If you don’t remember Owen Kline, well, that’s ok, you probably don’t have that much reason to, he didn’t start in that many films. But if you’re an indie cinephile, you might remember him playing the little boy in Noah Baumbach‘s coming of age film, “The Squid In The Whale,” playing the younger brother of Jesse Eisenberg. Well, Kline, who is Hollywood royalty as the son of Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates is back. While he’s directed several acclaimed shorts now, he debuted his feature-length debut, “Funny Pages” at the recent Cannes Film Festival where the film was a huge hit.
Interrogating his own privilege, “Funny Pages” is about a teenage boy who throws away the luxury of his comfy life with his parents to try and live the city life as a cartoonist. There he meets a cantakerous cartoon artist and well, things get a little tense in a seriously comedic way.
Here’s the pithy official synopsis:
A bitingly funny coming-of-age story of a teenage cartoonist who rejects the comforts of his suburban life in a misguided quest for soul.
Starring Daniel Zolghadri, Matthew Maher, Miles Emanuel, Maria Dizzia, & Josh Pais, Funny Pages” is written and directed by Kline and it also has a nice indie aegis to it. The Safdie Brothers (“Uncut Gems”) have produced the film and A24 is distributing it this summer.
“Funny Pages” opens in theaters on August 26, so the wait for what looks like a little scrappy, comedic gem won’t be long. Watch the first trailer for “Funny Pages” below.
