Funny Pages

Funny Pages is a movie about repulsive losers by first time writer director Owen Kline. A tourist in the world of comics collectors and trash ephemera enthusiasts, Kline noticeably cribs the template for his cast of characters from Terry Zwigoff's films Crumb (1994) and Art School Confidential (2006). This wouldn't be a problem if it weren't for the fact that Kline possesses none of Zwigoff's affinity for societal misfits. Zwigoff knows his subjects intimately and empathizes with their struggles and their sadness, where Kline can only identify what is weird and disgusting about them.

Owen Kline is the son of actors Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates, two of the most beautiful people alive, and with his background of extraordinary privilege and wealth it seems a strange choice to make a film about poor struggling outcasts, the likes of which he would be unlikely to cross paths with in his world. Funny Pages' inhabitants are never allowed to be anything other than nauseating caricatures of their specific class, which is unfortunate because there isn't a bad performance in the movie, this being especially true in the case of Matthew Maher who is fantastic in his role.

Look, I can appreciate a bizarre movie. It's weirdness is why I give it the initial 4 stars, but there's not much else I enjoyed about it.

I'm not sure how this movie is considered a comedy, unless you describe it as "less funny haha, more funny peculiar". I'm not sure what anyone could have laughed at here, as it felt like no jokes were made.

We meet a cast of strange characters (or caricatures), but no one seems to make any sense at all. And that's fine, some of the characters are intended to be "unhinged", but even the main character, his parents, and his friend's decisions seem devoid of logic. It's like a slice of life story, except with a boy constantly finding himself in weird situations that he just kind of loafs around in.

The "climax" felt unsurprising (though visually disconcerting). The ending felt like they just got bored filming. Ultimately I don't feel like I gained anything besides a sense of "huh, that was weird and made me a little uncomfortable".

I guess I should have known what to expect after the first 10 minutes.

A coming of age story about a rebellious teenager who hates his parents for wanting him to go to college and be serious about his studies, when all he wants is draw cartoons and become an artist.

A lot of nerds. A lot of whining parents. And a lot of frustration suffered by teenagers. We have seen it all before. Is it any good?

The good; I must say that this is an honest movie with true to life characters. It'll do as a nice coming of age portrait, BUT...

The bad: this is not a new teenager classic, because it is lacking spark and punch and the actor's aint particularly great.

Not bad, not great either....

I know there's some romantic / magic deep meaning with the ending, but I think if they made another type of ending, this movie would be much better.

For me that's just what lacked, a proper ending, more development between the characters, a next chapter, a continuation... A moral ending, or not, but we needed to get something in the end. But unfortunately, nothing really happens... And with that I just can't give a higher rating... But I really enjoyed the rest of the movie, amazing acting, great writing. I love the 90s vibe, very well done. And yeah, I love comics too.

The scenes with Barry are hilarious by the way.

I totally appreciate the bizarre vibe and humour.

I was chuckling every time a new character appeared (nothing worth a loud laugh though..).

Unfortunately, besides a couple good scenes, there's nothing else than a collection of really freaky looking and acting people, that don't have much to do throughout the movie.

The beginning makes the viewer think that the main character will be fighting hard to get what he wants, which is very clear, but he only goes around not doing much to achieve his goal, chasing an absolutely obnoxious character who never get what he deserves.

The ending is so bland and anticlimactic that I couldn't help but feeling that this was a complete waste of a chance as a movie.

The cinematography adds to the retro vibe, but it's nothing new and it doesn't help to redeem the lack of an actual story.

There are a few interesting scenes, but the weirdness of characters push too much to the side of boredom more than entertaining, funny awkwardness.

Wouldn't recommend it.