Funny Pages (film)

Last updated
Funny Pages
Funny Pages.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by Owen Kline
Written byOwen Kline
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography
Edited by
  • Owen Kline
  • Erin Dewitt
Music by Sean O'Hagan
Production
companies
Distributed byA24
Release dates
  • May 24, 2022 (2022-05-24)(Cannes)
  • August 26, 2022 (2022-08-26)(United States)
Running time
86 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Funny Pages is a 2022 American coming-of-age black comedy film written, directed, and edited by Owen Kline and produced by the Safdie brothers. [1] It premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival and was released in the United States on August 26, 2022, where it received positive reviews from critics.

Contents

The film tells the story of a 17-year-old cartoonist Robert, who leaves home after the death of his mentor to forge his own path. He moves to a basement apartment in Trenton, New Jersey, and meets Wallace, a possibly unstable former cartoonist.

Plot

Robert Bleichner, a high school student and aspiring cartoonist, meets with his art teacher, Mr. Katano, at his school classroom. After Katano looks over Robert's portfolio, Katano asks Robert to make a nude figure drawing of him. Before completing the drawing, Robert's phone alarm goes off and he leaves for work. Outside, Katano attempts to talk with Robert. While trying to ensure the interaction did not make him uncomfortable, Katano is suddenly struck and killed by a car.

Later, Robert attempts to gather anything of sentimental value from his late mentor. After rummaging through Katano's classroom, Robert and his friend Miles break into Katano's apartment. As the police arrive at the scene, Miles escapes while Robert is apprehended. Robert enlists the help of Cheryl, a public defender, for his trial. He is not charged and is allowed to keep Katano's possessions. Shortly after being released, Robert meets with his parents, Lewis and Jennifer, at a diner. He proclaims that he wants to pursue a career in art and will not be finishing the school year, to his parents' disappointment.

Seeking independence, Robert leaves his parents' house and moves to Trenton, New Jersey, where he shares a dingy apartment with two older men, Barry and Steven. Robert takes a job working for Cheryl as a notetaker while continuing to work at a local comic book store. He attends a meeting with Cheryl and her client, Wallace, who is seeking legal counsel after an attempted assault on a pharmacist. While taking notes, Robert learns that Wallace used to work for Image Comics as an assistant colorist.

The next day, Robert attempts several times to connect with Wallace over his comic book career but is met with Wallace's erratic and volatile behavior. Before driving home, Robert offers Wallace a ride home, which he hastily accepts. During the ride, Wallace coerces Robert to drive to the pharmacy where he was charged with assault. Wallace instructs Robert to provoke the pharmacist in an attempt to get him fired, believing it will help with his case. Robert reluctantly agrees in order to earn Wallace's approval. In an unsuccessful attempt to gather incriminating evidence, Robert throws a rubber horse at the pharmacist and flees the scene.

Robert drops off a disgruntled Wallace. Desperate for professional guidance, Robert offers to pay Wallace for a drawing lesson. Wallace agrees when Robert suggests they could meet at his parents' house in Princeton, New Jersey. Later that night, Robert moves back home after walking in on Barry and Steven masturbating to Katano's adult comics at their apartment.

When Wallace arrives the next morning, Lewis and Jennifer are immediately suspicious of him. An increasingly uncomfortable Wallace locks himself in the bathroom and smashes a window in frustration. Robert takes Wallace up to his room and pays him with the money he stole from his mother's purse. Miles arrives unannounced and tries to show Wallace his work. During the lesson, Wallace finds Robert's comic parodying him and his misadventures. In a fit of rage, Wallace lambasts the boys and attempts to take Miles' comic from his hands.

In the ensuing scuffle, Miles is accidentally stabbed in the head with a pen. Wallace attempts to flee the house by stealing Robert's car, but he crashes it into the garage. Robert chases Wallace on foot, then Wallace beats up Robert and tells him to leave him alone. A broken and bruised Robert stumbles to the closed comic book store. He sits at the counter and contemplates what just happened.

Cast

Production

The character of Robert first appeared in 2011 in the comic book Whippers & Snappers in a story drawn by Kline called "Robert in the Boiler Room."

The film began shooting in 2017 with the working title Two Against Nature and, after several delays and re-writes, filming was completed in December 2021. [2]

Release

The film premiered at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival in the Directors' Fortnight on May 24, 2022, where it received a three-minute standing ovation. [3] It premiered in the US at an outdoor screening at the Brooklyn Army Terminal on August 20, 2022, before being released theatrically on August 26.

Reception

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 83% of 102 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.2/10.The website's consensus reads: "It won't be for all tastes, but Funny Pages deserves credit for telling a coming-of-age story that leans heavier on cringe comedy than nostalgia." [4] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 73 out of 100, based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. [5]

Manohla Dargis, five-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism, remarked that "it's startling how good the film is" but that "there's nothing remotely cool about Robert or, really, “Funny Pages.” That’s because cool is entirely beside the point. What matters is a sensibility, a worldview — what matters is art."

