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Rather than a dark comedy, Owen Kline’s directorial debut Funny Pages is perhaps more akin to slowly unfolding tragedy with a number of gut-busting gags. The story follows Robert (Daniel Zolghadri), a 17-year-old aspiring cartoonist from an upper-middle-class background who drops out of high school to make his dream a reality. Moving into a damp New Jersey basement that’s basically a dungeon and crossing paths with Image Comics color-separator-turned-petty-criminal Wallace (Matthew Maher), Robert’s misguided journey may be painfully relatable for anyone who’s alienated loved ones through an intense dedication to niche interests.

With a very selective filmography after his breakout role in The Squid and the Whale as a 13-year-old, appearing only for friends the Safdie brothers (who returned the favor producing Funny Pages) and Michael Bilandic, Kline emerges an exciting new voice in cinema. Ahead of his film’s release, we were lucky enough to...

The deranged lunatics populating Owen Kline’s absurdist, bleakly hilarious Funny Pages are all somewhat anachronistic; loners who gravitate around old things and old places, one foot always firmly rooted in the past. Even teenage Robert (Daniel Zolghadri) nurses what feels like an age-inappropriate nostalgia. A high school senior stranded in an anonymous suburban stretch of Princeton, NJ, he works at the local comic store while daydreaming of becoming a cartoonist himself. But the comics he loves and devours with pantagruelian appetite are much, much older than him—the kind of niche, underground relics no one seems to recognize, much less appreciate. Funny Pages tracks Robert’s coming of age, but Kline (here in his directorial feature debut) dexterously avoids the genre’s trappings. His isn’t just a portrait of a most complicated chapter in a young man’s life, but an homage, in turns affectionate and savage, to...

The Critics Choice Association (Cca) announced that Taye Diggs and Nicole Byer will co-host the 27th annual Critics Choice Awards, which air on The CW and TBS on Jan. 9, 2022 at 7 p.m.

Diggs is known for starring as Sam Bennett in the ABC medical drama “Private Practice.” Other prominent credits include appearing in the film “Brown Sugar” and the original Broadway production of “Rent.” Currently, he stars on The CW drama “All American.”

Byer first broke out with her appearance on MTV’s “Girl Code” and has since become known for hosting the competition series “Nailed It!” and “Wiped Out!,” the podcast “Why Won’t You Date Me?,” and appearing in supporting and recurring roles in comedy series such as “Brooklyn Nine-Nine” and “Tuca & Berie.” Most recently, she debuted her Netflix comedy special “Nicole Byer: Bbw (Big Beautiful Weirdo).” Up next, she stars on NBC’s “Grand Crew.”

“This is...

A group of rappers are heading into the deserts and swamps of nature in a new unscripted series for HBO.

The network has ordered Chillin Island, which is exec produced by Uncut Gems director Josh Safdie and his production partner Sebastian Bear-McClard as well as DreamCrew, the management company and entertainment group set up by Drake and Adel Future Nur.

The series is based on a radio show, described as “Howard Stern if he was on K” and variety web series set up by Alec Reinstein, otherwise known as Despot, Aleksey Weintraub, otherwise known as Lakutis and Ashok Kondabolu of Das Racist.

It will launch on December 17.

The six-part series sees the trio invite their friends to join them at the edge of nature. To commune in deserts and swamps in a valiant effort to reveal unknowable truths from the dreamstate of the shared human existence. The series features music industry icons including Young Thug,...

English actress-songwriter Lola Kirke ages dramatically for the new video for her song “Mama,” playing a prim and proper matriarch who finally caves to her instinct to be a flawed human. Directed by the singer’s sister Jemima Kirke, the clip brings Lola Kirke’s song to stark — and disturbing — life.

“Mama” is the first release off Kirke’s upcoming EP Friends and Foes and Friends Again, a five-song collection of duets that arrives September 13th and finds her further exploring her brand of country music. Kelly Zutrau, from the band Wet,...

"You can't bring me here and expect me to just hate her like you do." FilmRise has debuted the first official trailer for an indie family drama titled Mountain Rest, which is the feature directorial debut of a music video director named Alex O Eaton. The film is about an aging actress named Ethel, played by Frances Conroy, who has sequestered herself in a cabin in a small mountain town for years. She calls her estranged daughter and granddaughter home for reconciliation and one final celebration, resulting in a strange and surprising weekend. The cast includes Natalia Dyer (from "Stranger Things") and Kate Lyn Sheil (from "House of Cards"), plus Shawn Hatosy, Joshua Brady, Karson Kern, Alphie Hyorth, and Audrey Turner. This looks like a very intimate and emotional "art house" drama mainly for the film festival crowd. Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Alex O Eaton's Mountain Rest,...

The American Film Institute announced today the films that will screen in the World Cinema, Breakthrough, Midnight, Shorts and Cinema’s Legacy programs at AFI Fest 2015 presented by Audi.

AFI Fest will take place November 5 – 12, 2015, in the heart of Hollywood. Screenings, Galas and events will be held at the historic Tcl Chinese Theatre, the Tcl Chinese 6 Theatres, Dolby Theatre, the Lloyd E. Rigler Theatre at the Egyptian, the El Capitan Theatre and The Hollywood Roosevelt.

World Cinema showcases the most acclaimed international films of the year; Breakthrough highlights true discoveries of the programming process; Midnight selections will grip audiences with terror; and Cinema’s Legacy highlights classic movies and films about cinema. World Cinema and Breakthrough selections are among the films eligible for Audience Awards. Shorts selections are eligible for the Grand Jury Prize, which qualifies the winner for Academy Award®consideration. This year’s Shorts jury features filmmaker Janicza Bravo,...