Beware the special knowledge of brothers. That’s the warning Emily could use in “The Puffy Chair.”
Because right when she thinks she has more insight than boyfriend Josh into his younger brother, she’s pulled up short.
It’s not an intentionally cruel rebuke, just the sort that makes clear filmmakers Mark and Jay Duplass have delivered a movie about what they know well – the unspoken insights of siblings.
Co-written by the two and directed by Jay, “The Puffy Chair” is an amusing, modest tale of love, kinship and marriage. Their road trip gets underway today at the Starz FilmCenter.
Jay also plays lead character Josh, a booker of indie bands living in New York City. He wanted to be a rocker, but this new gig keeps him in the game.
We learn of this deferred desire when Josh and Emily (Kathryn Aselton) visit brother Rhett on their way to Atlanta via Milbridge, N.C.
Physically the guys couldn’t be more different. Emotionally they turn out to be kin.
Pale Josh is an easy-way-out liar. Dark, bearded Rhett is blissed out in ways that make you guess cannabis. But he’s no stoner, just a guy with some relaxed and lax ideas about how to be in the world.
Both Duplass and Rhett Wilkins do sweet work making the brothers aggravating and forgivable.
The road trip begins with a sputter. After a tiff, Josh decides to invite Emily along on what was going to be a solo journey home. His apology blatantly borrows from “Say Anything.”
Lifting Cameron Crowe’s famous scene of John Cusack courting with boombox isn’t cynical. Nor is Josh’s cheat a gesture of pure romance. The Duplasses remind young lovers whoever they are that romance forages from all manner of sources.
Josh’s present for his dad’s birthday is the overstuffed chair of the title. A recliner as plush and purple as Barney, it’s supposed to be burgundy. Which is just the beginning of an eBay-facilitated mess.
“The Puffy Chair” gets the errors of relationships right by keeping it familiar. What couple hasn’t borrowed this exchange from the phrase book?
Josh: “Are you mad?”
Emily: “No, I’m not mad.”
Josh: “Because you seem mad.”
Emily: “No I’m not mad.” Pause. “I’m disappointed.”
Emily’s comeuppance comes at a roadside diner in North Carolina. The night before Rhett and Amber (Julie Fischer), a likable looker he meets while waylayed in Milbridge awaiting the chair, get serious.
The vows Josh makes up for his bro are of the “what you wish for others, you hope for yourself” variety.
Rhett and Amber’s Southern Comfort-doused ceremony pushes Emily and Josh toward a tipping point.
The Duplass brothers have stuffed their first feature with fine details. Not all of them are comfy. But they’re well-crafted and hint at funny, ouchy films to come.
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“The Puffy Chair”
R for language|1 hour, 25 minutes|FAMILY ROAD TRIP|Directed by Jay Duplass; written by Jay and Mark Duplass; photography by Jay Duplass; starring Mark Duplass, Kathryn Aselton, Rhett Wilkins, Julie Fisher, Bari Hyman, Gerald Finnegan |Opens today at the Starz FilmCenter.