The New York Times critic points out that "'Funny Pages' was shot in super 16 millimeter film, which gives the movie a gritty texture that fits the material and, at times, evokes some classics of 1970s cinema" while being "exhilaratingly free of the do-gooder, aspirational current that runs through so many ostensibly independent features (unless you too aspire to Crumb-like artistry), and that effectively repackage the same Sunday school moralism the old-studio movies did."

Dargis ultimately draws contrast in saying "there are fights, a car crash, some domestic drama, but mostly there is Robert in his own wonderland, a dank, clammy, sometimes sordid place of delight, baseness and naked feeling, one that’s far from the one inhabited by, say, the status-conscious music dudes in the film “ High Fidelity .” [6]

K. Austin Collins of Rolling Stone called it "an itchy, smart, unpredictable portrait of a young artist [that] practically makes you see Robert with double vision." That "it goes out of its way to see its characters in the most unvarnished, unfiltered light, closing in on bad skin and awkward haircuts and embarrassing masturbation rituals and squinty eyes that look extremely wet for no particular reason" but that "it’s also hard to avoid sharing in that obsession. People are incredibly odd. How can you help but look?" [7]

Accolades

AwardDate of ceremonyCategoryRecipient(s)Result
Cannes Film Festival May 2022Golden Camera Owen Kline Nominated
Gotham Awards November 28, 2022Breakthrough Director Award Owen Kline Nominated
Independent Spirit Awards November 27, 2023Best Breakthrough Performance Daniel Zolghadri Nominated
National Board of Review 2022Top Ten Independent FilmsWon

Related Research Articles

<i>Little Nemo</i> US early 20th century comic strip

Little Nemo is a fictional character created by American cartoonist Winsor McCay. He originated in an early comic strip by McCay, Dream of the Rarebit Fiend, before receiving his own spin-off series, Little Nemo in Slumberland. The full-page weekly strip depicted Nemo having fantastic dreams that were interrupted by his awakening in the final panel. The strip is considered McCay's masterpiece for its experiments with the form of the comics page, its use of color and perspective, its timing and pacing, the size and shape of its panels, and its architectural and other details.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jim Davis (cartoonist)</span> American cartoonist and creator of Garfield

James Robert Davis, better known as Jim Davis, is an American cartoonist, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known as the creator of the comic strips Garfield and U.S. Acres. Published since 1978, Garfield is one of the world's most widely syndicated comic strips. Davis's other comics work includes Tumbleweeds, Gnorm Gnat, and Mr. Potato Head.

<i>The Waterboy</i> 1998 film by Frank Coraci

The Waterboy is a 1998 American sports comedy film directed by Frank Coraci. It was written by Adam Sandler as well as Tim Herlihy and produced by Robert Simonds and Jack Giarraputo. Sandler also stars as the title character while Kathy Bates, Fairuza Balk, Henry Winkler, Jerry Reed, Larry Gilliard, Jr., Blake Clark, Peter Dante, and Jonathan Loughran play other characters.

<i>The Family Circus</i> Comic strip

The Family Circus is a syndicated comic strip created by cartoonist Bil Keane and, since Keane's death in 2011, is written, inked and rendered (colored) by his son Jeff Keane. The strip generally uses a single captioned panel with a round border, hence the original name of the series, which was changed following objections from the magazine Family Circle. The series debuted on February 29, 1960 and has been in continuous production ever since. According to publisher King Features Syndicate, it is the most widely syndicated cartoon panel in the world, appearing in 1,500 newspapers. Compilations of Family Circus comic strips have sold more than 13 million copies worldwide.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">King Features Syndicate</span> American print syndication company

King Features Syndicate, Inc. is an American content distribution and animation studio, consumer product licensing and print syndication company owned by Hearst Communications that distributes about 150 comic strips, newspaper columns, editorial cartoons, puzzles, and games to nearly 5,000 newspapers worldwide. King Features Syndicate also produces intellectual properties, develops new content and franchises, like The Cuphead Show!, which it produced with Netflix, and licenses its classic characters and properties.

An autobiographical comic is an autobiography in the form of comic books or comic strips. The form first became popular in the underground comix movement and has since become more widespread. It is currently most popular in Canadian, American and French comics; all artists listed below are from the U.S. unless otherwise specified.

<i>Marmaduke</i> Comic strip

Marmaduke is a newspaper comic strip revolving around the Winslow family and their Great Dane, Marmaduke, drawn by Brad Anderson from June 1954 to 2015.

