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Last month, I met up with some fellow NYC-based comedian creator pals to see Funny Pages, a darkish coming-of-age comedy – properly, ostensibly a comedy – about an 18-year-old struggling cartoonist. It’s the debut characteristic by Owen Kline (son of actors Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates), who wrote, directed, and edited the movie with flashes of promise for the way forward for this younger (if, it have to be mentioned, privileged) filmmaker. And hey, I’m a sucker for non-comics tales concerning the comics business.
So it’s with honest disappointment after I say that I… type of hated this film. And it’s not simply because its absurdly bleak depiction of a younger, formidable comics creator typically hits too near dwelling for consolation (hell, it’s even set in my dwelling state of New Jersey). It’s principally that Funny Pages is so aggressively cynical in its makes an attempt to painting the tough realities of the comedian e-book business that it loops proper again round to being implausible.
I’ll have to get into spoiler territory to correctly contextualize why Funny Pages fails each as a film and as an trustworthy depiction of comedian e-book fandom, so cease studying after this paragraph should you’d somewhat come again after seeing the movie your self. I don’t suggest it, however apparently I’m within the minority; Funny Pages presently has an 81% approval score from critics in keeping with Rotten Tomatoes, and everybody at my screening apart from my comedian e-book buddies appeared to have a good time. If you need context for what I’m speaking about however wish to make sure you don’t have the depressing expertise I had, although, some Wikipedia editors did a high-quality job summarizing Funny Pages within the “Plot” part.
Whether you noticed the movie or just learn the synopsis, the truth that Funny Pages is co-produced by Josh and Benny Safdie is unlikely to shock you. Like The Safdie Brothers’ hit 2019 crime thriller Uncut Gems, Funny Pages is a deeply aggravating viewing expertise, and I don’t think about I’d really feel a lot in another way even when I wasn’t myself as invested on this planet of comics as its protagonist. Both movies revel of their quirky forged of characters, and finish in stunning violence.
But Uncut Gems, a movie I like, revolves across the sordid world of sports activities betting, and whereas its politics are nuanced and its characters are advanced, it earns its depth by finally being a morality story about jeweler/gambler Howard (Adam Sandler) being punished for his hubris and greed. Funny Pages, then again, additionally has a forged of deeply flawed characters, however with out an intelligible narrative level to their struggling, the movie’s final tragedy is infuriatingly nihilist.
Funny Pages is hardly the one piece of fiction notable for its lack of likable characters (Miles, together with his achingly light character, is the one character we’re not meant to despise, and for that he’s stabbed within the head). HBO’s darkly humorous Succession thrives on the depravity of its obscenely rich, hilariously out-of-touch central forged, nevertheless it earns its sneering perspective in the direction of its characters with a coherent thematic intention. I don’t like to hate the characters in Funny Pages the way in which I do the forged of Succession. More than something, I pity them.
That, finally, is probably the most irritating factor about Funny Pages: its utter disdain for its personal characters. The crux of most of its punchlines is “look at these fucking weirdos,” which isn’t inherently a nasty method for a comedy, however the incessant mean-spiritedness turns into grating. Just a few characters, particularly Wallace, are coded as having psychological diseases or character issues, and mixed with the truth that lots of them are clearly poor, the punching-down is an excessive amount of of a bummer to be humorous.
Worse but is the frequency by which Funny Pages makes individuals’s bodily look the butt of the jokes. I’ve seen a variety of opinions praising the movie for the way “real” it’s forged appears to be like, as most of them should not conventionally enticing, however that hardly appears praiseworthy to me when such decisions seem to have been made simply so we will giggle at their expense. Even when characters aren’t explicitly insulting one another’s appears to be like, Funny Pages has such a dirty, sweaty aesthetic that it virtually feels deliberately designed to spotlight every character’s worst options. Even the lighting is unflattering.
Funny Pages‘ mean streak fluctuates slightly throughout its interminable 86-minute runtime, but the ending is almost cruel. The shocking violence of Miles getting stabbed in the head, followed by Wallace brutally beating Robert, reads like a metaphor for the punishment aspiring creators take to achieve even a modicum of success in the comic book industry, and I’ll be the primary to grant that Kline has a degree in depicting it so harshly.
Nor will I deny Klein the haunting symbolism of the movie’s remaining shot: after watching his pal practically get killed (Robert by no means goes again to test in on Miles after the stabbing, and because the movie is instructed virtually solely from his perspective, it’s unclear if Miles even survives), Robert stumbles again to his native comedian e-book store. In what virtually actually was impressed by the ultimate moments of Call Me By Your Name, credit roll on a single, uninterrupted shot of Robert’s bruised and bloodied face, staring listlessly within the distance.
I don’t wish to assume intent, however the message seems fairly clear: comics will by no means love us as a lot as we love them, however regardless of how humiliated, demoralized, and tortured we’re in service of a life in comics, we at all times discover ourselves crawling again to comics, just like the pathetic deadbeats that we’re.
I don’t consider that tales essentially owe us solutions, hope, or completely happy endings. There is a spot for indignant tales, and even perhaps tales with contempt for their very own audiences. But I do consider that such uncooked storytelling needs to be in service of a higher fact. There is emotional fact to the nastiness of Funny Pages, I’ll give it that. But it’s a petulant, immature type of anger directed at nobody particularly. There’s a variety of fact, however little or no knowledge.
I’m certain Klein would hate me for this comparability (I think he shares Robert’s vocal distaste for cape comics), however in that sense, Funny Pages jogs my memory a variety of one other comedian book-inspired film that made go away the theater feeling insulted and indignant: Joker. Both movies mistake cynicism for honesty, and edginess for profundity. Both movies try to make broad, if true statements concerning the human situation (“the way people with mental illnesses are treated is bad!” / “the life of an artist is miserable and unforgiving!”) however are revealed to have far much less to say than they suppose when any vital scrutiny is utilized.
What Funny Pages fails to seize — and what may not even be attainable to painting in any medium however comics — is the enjoyment of comics. I’m speaking concerning the pleasure we get from studying comics, of discovering a group of like-minded comedian e-book readers and/or creators, and of getting even one particular person take pleasure in a comic book that you just’ve made, not for cash or fame (a cosmically small share of comedian creators get wealthy or well-known anyway), however as a result of we love comics and making them ourselves brings us pleasure.
Owen Kline clearly is aware of loads about comics, however I don’t get the impression from Funny Pages that he likes comics very a lot. I’m certain that he used to, however I think he’s been burned very badly by comics, regardless that it’s laborious to really feel unhealthy for a man with wealthy and well-known dad and mom who managed to get the Safdie brothers to supply his debut characteristic whereas solely in his early 30s. Either means, even when I didn’t take pleasure in Funny Pages, I respect Kline for sharing his bleak imaginative and prescient of comics with the world… and I hope he nonetheless finds pleasure in comics.
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