Funny Pages

The grungy "idiosyncratic indie movement" (as one critic called the movement of "new Harmony Korines" that explore the most pitiful lifeforms of America's underbelly), which includes the likes of Sean Baker and the Safdie brothers, now has a new member in the form of Owen Kline and his impressive debut Funny Pages.

It stars Daniel Zolghadri (Tales from the Loop) as Robert, a young man who aspires to be an artist -- specifically, a comic strip artist. It doesn't take place in some past golden age of Sunday funnies, yet it feels like it; much like Spencer and Compartment No. 6, the film is presented through a grainy image that makes it feel remarkably "90s".

I do relate to growing up on the funnies: while others flipped through Spider-Man comics, I read Dilbert, Get Fuzzy, Pearls Before Swine, Bloom County, The Far Side, and whatever else appeared in the Gary Larson magazines my father used to collect. (My grandmother also used to cut out the funnies of our local newspaper, which included the likes of Beetle Bailey and Zits, and staple them together into little books for me and my cousins to read.)

Of course, Robert is more into the R. Crumb stuff. His is a world of Tijuana Bibles and nauseating caricatures, and this includes the people he encounters in real life (who are among the most beautifully grotesque figures in the A24 pantheon).

Also, it contains one of the most blood-curdling screams I've ever heard in cinema and it's not even a horror film. Flanagan, eat your heart out.

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.

Funny Pages is the feature film directorial debut of Owen Kline, son of Hollywood royalty, Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates. The film is somewhat unique for sure, though I definitely don't see it appealing to nearly everyone. Nonetheless, at the very least, this debut does really show signs of great potential for this young director with talented roots. There really are some great things about this film. I'm already looking forward to his next projects. I certainly encourage all true film lovers to at least check this out.

I'm not sure I feel that this is a coming of age story really, as many seem to say it is. Only slightly. To me, it was basically a dark comedy all the way, and as such, it actually finally ends up working quite well by the end. Though I'd say it does take a while before the film has enough, to really say that it's a good film. I found some of the film fairly dull, definitely, as much of the more intricate aspects of the main character I found pretty uninteresting. Yet at the same time, this aspect and depth actually sets the character and film up for what to me really was a pretty hilarious ending, or the climax just before the ending, anyhow. All in all, I have to say the film is somewhat brilliant, but also extremely off beat and darkly comedic for certain. But laugh out loud dark comedy in at least a couple spots. Near the very end of the film, I literally had a hard time stopping my laughter.

This will divide audiences, but most critics appreciated it, and quite a few loved it. This is certainly not for overly sensitive viewers. I couldn't watch this film many times, but I could see myself enjoying it again in a few years for sure, and I think that it's the kind of film I may appreciate even a little more the 2nd time. However, as said, it's not the kind of film I'd watch many times, or again anytime too soon. I think a good rest, and then a re-watch will do it best. That's just the kind of film it is to me.

I must say I really don't fully agree with the plot summary here on IMDb. For me the plot is more like this...

A somewhat confused, young and creative comic book fan and amateur artist, decides to get close to an odd and overreactive man, that once worked for a comic book production company.

From this point of view, the film is a pretty good dark comedy. From the point of view of the main character coming of age and finding or searching for soul, is really not what I see here. Nor does the film work all that well in this regard. There really isn't much soul in the film at all, other than to laugh at the ridiculousness that life can throw at people, and/or to laugh at the oddness of human life.

Although it took a while before I appreciated the film much, it really did leave me smiling, and acknowledging that it certainly has its own unique charm. That charm however is not exactly warm, but rather a somewhat darkly funny, but also quite relatable to real life kind of charm. The characters here do feel quite real, as funny as they sometimes are. To me, that really helped the film come together and work in the end.

7.5/10.

Daniel Zolghadri ("Robert") is really quite good in this short drama. He is a budding cartoonist who is arrested breaking into the home of his recently deceased and inspirational art teacher. That all goes away, but the public defender who represented him takes a bit of a shine to his refreshingly candid style of drawing, and that is where he is introduced to another of her clients "Wallace" (Matthew Maher). Here is an interesting fellow. Eccentric to say the least, it transpires that he once worked on comic-book illustrations and so the young man determines to befriend and learn from this man. To be honest, some of the scenarios are a bit far fetched - especially the ones in the pharmacy and in his parents bathroom at Christmas, but for the most part this is an engagingly entertaining mix of the eclectic and the aspirational as seen through the eyes of a seventeen year old man. The production is pretty basic, but at times it is funny. Not laugh out loud, no - but in an observational way that might resonate with many a parent dealing with a teenage child who has all of the answers (but few of the questions). His basement flatmates "Barry" (Michael Townsend Wright) and his rather curious pal "Steven" (Cleveland Thomas Jr) add a quirky element to the already rather surreal plot that meanders all over the place before an ending that is both horrific and funny at the same time as his acne-ridden best mate "Miles" (Miles Emanuel) discovers a new use for a pen-nib! Will he find his soul? Well I'd recommend you watch and find out - it's well worth ninety minutes of your time.

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.