<i>Scott Pilgrim</i> Canadian graphic novels

Scott Pilgrim is a series of graphic novels by Canadian author and comic book artist Bryan Lee O'Malley. The original edition of the series consists of six digest size black-and-white volumes, released between August 2004 and July 2010, by Portland-based independent comic book publisher Oni Press. It was later republished by Fourth Estate, an imprint of HarperCollins. Full-colour hardback volumes, coloured by Nathan Fairbairn, were released from August 2012 to April 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Derf Backderf</span> American cartoonist

John Backderf, also known as Derf or Derf Backderf, is an American cartoonist. He is most famous for his graphic novels, especially My Friend Dahmer, the international bestseller which won an Angoulême Prize, and earlier for his comic strip The City, which appeared in a number of alternative newspapers from 1990 to 2014. In 2006 Derf won the Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award for cartooning. Backderf has been based in Cleveland, Ohio, for much of his career.

<i>The Playboy</i> 1990 graphic novel by Chester Brown

The Playboy is a graphic novel by the Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown, serialized in 1990 in Brown's comic book Yummy Fur and collected in different revised book editions in 1992 and 2013. It deals with Brown's guilt and anxiety over his obsessive masturbation to Playboy Playmate models.

<i>Ed the Happy Clown</i> Graphic novel by Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown

Ed the Happy Clown is a graphic novel by Canadian cartoonist Chester Brown. Its title character is a large-headed, childlike children's clown who undergoes one horrifying affliction after another. The story is a dark, humorous mix of genres and features scatological humour, sex, body horror, extreme graphic violence, and blasphemous religious imagery. Central to the plot are a man who cannot stop defecating; the head of a miniature, other-dimensional Ronald Reagan attached to the head of Ed's penis; and a female vampire who seeks revenge on her adulterous lover who had murdered her to escape his sins.

<i>Pathfinder</i> (2007 film) 2007 American epic action film

Pathfinder is a 2007 American epic action film directed by Marcus Nispel and written by Laeta Kalogridis. Distributed by 20th Century Fox, it stars Karl Urban, Clancy Brown, Ralf Moeller, Moon Bloodgood, Russell Means, Jay Tavare, and Nathaniel Arcand.

<i>Mutual Appreciation</i> 2005 American film

Mutual Appreciation is a 2005 independent film by Andrew Bujalski who previously directed Funny Ha Ha (2002). The script is primarily dialogue between a group of young people as they try to determine where they fit in the world. It is considered part of the mumblecore movement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carlo Verdone</span> Italian actor, screenwriter and film director

Carlo Gregorio Verdone is an Italian actor, screenwriter and film director.

<i>Kick-Ass</i> (film) 2010 black comedy superhero film

Kick-Ass is a 2010 black comedy superhero film directed by Matthew Vaughn from a screenplay by Jane Goldman and Vaughn. It is based on the Marvel Comics' comic book of the same name by Mark Millar and John Romita Jr.

Robert C. Harvey was an American author, critic and cartoonist. He wrote a number of books on the history and theory of cartooning, with special focus on the comic strip. He also worked as a freelance cartoonist.

<i>Please Give</i> 2010 film by Nicole Holofcener

Please Give is a 2010 American comedy-drama film written and directed by Nicole Holofcener. It stars Catherine Keener, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Rebecca Hall, Ann Guilbert, and Sarah Steele. It revolves around married antique-dealers butting heads with the granddaughters of the elderly woman who lives in the apartment the couple owns.

Gary Edson Arlington was an American retailer, artist, editor, and publisher, who became a key figure in the underground comix movement of the 1960s and 1970s. As owner of one of America's first comic book stores, the San Francisco Comic Book Company, located in San Francisco's Mission District, Arlington's establishment became a focal point for the Bay Area's underground artists. He published comics under the name San Francisco Comic Book Company, as well as publishing and distributing comics under the name Eric Fromm. Cartoonist Robert Crumb has noted, "Gary made a cultural contribution in San Francisco in the late 1960s, through the '70s, '80s & '90s that was more significant than he realizes."

Gil is a syndicated comic strip written and illustrated by the American cartoonist Norm Feuti. It is distributed by King Features Syndicate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Owen Kline</span> American actor and filmmaker

Owen Joseph Kline is an American filmmaker and actor. He is best known for his directorial debut Funny Pages (2022) and his performance as Frank Berkman in The Squid and the Whale (2005).

References

  1. Bradshaw, Peter (May 24, 2022). "Funny Pages review – a deliciously dark coming-of-age comedy". The Guardian . Retrieved July 20, 2022.
  2. "Owen Kline and Amy Taubin speak about Funny Pages at Roxy Cinema New York". October 16, 2022. Retrieved December 21, 2022 via YouTube.
  3. "#Cannes2022 – Funny Pages – Présentation et réception du film". May 24, 2022. Retrieved July 20, 2022 via YouTube.
  4. "Funny Pages". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved August 30, 2022.
  5. "Funny Pages". Metacritic . Fandom, Inc. Retrieved August 25, 2022.
  6. Dargis, Manohla (2022-08-25). "'Funny Pages' Review: Ordinary Life, Complex Stuff". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331 . Retrieved 2023-11-16.
  7. Collins, K. Austin (2022-08-30). "'Funny Pages': A Portrait of the Comic-Book Artist as a Gross and Clueless Young Man". Rolling Stone. Retrieved 2023-11-16.