![]() ![]() The grotesquerie isn’t just over-the-top, it’s practically up-your-nose. Something similar could be said of Robert, who, spurning the warnings of his upper-middle-class parents (Maria Dizzia and Josh Pais, entirely sympathetic), drops out of high school, buys a rickety car and follows his artistic impulses wherever they might lead.īefore long they lead him to Trenton, where he moves into a disgustingly airless, squalid basement apartment occupied by a couple of creeps (Michael Townsend Wright and Cleveland Thomas Jr.), occasioning many stomach-churning close-ups of sweaty brows and filthy toenails. “Funny Pages,” in other words, is not out to solicit anyone’s affections or measure up to any expectations but its own. Crumb and Harvey Pekar looms heavily over Robert’s work, the spirits of John Cassavetes and Jerry Schatzberg sometimes haunt this movie’s unglamorous faces and rundown locations, and also the inelegant Super 16-millimeter frames of Hunter Zimny’s cinematography.Īt the same time, Kline’s sensibility feels equally shaped by more recent strains in cutting-edge American cinema, namely the jagged gutter odysseys of Josh and Benny Safdie ( “Good Time”) and Ronald Bronstein ( “Frownland”), all three of whom are credited as producers here. Because moviegoing carries risks during this time, we remind readers to follow health and safety guidelines as outlined by the CDC and local health officials.Īn attention-grabbing debut for its 30-year-old writer and director, Owen Kline, “Funny Pages” draws its cranky-grungy energy from the 1970s heyday of underground comics and also from the rough-hewn independent films that proliferated during that period. The Times is committed to reviewing theatrical film releases during the COVID-19 pandemic. ![]()
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