Both actors steady the film, not only for their recognizability after years in character roles in independent film, but also for leaning into the character’s aghast rationality. Serving as a baseline for the film’s unique brand of crazy is the normalcy of Josh Pais and Maria Dizzia as Robert’s parents. His unvarnished delivery is part of what makes Robert so frustrating, and all the more funny in his blase reality.
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Zolghadri’s performance doesn’t pull any punches in this regard, especially when he’s monologuing with mouths full of food without the self-aware wink you might expect from a young comedic performer. Part of what makes Funny Pages’ so caustic is that Robert’s middle-finger misguidedness isn’t celebrated his eschewing of the traditional, expected routes to adulthood doesn’t signify nobility, as other film’s might have portrayed it. Zolghadri brings a perfect rebellious spirit to Robert, while making him neither too charming nor too precocious. We’re left experiencing the madness much as Zolghadri’s Robert does: awestruck, morbidly curious, and bracing for the unpredictable. Kline often captures their performances in discomforting, confrontational close-ups, increasing the film’s revolting intensity along with its brute-impact hijinks. It’s an assemblage of folks seemingly picked from the street, bit players, and noted character actors, including a stark naked and unafraid Stephen Adly Guirgis, the Pultizer-winning playwright. And he is already adept at forming a ferocious ensemble of performers who fascinate audiences as much as they freak them out.
Like Waters before him, Kline is interested in the profanity of the everyday. But with Funny Pages, he’s delivering a film that’s maybe the closest approximation to the work of cinematic counter-culture godfather John Waters since his retirement nearly two decades ago. Though audiences may not be familiar with everyone in Funny Pages’ ensemble, its writer/director Owen Kline isn’t exactly a stranger: He previously played the younger brother in Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale, and is also the child of Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates. But his objectification of the weirdos on the margins is more than his naivete can handle, and it all culminates in the most chaotic Christmas morning since Santa forgot to bring Dawn Davenport her cha-cha heels. Instead of preparing for college, Robert aims to surround himself with the grimiest lot of individuals, who he thinks will serve as inspiration for his art. After the sudden death of his boundary-crossing mentor, Robert decides to drop out of high school before graduation, much to the concern of his helpless parents. In the film, things get weird quickly-and stay there-while crafting a portrait of young comic book artist Robert, played by Eighth Grade’s Daniel Zolghadri. After the film’s Cannes debut this summer, The Daily Beast called the film “assured and funny, an almost bewilderingly throwback indie film whose wit and lack of starriness are beguiling.” And indeed, on top of the rest of its curdled delights, at the core of Funny Pages is the wildest ensemble performance you’re likely to see this year, even if you might not recognize many of its stars. Like the rotten black shower water that welcomes its hero to his first home away from home, Funny Pages coats you in a soup of sweaty roommates, awkward naked men, and one disastrous Christmas morning.Ī24’s Funny Pages (out this weekend in theaters and on VOD) is such a loving tribute to the vibes of such left-of-center cartoonists as Robert Crumb, and so madcap and unhinged, it’s no wonder it is produced by the Safdie brothers.
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