple find themselves at the mercy of the feds, who hastily send them packing for an extended stay in the Rockies. Could a peaceful life away from the city be just the thing to bring Meryl and Paul back together, or will the deafening silence of nature only serve to amplify the bickering couple's painful peccadillos and drive them further apart than ever before? Sam Elliott, Mary Steenburgen, and Wilford Brimley co-star in a comedy from writer/director Marc Lawrence (Miss Congeniality, Music and Lyrics). ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Celebrated and vilified in equal measure, the pinup goddess Bettie Page inspired a legion of followers -- and an indecency scandal -- by appearing in a series of nude, sado-masochistic, and/or revealing magazine spreads in the 1950s. An era later, writer/director Mary Harron casts a knowing eye upon the woman who indirectly gave birth to modern pornography in the biopic The Notorious Bettie Page. As a teen, Page (Gretchen Mol) is a smart, plucky girl with ambitions beyond her Tennessee roots. Suffering varying degrees of abuse from her father, her first husband, and suitors of dubious virtue, Page makes her way to New York City, where an amateur photographer discovers her lounging on the beach. It isn't long before images of the shapely brunette reach Irving and Paula Klaw (Chris Bauer and Lili Taylor), brother-and-sister entrepreneurs who publish illicit magazines dedicated primarily to men's fetishes. The casual nudist Page eventually finds herself acquiescing to their requests to don thigh-high boots, whips, and chains, which raise the ire of the smut-fearing senator Estes Kefauver (David Strathairn). The Notorious Bettie Page had its North American premiere at the 2005 Toronto International Film Festival. ~ Michael Hastings, Rovi