It is also obvious - partly because he keeps saying so - that he is not an artist. ![]() It is obvious that puffing, spluttering, paranoid Wallace is crazy and probably crazy violent. In exchange for pancakes and $300, he has no compunction about stealing from his mother (Maria Dizzia) - Wallace will give Robert a proper, professional lesson in real comic drawing. Convinced he is a genius, Robert befriends him, even asking him home for Christmas. Here he meets repeat defendant Wallace (Matthew Maher), whose list of assault convictions doesn’t interest Robert half so much as the fact he used to work as a color separator on comics. After he is charged with breaking and entering - don’t ask - the motherly duty lawyer who represents him (Marcia DeBonis) and who presumably sees very few presentable people, gives him a job in her office. Like I said, not an easy watch.Īt least Robert is presentable. Funny Pages is ostensibly making a case for these nerds, geeks and obsessives who are rarely center-stage, but Kline’s approach to his subjects is too wham-bam to let said nerds appear as anything more than pathetic, even repulsive. All this is played for comedy, albeit of the saddest kind. “Dick Tracy, Blondie, Dennis the Evil Menace with his slingshot!,” he sings out from his reclining position on Barry’s bed. He sleeps on the floor next to the bed occupied by Stephen, also “a fan of the funnies,” as he puts it. ![]() The flat belongs - possibly - to Barry, a sticky man with a combover and a passion for 1940s B-movies who welcomes him in. When Robert leaves the parental home to rent a room in a filthy basement flat, you can just about smell the mouse dirt. (Kline, son of Kevin, has hitherto been largely known as an actor in such indie fare as The Squid and the Whale.) It may be set in the suburbs rather than among the Safdies’ beloved urban grifters, but it’s got real grit. ![]() It isn’t hard to see why these defiant marginalia would appeal to the Safdie brothers, who were among the producers to jump on Kline’s directorial debut. Why go to school, reasons Robert, when he could be here? Why go to college, the only future his parents can countenance for him, when all he wants to do is draw caricatures descended from the heyday of Mad magazine? Robert’s friend Miles (Miles Emmanuel), whom he treats with contempt and who is clearly in love with him, initiates discussions of comics by asking questions like, “Is form more important than soul?” Everyone understands the importance of, say, early Archie and Jughead. George (Andy Milonakis) takes his place in the middle of the store, where he can cuss everyone. Young Robert (Daniel Zolghadri), son of professional parents, doesn’t look like the hard-core fanboys - although he probably smells like them - but this is his castle of dreams. Brett Morgen's David Bowie Doc 'Moonage Daydream' Dated For Theatrical Release By Neon, Universal Group - Update
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