Funny Pages

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.

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....

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.

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.

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.