Mise-En-Cine - The Puffy Chair

The visual style of The Puffy Chair could easily be perceived as amateurish, but I think it goes deeper. The film employs almost entirely handheld shots, with few exceptions. Often times the frames in the movie look thrown together, and sloppy. The camera movements are awkward and jerky, and the camera is always resetting focus mid shot. A good example of it is the scene where Emily and Josh, the protagonist and his love interest, decide they should break up. The frame jumps back and forth between the two characters, lagging awkwardly at the end of each piece of dialogue. The reason the shooting style works is because of the nature of the characters, and where they are in their lives. The film is about a trio of lost and confused twenty something year olds. Their entire world is changing. They have these new scary obligations that come with growing up, yet they have not really matured to that level; their obligations are so big and they can barely take care of themselves. As you watch you understand that they really have no idea how to deal with any of this. They are awkward and scared, giving them an almost pubescent quality. This is clearly evident in the way the film is shot. As you get to know these characters, the camera constantly racks in and out of focus while staying on the subject. It’s like these changes in focus tell us that we are getting some veiled insight into who the characters are, and where they are going to end up.