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.

"Funny Pages" is a movie about a boy that decides to leave school, in order to chase his dream to become a professional comic book artist. The trailer is very misleading: I thought that this was going to be some sort of coming of age comedy, with a nice plot. Nothing really happens in one hour and a half: there is no character development, no story evolution and no interesting or useful messages. Some scenes are just messy and poorly directed and the story does not make any sense. The ending is so disruptive and I wondered what was even the point of this film. I could not empathize with the protagonist that for the whole time was just behaving like a spoiled brat, I really hated him. Acting was sloppy, not even Josh Pais, who took part in important projects such as "The Joker ", could not save this mess. Out of this experience, I just understood that the director deeply hates the world of comics. He painted all the fans of this media like losers that do not have any ambition in life. I don't know the comic book industry well, but I am pretty sure that there are many talented and successful artists that have brilliant careers. This stereotypification of the nerd culture is old and pretty annoying. There is not one single person that is normal in this film, they are all social misfits.

I appreciate the fact that A24 is giving the chance to beginner directors to show their work to the world, but I think that there should be a better quality check when they decide to distribute something, because honestly it is becoming harder and harder to justify these awful releases.

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.

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.