Dir. Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini, 2003, USA
Cast:
Paul Giamatti, Hope Davis, Judah Friedlander, Harvey Pekar
American Splendor mixes animation, documentary and traditional film narrative in a unique way to tell the moving story of grumpy American everyman Harvey Pekar, a cult comic book character, autobiographically written by the real life Harvey Pekar. Paul Giamatti plays Pekar in the film, but the real life Pekar also makes an appearance as himself and handles the narration. Confused? You won't be. Always cohesive, funny and clever American Splendor isn't quite like anything you have seen before.
The film begins in the seventies; Harvey Pekar lives in Cleveland and works a dead end job as a file clerk at the local hospital. His wife has just walked out on him and he's feeling lonely and frustrated. A comic book and jazz record aficionado, he spends his spare time scouring garage sales for bargains and ruminating on eternal everyday dilemmas like choosing which checkout queue to join in the supermarket. At a local garage sale he befriends the soon to be successful underground comic book artist Robert Crumb and inspired by Crumbs success, tries writing a comic of his own. He focuses on adult themes, drawing from his own life and a long waited chance to vent his spleen. Using stick men for rough illustration he tentatively shows a copy to Crumb who is impressed by his originality and offers to illustrate it for him. The comic book American Splendor is born. Success follows and leads to Pekar meeting his soul mate Joyce Brabner and becoming a surprise hit guest on the Late Show with David Letterman.
Paul Giamatti is superb as Harvey Pekar. Instead of duplicating the real Pekar, in a similar way to a comic book artist, he offers an alternative interpretation that is authentic, consistent and often hilarious showing Pekar's humanity without compromising his darker side. Hope Davis makes Joyce Brabner a quirky, yet believable individual every bit Pekar's equal. Judah Friedlander plays one of Pekar's colleagues Toby, a self confessed nerd who is so peculiar and effected as to stretch credibility until the real Toby appears later in the film and proves to be even stranger. Unconventionally, the real Harvey Pekar appears as himself in a number of ways; in a studio setting narrating, in archive footage for the David Letterman interviews and also in documentary form. His inclusion adds another angle to the film, but more importantly shows the reality behind the story.
Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini have adapted a comic book in a creative way that is highly inventive, and considering this is their first narrative film, the direction is remarkable. They blend 2D animation, film and documentary seamlessly. Juxtapositions are never jarring; the actors and their real life counterparts fit naturally side by side on the screen - literally. American Splendor celebrates people for who they are, not who they dream to be. And features the kind of ordinary and authentically American characters that Hollywood normally stays well clear of, even though they are interesting, entertaining and for once, unlikely heroes that we can all relate to.
Gavin Bush
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