Funny Pages
The ultimate misguided quest for greatness in one's field. Funny pages is the story of Robert’s quest to make it on his own as a cartoonist for comedy strips by ditching the traditional route of going to college after his art teacher is killed in front of him in a car accident. The opening scene of this film has Robert’s teacher, Mr. Katano comparing him to Michael Jordan at the age of 17 while pleading with him that he will be ruined if he goes to college. He then proceeds to strip naked so that Robert who is 17 years old can draw him which causes an uncomfortably stressful scene to play out which climaxes in Robert attempting to walk home while Mr Katano is on the road in his car attempting to coerce Robert into his car ending in the crash.
It’s a horrible situation that ends horribly because Mr Katano cannot let go of himself and has to push it further. This is in a bottle the essence of the film. An unrelenting quest to be the best cartoonist in New Jersey that leads to the destruction of all of Roberts interpersonal relationships and the ultimate anti - coming of age story. Robert will begin to reject the comforts of his suburban life to live a life of abject poverty on his own, for his art.
This film is disgusting, dingy and grimey to it’s core. We have DOP Sean Price Williams to thank for that with his gritty film stock look as every scene is displayed in drab colours that bleach out every moment. An interesting thing to note is how much acne the characters have which you almost never see in any film but it leads to this absurd realism as all of these characters feel like a real representation of a character impression from a shock humour comic artist. The style of the film perfectly intertwines with the subject matter.
The entire film is a story of someone who rejects the truth until it’s too late for the damage to be undone. The entire story builds to an incredible panic attack inducing climax that will have viewers gawking at the screen as if they had watched a horrific car accident in front of them. It’s horrific to look at but you just can’t stop. This film steals a lot of it’s tricks from the Safdie brothers output with it coming to the same seering anxious heights as good time and uncut gems just with a less neon colour palette and swapping that for a disgusting and realistic portrayal of it’s characters. It’s a brilliant bottle of anxious lighting that you should check out when you can.