Pasando página

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.

In the early 2000's when I was the same age as the protagonist in the film, the world of underground comic books was a universe I loved dipping my toes into. The grot, the beauty and the ugliness of Weirdo magazine and Bagge, Clowes, Pekar and Crumb. It's an enchanting scene, full of strange curmudgeons, men who smell and collect jazz records. I used to love going to a now defunct "comic-mart" convention, marvelling at the stench of body odour, the lack of civility and obsessed desperation of the men that permeated these events, despite being the privileged youth who went back home afterwards to a clean, household of love and affection. To say this film resonated with me is an understatement.

At times hilarious and ridiculously niche, a really interesting little film that makes me excited to see what Owen will create next.

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....

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.

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.