Funny Pages Review: A quirky, wacky spirit world for comic book fans

With comics currently inspiring many of the world’s most popular films and television shows, it’s easy to forget that the original medium – single issue comics most commonly found in specialty stores – remains a relatively niche interest. This is especially true for titles outside of the Marvel/DC superhero axis, and even more so for cartoonists whose work is more inspired by R. Crumb or Carl Barks than Stan Lee or Jack Kirby.

Owen Kline’s unforgettable, sometimes hilarious film funny sides understands this so well that it’s not immediately apparent that the film is set in the immediate present. Robert (Daniel Zolghadri) is a New Jersey teenager obsessed with becoming a professional comics artist, and the comic book store where he hangs out and works part-time isn’t a swanky monument to the latest high-end superhero collectibles and… attractively bound graphic novels. It’s dingy, packed with haphazardly kept old issues, and populated by a mixed bag of (and often disaffected) fans, up-and-coming artists, and weirdos. (One of them is played by former MTV comedian Andy Milonakis.)

Robert’s high school art teacher and mentor is such an underground comix fanatic that he looks like he crawled straight out of a sketchbook into the flesh. When Robert loses this hero early in the film, he becomes even more disillusioned with his comfortable suburban life and decides to start his own business. He leaves home, finds the best living situation he can afford (sharing an illegal basement apartment with two grown men), and takes a part-time job taking notes for a beleaguered local public defender. That’s how he meets Wallace (Our flag means death star Matthew Maher), a seemingly unbalanced weirdo who was indicted in a case where he freaked out at a local pharmacy.

Wallace has a double fascination with Robert. Like so many other characters in the film, he looks like a living caricature, like someone on the edge of a Daniel Clowes comic. Even more surprising is that Wallace used to work in comics; He was a color separator for Image in the company’s high-flying superheroes of the ’90s. Seeking both authenticity and, paradoxically, some sort of industrial connection, Robert throws himself at Wallace. He should be easy to befriend – Wallace needs money, rides and, it seems, emotional support. But he ensures that the process does not run smoothly.

Writer-director Owen Kline knows how to cultivate a strong, alternative artistic sensibility while trying to shake off upper-class seriousness, and with good reason. He is the son of actors Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates and played the younger brother in Noah Baumbach’s 2005 film The Squid and the Whale. Now his first feature film as a writer and director comes out through prestigious distributor A24 as the cycle of nepotism continues. But however much Kline has used his industry connections, he has used them to create something that’s both catchy and dingy, shot on grainy 16mm film and giving actors who don’t look like overly polished movie stars juicy roles has given.

Kline has the influence of mumblecore/indie films as quoted frontland by Ronald Bronstein, who later co-wrote films with the Safdie brothers (Unpolished gems) – which in turn produced funny sides. There are certainly aspects of funny sides reminiscent of the tension of Safdie-led comic book nightmares like Unpolished gems or Good time, especially when the film reaches its climax. The rushed, hand-held mayhem feels affected and second-hand at times, with outbursts of violence that feel obligatory and more befitting of these criminal Safdie movies.

However, fans of comic-to-movie adaptations can see it funny sides as more related spirit world, the adaptation by Daniel Clowes, which also featured a character intrigued by the weirdos (and potential artistic inspirations) around them. (Clowes did not check in by name funny sides; The characters are so rich in fantasy that it’s easy to surmise that Robert, a huge fan of Peter Bagge, might find Clowe’s work too respectable or too intellectualized compared to his heroes.)

Robert doesn’t quite have the same lost teenage pains as Enid in spirit world. He’s more of a child overwhelmed than a young person disturbed by the encroachment of consumerist adulthood. It’s the inconsistency of Robert’s not-so-friendship with Wallace that has some of the raw, darkly comic energy that emerges between Thora Birch and Steve Buscemi spirit worlddown to the older person discovering a half loving, half cruel drawing of them made by the younger person (though without the sexual tension).

And like Buscemi in spirit world, Matthew Maher is a longtime character actor who is given the space to give a fuller performance than he does in his smaller roles. He is obviously well liked by a wide variety of filmmakers, having made several films for each of Ben Affleck, Kevin Smith, Noah Baumbach and the duo Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck (including a small role in Captain Marvel, as Skrull Science Officer Norex). It’s a special thrill to realize he’s going to have a starring role this time around. Maher’s piercing gaze is reminiscent of a softer version of Marty Feldman, and he infuses Wallace with a mischievous, nervous energy made all the fun by his outbursts of frustration. The best of these show how Robert’s esoteric love of old-fashioned wildlife films and his transgressive openness are not particularly compatible with Wallace’s tastes. Maher has a wonderful way of making Wallace sound both impossible and reasonable in a single scene.

Kline’s film works best when it blurs the lines between the people of a nerdy subculture and the style of their obsessions. Kline seems to take pleasure in finding too-perfect subjects for Robert’s sensibilities, like the odd, sweaty roommates in the overheated basement apartment he briefly calls home. When the film tries to tell Robert more about growing up, it feels like it might skip a step or two and end on a thoughtful note that doesn’t feel entirely deserved. It’s a pitfall to the otherwise admirable 86-minute runtime. But in a cultural landscape where even superhero satire can seem obvious and overproduced, funny sides provides a necessary reminder that comics are a beautiful, obsessive dead end for many people.

Funny Pages is in theaters and on-demand on Friday 26th August.