10 Movies That Ought to Have a Villain But Don't

10. Funny Pages (2022)

Young man versus society is given a grimy twist in Funny Pages, where teenager and aspiring comic artist Robert Bleichner (Daniel Zolghadri) finds himself rebelling against the small world of New Jersey. 

A twisted coming of age story, the film doesn't feature a single likeable or forgivable character, except for Robert's art teacher Mr Katano (Stephen Adly Guirgis), who dies suddenly in the opening scene. Perhaps, then, this is the cypher for the entire movie, as good characters don't have a place in a world that is unfriendly, unforgiving and surprisingly real at the same time.

Robert abandons his family home and finds himself a dank basement apartment in one of NJ's roughest areas, sharing with two older men who live in filth and know no boundaries in terms of normality or sexuality, while he simultaneously enters the orbit of a whole cavalcade of weirdos, no-hopers and casually sinister characters.

But despite the fact that so many of these characters have the makings of an antagonist, nobody commits to the bit. Robert comes out the other side of the film as much the brat as he went in, and though he is a product of his society, the only person to blame for his behaviour is himself.