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RFunny Pages Funny Pages is an earnest ode to the obsessives. It’s also made by one. The fi lm follows a budding cartoonist named Robert, played by Daniel Zolghadri (Eighth Grade), as he shuns his spoiled suburban lifestyle in favor of a more artistic one, which he has, of course, romanticized. But, as luck would have it, Robert does serendipitously stumble upon a possible mentor. Enter Wallace, played by Matthew Maher, a character actor for the ages. Despite this sounding like the plot of any number of coming-of-age fi lms, this is no William Miller-Lester Bangs relationship. Instead, the directorial debut of Owen Kline (The Squid and the Whale) takes more big swings. It’s bookended, for example, by two equally traumatic events that put a fresh spin on the familiar and make it somehow feel both more authentic and more absurd than anything to come before it. And yet Funny Pages is teeming with broad infl uences and niche references, ranging from The Last American Virgin (1982) and Lilith (1964) to Wallace being a former assistant colorist for Image Comics. Ultimately, Kline’s trick to getting everything to coalesce is commitment—of himself, his passion, and his love—resulting in a distinctly dark comedy that is worth seeing. —BECCA JAMES R, 86 min. Music Box Theatre, wide release on VOD

RHonk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. Nobody does Respectability Politics better than Christianity! Director Adamma Ebo sets out on a mission to air the dirty laundry of the Southern Baptist church in the satirical mockumentary Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. Pastor Lee-Curtis Childs (Sterling K. Brown) and his wife Trinitie (Regina Hall) are two church leaders in the midst of damage control, trying to save their congregation—and their marriage—a er news of the pastor’s aff air goes public.

While the philosophy of their faith allows for a quick confession and forgiveness in the eyes of the Lord, their congregation isn’t so easily convinced. As strict adherents to the prosperity gospel, Lee and Trinitie work to tempt their fl ock home the only way they know how— through continued maintenance of their picture-perfect facade. But as the pressure mounts, the leather of their Ferragamo loafers begins to crack.

The brilliance of Ebo’s script implicates everyone in the community, highlighting the lengths that supposedly “enlightened” religious folks will go to avoid true introspection. Brown is audacious as the hypocritical pastor who prays only to the altar of his own success, never providing proper ministry to those most in need—including himself. Hall’s depiction of the quiet implosion of the pastor’s wife under the 100-ton weight of the Truth is hilariously devastating, a de examination of human nature and the unfathomable depths of denial.

For those who grew up with any personal proximity to the Black church or religious homophobia, this movie will hit incredibly close to home. Ebo’s fi lm perfectly captures the ridiculousness of the theater of dignity performed every Sunday morning at congregations across America, while reminding us that the truth can set you free—but only if you let it. —SHERI FLANDERS R, 102 min. Wide release in theaters

Me Time

Me Time seemingly had all the ingredients to at least be an enjoyable, mainstream comedy. It pairs Kevin Hart with Mark Wahlberg, both of whom have excelled within the genre. They’re joined by a stellar supporting cast, too, including the always exemplary Regina Hall, who previously thrived alongside Hart in About Last Night.

In Me Time, Hart plays Sonny, a stay-at-home dad, who is encouraged by his wife Maya (Hall) to reconnect with his former best friend Huck (Wahlberg), a er spending the last decade only caring for his two children. Once Maya goes to visit her parents, Sonny does indeed call up Huck, who soon kick-starts a wild weekend that nearly ruins both of their lives.

Written and directed by John Hamburg, whose own credits include writing Meet the Parents, Zoolander, and Night School, Me Time unfortunately fails to turn this smart idea for a comedy into anything worthwhile. Hart, Wahlberg, and Hall are given scraps to try and turn into laughs. Then when Me Time introduces bigger comedic set pieces, they’re too broad and fall painfully fl at. Even its one-hour-and-41-minute runtime quickly becomes a trudge. Make sure to avoid Me Time, otherwise it’ll just end up wasting yours. —GREGORY WAKEMAN R, 101 min. Netflix

Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. FOCUS FEATURES

RPeter von Kant One might think it’d be a fool’s errand to reimagine another fi lm version of Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s play The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, but French writer-director François Ozon (Swimming Pool, Summer of 85) doesn’t do a half bad job of it. The result of his homage to the German maestro is something at once remarkably faithful to its source but also strikingly deviceful in both audacity and fl air. Ozon transposes the central dynamic of Fassbinder’s tale (about a fashion designer, her wordless assistant, and her female lover) from three women to three men. Peter von Kant (Denis Ménochet) is a fi lm director who meets, via his actress friend (the ever-majestic Isabelle Adjani), a young man named Amir (Khalil Ben Gharbia) with whom he falls madly in love. What begins as a romantic aff air devolves into something ugly and avaricious, the director soon lashing out at everyone in his life. (Hanna Schygulla, who played the lover in Fassbinder’s 1972 fi lm version, appears as his mother.) Ozon’s recent features have been one departure a er another, and this is no exception. Though it at times suggests Fassbinder by way of someone like Pedro Almodóvar—the sheer intensity of its predecessor sacrifi ced here to other virtues—Ozon’s ode off ers a diverting, fresh perspective on Fassbinder’s harrowing melodrama. Stefan Crepon plays the assistant with noteworthy aplomb. In French and German with subtitles. —KATHLEEN SACHS 85 min. Gene Siskel Film Center v