Joyce Glasser reviews Funny Pages (September 16, 2022) Cert 18, 83 mins.
Here’s a twist on Euan Blair’s Multiverse apprenticeship scheme, transported to the New York/New Jersey area where it becomes hilarious, nasty and frightening. Talent illustrator Robert Bleichner (Daniel Zolghadri) drops out of High School in his final year and rejects university, opting for mentors in the School of Life to help him realise his dream of being a comic book auteur. In child actor turned writer-director Owen Kline’s promising feature debut, talent, determination, self-sacrifice and discipline are not enough to make it, particularly when good judgement is deemed an impediment to creativity.
If there is something of the New York filmmaker Noah Baumbach about Kline’s debut, it could be because Kline played the insecure son of a divorcing couple in what is arguably Baumbach’s best, semi-biographical, film, The Squid and The Whale back in 2005. While Funny Pages might not be autobiographical, Kline, who studied illustration and for a while produced xeroxed comics and joke books, has made a very dark comedy about Robert, an ambitious student who drops out of school after a crazy accident haunts him with misplaced guilt.
Robert, 17, lives with his upper-middle-class parents (Josh Pais and Maria Dizzia) in Princeton, New Jersey, a stone’s throw from the University where Robert is intelligent, good looking and affluent enough to attend. But parents don’t have a clue what goes on in school when easily impressionable, precocious minds fall under the influence of unsuitable teachers.
After class, Robert is practising his scatological drawings, praised by his illustrator-teacher Connor Katano (Stephen Adly Guigis). This obese, sweaty bear of a man tries to talk Robert out of going to university, advising him to go professional. Flattered by this encouragement, Robert agrees to work on life drawing, but is put off when Katano strips naked except for his socks in the scene that gives the film its 18 certificate. Robert leaves the room hastily only to be pursued by his now contrite teacher, who follows Robert in his car, trying to make amends.
Robert feels complicit in the freak accident that ensues and decides not only to abandon university, but to drop out of high school and trade the comfort of his family home for a grimy, derelict basement flat in Trenton. The squat is big enough for one, but already shared by two much older men who masturbate to old movies that they watch on their laptops.
Every bone in your body wants to scream at Robert to leave this hell-hole fast, but Robert sees the place through a glass brightly. Here, he is an adult paying rent for one of the seedy locations he can use in his art. And it’s far from Princeton.
Robert’s only high school friend is Miles (Miles Emanuel), plagued by acne and long wild hair that is never fashionable. A talented cartoonist himself, Miles is condemned to play second fiddle to Robert’s talent and self-confidence, particularly as he seems to have a crush on Robert.
Robert is not enthralled by his roommates in Trenton, but he stays. As his pursuit of a career continues, he loses any remaining sense of self-preservation not to mention good judgment.
Taking a clerical job in a law office after handing the partner a nude portrait of her he doodled, Robert becomes curious about a belligerent client, Wallace (Matthew Maher) who is advised to plead guilty of assault. He could legitimately plead diminished responsibility, but Wallace is stubborn and even refuses to go to court.
When Robert discovers that Wallace is a veteran of the iconic Image Comics, he cannot believe his luck. Okay, Wallace was only a colour separatist, but the one thing Wallace and Robert have in common is an appreciation of the importance of colour separation in printing. Desperate for a mentor, Robert pursues the bemused Wallace who decides to use the naïve boy until he can’t take him anymore.
Asking Robert for a ride back to Trenton, where he also lives, Wallace’s ulterior motive is to stop off at the pharmacy where the assault took place and seek revenge on the owner for bringing charges against him. Robert is pressured into playing along with Wallace who naturally lies to him about why he could not go into the pharmacy himself.
Not put off by this episode, Robert invites Wallace to Princeton for Thanksgiving where he hopes their art lessons can begin. Since Robert’s landlord made him swear to tell no one he was renting a “room” in the basement apartment, he cannot invite Wallace there, even if there were space to work. You know the Thanksgiving dinner is not going to end well.
Kline clearly knows the comic business and the technical discussions and jargon is so authentic we are ushered into this specialised world half understanding the arguments between Miles and his friend and rival when they compete to show Wallace their work. Robert is not only rude to his parents but becomes increasingly unlikeable as he impatiently repays Miles’ friendship with insults and put downs.
Maher is an actor who appears in small roles in films of Baumbach and his partner Gretta Gerwig, as well as playing the odd sheriff or bad guy but never a romantic lead. To look at him is to be concerned and in a role that is allowed to consume the second half of this film, he does not disappoint. Nor, however, does he help immerse us into the comic book world. He is simply too crazy and dangerous.
The ending offers some hope that Robert will take stock of his life, but you have to wonder whether he can pursue his career in the dark arts as a middle-class boy from Princeton or if he is destined to reside in damp, seedy basement flats in Trenton.
