People are voting emotionally.

Best movie ever!

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

Being a fellow indie filmmaker, I often sympathize with the plight of such a diverse bunch. Not to mention, I can't help but feel a mixture of pride and encouragement. Independent filmmakers are willing to go out there and dare to show things that studios are scared to mention. The essence of an indie film is hard to pin down. But perhaps what indie films do best is show us ourselves, without glamour and pizazz! I first heard about THE PUFFY CHAIR six years ago when Ebert reviewed it on his show. From that day forward, I knew I'd have to track it down. Happily, a year later, I found it and then fell in love with it! At its core, the movie is a road trip undertaken by Josh, his girlfriend Emily, and his younger brother Rhett. However, as the movie progresses, tensions mount between the three as they keep encountering setbacks. What's amazing about the film is that all the situations that the trio encounters could happen in real-life, and most likely have happened. From a cinematographer's viewpoint, the Duplass brothers wisely make use of DV cameras and available lighting. It gives the film an overall sense of immediacy. In many ways, it feels like someone's home videos and that may have been what they were going for. I'd highly recommend this to anyone who wants to see what can be done with a small budget, a couple DV cameras, and three talented actors. This makes my Top 10 Best Indie Films!

I watched this movie on a sleepy "nothing good is on, but I just don't feel like doing anything serious right now" afternoon during the Winter Holidays, but was in for a very nice surprise. It's a linear plot, yet, it's far from being predictable. But what I liked the most about this flick is its exquisite sense of humor; it probably also helped that to me Joshua's character was somewhat reminiscent to that of Peter Gibbons in my all-time favorite movie Office Space. In a general sense, this movie really reminded me of Before Sunset in terms of its overall charm and the natural nature :-) of acting. (Unfortunately I haven't seen Before Sunrise yet, so I can't really refer to that one in this comparison.) So to conclude, this movie was well-written, well-directed and very well-acted; it would be nice to see more indie masterpieces like this.

I'm very skeptical about love stories. I know that movie-romance never lives up to its expectations in real life. So The Puffy Chair was refreshing for me. Sure, it was a bit amateur. The camera shots weren't artistic. There weren't fancy transitions or the ending we were all hoping for. But that's how REAL life is. Plain, simple, real.I read in one of the other user comments that someone didn't understand the relevance of the Puffy Chair as a title. In my opinion, the chair was used as symbolism for the relationship we follow throughout the movie. It's almost a reflection.It's initially presented as a typical lounge chair; It looks comfortable in the picture, although it might be a little lumpy around the edges. When the three travelers arrive to take it further on the journey, they realize that it's a bit more worn-out than they originally thought. They forcibly fix it, until it eventually goes up in flames, despite an aggressive revival attempt.So while the chair itself is not the MAIN focus of the story, I think it definitely has more relevance than how it is presented on the surface. You just have to dig a little deeper.

Most films are crappy with high production values, this one is crappy without high production values. Which sets it aside from the large pool of horrible movies. As bad as this film was I need to give due respect to Kathryn Aselton who, I believe if given the proper script, could probably turn in a pretty good performance. She plays Emily the girlfriend to perennial doofus Josh, who often refers to her as "Dude" or "Man" in a non-ironical tone.But heres the thing, Emily is a semi-believable character which means Rhett will soon need to be added to the cast, to counteract this almost believable character with a guy even more preposterous than Josh. When we first meet Rhett we learn that he is "deep" because he is videotaping a lizard which is PROOF that he sees the world "uniquely!" Rhett then shows the tape to Emily and in one of Emily's few unbelievable moments she acts impressed by this amateur tape of a lizard, WOW i believe is how she responds once again with no irony of sarcasm even mildly implied.From the opening scene you are given warning that the camera work will be crappy, we open on a shaky close up of Josh as he attempts to win over the viewers by acting GOOFY! oh how care free this main protagonist is that he will act GOOFY! haha. This film could almost be a case study in just how BAD films can be (and for that matter just how FAR bad films can get in the festival circuit, I mean by comparison of most circuit crap this film probably did appear pretty awesome).I believe SXSW gave this film some minor award (oh south by southwest, why do you encourage them, its only cruel). But here is where I hand this film a compliment, it is the best of the mumblecore movement. Mind you all other mumblecore movies sucked beyond belief and generally included grotesque nudity and incomprehensibly bad acting, but still, its good to be the best of something.I haven't seen baghead yet, but it looks like maybe they have made a few strides forward, the preview at least made it appear tolerable, where as even the Puffy Chair preview couldn't really hide the fact that it was going to suck. I've gotten off topic here, anyways Rhett is most likely not portrayed by a professional actor at all, much like Josh most likely isn't an actual actor but rather the director (or brother of director, there's some mixed messages there). I think Rhett was somebodies buddy and they said hey why don't you play this guy named Rhett in the movie, the fact that Rhett is the name of the actor and character probably means the actor and character are the same, unless I am mistaken, which I am not.If Rhett shaved the raccoon off of his face you would probably say he was attractive. So anyways Rhett, Emily, and Josh team up to bring the Puffy Chair to Rhett and Josh's dad. Some stuff happens along the way, more bad acting, bad supporting actors, crappy camera work, an attempt at significance. This film wouldn't have been bad if it hadnt been so shamelessly pursuing profound self importance.The whole thing is amateurish, if you can view this movie without paying for it, like if its on TV or for rent at the library, then consider looking at it, just to see if you like this super cheap style of film-making. I like what the duplass' are doing the whole make a movie with nothing concept, but I wish they would make a movie that someone would want to see.--- I happened upon this movie again, and feeling that perhaps I had judged it too harshly initially I viewed it again. Its gotten enough decent reviews to where I have to at least consider I might have just been in a bad mood during my first viewing. For example, the first time I saw Napoleon Dynamite I thought it was horrendous, I saw it a couple of months later and I couldn't stop laughing.But this movie is just so weak, its horribly painful, just HORRIBLY painful to watch. The worst part of it all is that I think the people who made this movie know it sucks, but they just thought hey, we already made it might as well release it and see if someone doesn't hate it. I have to go back to my initial complaints, first off this movie is functioning at the highest level of unbelievability possible. So there is Josh, the main character, his girlfriend Emily, and the brother of Josh, named Rhett. Coincidentally the guy who plays Rhett is also named Rhett so could it be that he just sort of showed up, wandered into the frame and just didn't leave and was never aware of a film being made?The dialogue in this film is just painful, really painful. Who would talk the way these people talk. I wish I could give this film less than 1 star on my rating, I wish I could give it a zero, if only.