DVD of the Week: The Puffy Chair

Somewhere near the beginning of this darling little movie, heartbroken twentysomething Josh stands outside his girlfriend’s window blasting Death Cab’s “Transatlanticism” on a stereo held high above his head and explains “You’ve still got my Peter Gabriel CD!” It’s the sort of cheeky, delightful, and altogether wonderful scene that defines this deeply earnest and undeniably quick witted slice of fly on the wall fiction. The general concept involves a cross country road trip to secure an old fashioned recliner purchased on eBay for Josh’s father. It’s an exact replica of the chair he had when Josh and his brother, Rhett, were kids and it’s destined to be the perfect birthday gift if only this trip would work out as planned. This is simply one of my favorite films of the year and it needs to be seen by anyone with a love for low key, talky indie flicks.

Also new to DVD is Sherrybaby, a film grounded by a brilliant performance by Maggie Gyllenhaal that should have earned her an Oscar nomination but didn’t. She plays a junkie in pursuit of a clean life and a relationship with the daughter that she lost along the way. It’s heartbreaking and genius in small and simple ways.