Wednesday

American Splendor (2003)



The makers of "American Splendor," Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, do a brave thing: they put the character of Harvey Pekar, the protagonist, right alongside with the real-life Harvey Pekar. In fact, they go so far as to have the real Pekar narrate the movie about his own life, and at one point during the narration even comments "The guy playing me doesn't even look like me." The fact that the filmmakers are willing to break the illusion of reality that most other films strive for is a testament to the innovative storytelling in this sparkling film.

Pekar was a file clerk in Cleveland who began to write comic books about his own mundane life. He was fortunate to befriend Robert Crumb, the famed underground comic-book artist, who underwrote Pekar's artist by drawing the comic, ironically entitled "American Splendor." Later, Pekar became a frequent guest on the Letterman show. His marginal celebrity, however, never resulted in life-changing success. At the end of the film, we see the real-life Pekar and his friends celebrating his retirement…from the sale file-clerk position in Cleveland he held all his life.

The true beauty of the juxtaposition of real-life Pekar and movie Pekar, played with grumpy conviction by Paul Giamatti, is that it reveals the element of the "American Splendor" comic that its fans must have found the most appealing: brutal verisimilitude. The story is fascinating because, well, it's simply true. We know this because it's up there on screen. Giamatti's performance is so strange, and Hope Davis adds a unique stabilizing presence as Pekar's third wife, Joyce Brabner. Their lives are so uniquely "out there" that the movie works as a quirk-piece, except we so often cut to the real Pekar and the real Brabner, and we see that these characterizations aren't embellishments at all.

Berman and Pulcini, who adapted the film from Pekar's comic books and his collaboration with Brabner called "Our Cancer Year," use visuals that meet the creative bar set by Pekar's own life. They let Pekar roam free with his narrative, layering it over episodes of Pekar's life that have Giamatti convincing the audience that, yes, Pekar is a person that would actually do this or say that. The filmmakers also reach into their bag of tricks and incorporate comic book stills and animation as the film's chorus. We therefore are able to see the real Pekar, Giamatti's Pekar, and the Pekar's incarnation into the comic book world that made him famous.

I love it when a film has to remind me that it's a film, because it means that I've become so completely engrossed with the story portrayed on screen. Pekar, Brabner, and his cast of co-workers and friends that do the landscape of "American Splendor" the comic book also illuminate onscreen. This is one of the most creative and unique films I have seen in a long time.

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