MOVIE REVIEW

American Splendor  (2003)

Starring: Paul Giamatti, Hope Davis, James Urbaniak
Directors: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini

Rating: R

Studio: Fine Line Features

Release Date: 8.15.03

Review Posted: 8.15.03

Spoilers: Minor

By Sara Michelle Fetters

Brilliant "American Splendor" a Comic-Based Gift

There are so many different ways to think about the groundbreaking film “American Splendor” from documentarians Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini (“Off the Menu: the Last Days of Chasen’s”). Funny, life-affirming comedy about the common man? Definitely. Witty docudrama told in an unusual and highly entertaining fashion? Spot-on. Strange and surreal melding of fictional drama and insightful non-fictional insight? Surely. One of the best films and most insanely engaging motion pictures to come out this year? A definitive, “Hell yes!!” accorded with all the exclamation points a statement like that can handle.

For their first feature film, the married filmmakers have turned their sights onto one of the most renowned underground comic books, Harvey Pekar’s rich and surly look at Cleveland life “American Splendor.” The story of an everyday guy slaving away working a dead-end job as a file clerk, the film attempts to showcase Pekar and his life as they really are: dirty, churlish and melancholic. Yet Harry refuses to be beaten down by is all, instead tunneling out his own hermit-like existence rooting around garage sales for jazz records, drifting through coffee shops complaining about the state of the world and huddling like a caveman in his scatter-shot hole of an apartment.

As played by Paul Giamatti, Pekar isn’t as much as an annoyance to meet and spend two hours with as it sounds. This is one of the great comic performances of the year, the veteran character actor infusing Pekar with a zestful vitality. But he doesn’t play the mad genius all by himself. Not only do Bergman and Pulcini employ an animated pop-up Harvey (showing up in all his visual incarnation, Pekar having been animated in his comics in differing styles by many artists including Robert Crumb, Gary Dunn and Mark Zingarelli), but the real man himself shows up to narrate and add commentary to the proceedings as well.

It’s a device that could be pretentious and silly to say the least, yet works amazingly well here. With props from the movie all around them and the actors playing the true-life characters in the background chuckling at his discourse, Pekar add a dimension to “American Splendor” that carries it well beyond the usual comedic biopic. It’s like watching a surrealist painter’s version of what stream of consciousness must be like, the film bobbing and weaving in directions and places that I never quite saw coming.

This, really, is kind of odd when you think about it too much, for “American Splendor” tells a relatively simple story after all. It’s the story of a disaffected guy who started a comic book, finally found true love and made something of his life, all the while without ever sacrificing who he really was or where he really came from. In fact, some of the true-to-life moments; Harvey’s enduring friendship with mentally handicapped co-worker Toby – played brilliantly by Judah Friedlander – or the introduction of his battle with cancer and the adoption of a young child near the end; could in lesser hands border on the maudlin or overly sentimental. Instead, these events are handled to near perfection, never losing the acerbic wit of Pekar’s own viewpoint on them.

Matching Giamatti scene-for-scene is Hope Davis, playing Harvey’s third wife Joyce Brabner. She’s the writer’s romantic match, not giving in easily to his continual putdowns or abusingly dry way of looking at things. The beautiful actress completely disappears into the unassuming and rather drab Brabner, giving her an inner beauty and warmth that has just as much effect on the audience as it does on Harvey. Also quite good are James Urbaniak as Crumb and Earl Billings as Mr. Boats, a bellicose co-worker of Pekar’s.

There is so much of value to this movie, so much to talk about, it is hard to know where to begin. From Terry Stacey’s assured camerawork to Thérèse DePrez’s pitch-perfect production design to the directors’ excellent use of music, “American Splendor” is a movie to dive head-first in to. I true treasure trove of fact and fiction; reality and fantasy; it’s a movie the likes of which this summer needed far more of. When you consider the outright failure of “The League of Extraordinary Gentleman” and only the partial success of Ang Lee’s “The Hulk,” leave it to two documentary filmmakers to deliver a comic-based film that really gets it right.

As the tagline says, ordinary life is pretty complex stuff; luckily, “American Splendor’s” brilliance is easy to comprehend.

Rating: êêêê   (out of 4)

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