Filmmaking brothers Mark and Jay Duplass provide yet another answer to the cinematic question What hath "Slacker" wrought? with "The Puffy Chair," a charming, if limited, romantic comedy that examines post-collegiate angst with easy, unself-conscious humor.

Josh (Mark Duplass) is in his twenties and living in New York, already a failed rock musician and booking agent; his girlfriend Emily (Kathryn Aselton) is interested in settling down and starting a family, which gives Josh a bad case of the skitters. When he buys a used La-Z-Boy chair on eBay and decides to take a road trip to pick it up and deliver it to his father as a birthday surprise, he impulsively invites Emily along; when they stop along the way to visit Josh's eccentric brother Rhett (Rhett Wilkins), the three of them wind up on a journey of strange encounters, fateful decisions and one mother of a purple, puffy chair.

The three lead actors are all terrific, with Duplass and Aselton recalling Jim and Pam on "The Office" with their unforced chemistry. Even making derivative nods toward "Slacker," "Say Anything" and the more recent "Funny Ha Ha," the Duplass brothers have their fingers on the pulse of their own generational moment, and more important, they have a light and forgiving touch.

-- Ann Hornaday

Contains profanity.