American Splendor Movie Review:


Synopsis:

“Ordinary life is very complex”

Harvey Pekar is a Cleveland based - hospital filing clerk, who documents life’s banalities and events over twenty years in his own autobiographical comic, “American Splendor.”

Played by Giamatti, but narrated by the real – life Harvey, the movie is a blend of the maker’s own interpretations of events interspersed with actual footage of Pekar in various forms and etchings, most notably being interviewed on “Letterman.”
It’s a character study of the original Everyman, who finds an alternate method to illustrate his passion and indifference to everything that life throws at him.

American Splendor is a chronicle of twenty years in the life of Harvey Pekar, a twice - divorced, obsessive compulsive with a gift for capturing the mundane of every day scenarios in snappy sentences, as an outlet for his pent – up issues.
He’s a one – man antidote to Affleck’s “Daredevil”, a hero we can relate to.

There are plenty of ‘my life stories’ around, but Harvey’s is different from the rest because he is so damn unique, yet his everyman qualities have led to a captive audience who can relate to his material.

No pretence is made of re-creating scenes identically. In fact, one of Pekar’s early observations is, “Here’s the guy who plays me, he looks nothing like me, but who cares anyway?”
He is not the illustrator, that is made very clear – a close up of his fist wrapped around a pencil, pushing down too hard on the paper. The first person to notice his gift was in fact good friend Bob Crumb, the same artist portrayed in ‘Crumb’ by Terry Zwigoff, who also directed Ghostworld.
This is not unlike Ghostworld, actually. Not just because of the comic ties, but also the retro style and sardonic delivery - it just has a similar feel.
What makes this bio-pic more fascinating than most is that just like Harvey, it is unique. There is the basic structure – the real Harvey narrating the story with his raspy Cleveland twang, as Giamatti bumbles around, ‘being’ early Pekar, and doing it so well.

Toby, Harvey’s fittingly unconventional pal, is a nerd who never grew out of nerd-dom, the alpha – nerd if you like, and proud of the fact – so much so that he wears a badge proclaiming it. You can maybe guess what his favourite movie is!
He lives at home with his mother, works in the filing department with Harvey, and indulges himself in his love of gourmet jelly beans. The man is hilarious, both the real Toby and his on – screen counterpart are affecting but light up the screen.

Then, there are places where Harvey the comic - book character appears, literally ‘in’ the film. Two - dimensional drawings, but animated, talking. Not just one version of Harvey, but also each artist’s representation of Harvey, hence very different caricature Harvies exist. The conflicting perspectives each artist can have of one individual are a nice touch, and the way they have been used shows much originality.

There is also the real Harvey, talking reflectively about different periods in his life, documentary style, and real Harvey again, on Letterman, which later cuts away and metamorphosises into Giamatti once more. Whoa!

In the piece de resistance, the real Harvey and friend Toby are on a stark white set, which scrolls over to the two actors who play them studying their moves. Classic, and so open, it helps to show the honesty of the subject, especially important in later scenes.

The above sounds far too crazy and eclectic on paper, but be assured – it REALLY works, and deserves to be recognised come Oscar time.

The most delightful things about ”Splendor” (and there are many) are the skewed slant on reality, the inventive presentation, the dialogue, the artwork and the performances. Think that just about covers…everything!

Terresa Gaffney

‘Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff,’ says Harvey Pekar, the subject of “American Splendor,” a biopic with a difference; basically, that it’s about
an ordinary man, someone we identify with possibly more than someone with an
extraordinary life… and yet his life is sort of extraordinary. He did, after all, end up getting a movie made about him. The movie is intelligent,
moving and funny. It’s one of the great American films of the year.

The film alternates between real footage of Pekar being interviewed (he also narrates) and Paul Giamatti playing him, as we are told the story of his life. He is a file clerk at a hospital, who one day decides to start writing comic books called, naturally, “American Splendor.” These become a
big underground hit and Pekar finds himself the subject of a play, and a frequent visitor on David Letterman’s TV show. And he is still a file
clerk.

He seems like a very genuine guy; he got where he is not by putting on a fake front, but by writing what he felt, and what he knew. At first, he
made me think of two characters from “Ghost World,” which was also based on a graphic novel: Enid, who observes and records what she sees and knows; and Seymour, who is obsessed with collecting and not throwing anything away. I
don’t, though, like looking at movies from the point of view of another movie, I like looking at them from the point of view of myself, and
“American Splendor” stands alone as an independent, unique triumph.

The comic books Pekar writes are autobiographical; they’re about the life
that Pekar leads. This film, of course, is too. His friends, girlfriend and workmates are all based on real people. The film makes you feel part of
this small community, while so many movies prefer to detach you from the characters. Here is an everyman who has made a name for himself out of being an everyman. It was a journey, I’m sure, he had not intended to take.

This film is very funny. I saw this film at the Edinburgh Film Festival, where I also saw a Scottish film called “AfterLife.” For a supposed human drama, it was surprisingly devoid of human nature. “American Splendor,” on the other hand, is full of human nature, and human nature can make us laugh. The film also features a great co-star; Toby Radloff, played by Judah
Friedlander, and appearing in the documentary-type footage as himself. He is a self-proclaimed nerd, who loves “Revenge of the Nerds” because it is ‘about nerds who take revenge.’ When we see the real Toby, we realise there was, in fact, nothing over the top about Friedlander’s performance; Toby is a real nerd. And damned proud of it. He even has a badge with ‘genuine
nerd’ written on it. He himself gathered a small fan base through the success of Pekar (who did, after all, put him in his comic books
frequently), and must have felt his life was complete when he starred in the movie “Killer Nerd” and its sequel, “Bride of Killer Nerd.” (The films, by the way, get 2.0 out of 10 and 3.6 out of 10 respectively on IMDB.com.)

When I saw “American Splendor,” I had already heard very good things. It had gathered generally very good reviews, and won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance and the FIPRESCI at Cannes, where it was, for some reason or another, not in the Official Selection.

After the screening, Paul Giamatti and Harvey Pekar (along with his wife, Joyce Brabner, played in the movie by Hope Davis) came on stage. He thanked us for turning up, and for going to the bother of staying after the credits for him (‘at least I think that’s why you’re here’). At the end of the film, the audience had seen his retirement party (he was, after all, a file clerk before everything else), just after he said he hoped that he would
‘get a window of good health between retirement and death.’ He may have been the subject of an unlikely, but brilliant, biopic, and an underground
comic book hero; but is he still an ordinary guy? Technically, no, but by nature? You bet.

***** (out of 5)

Adam Whyte

This astonishing film bio cleverly and joyfully blurs the lines of real life with various dramatised versions of it, all while taking a satirical swipe at the American dream. It's about cartoonist Harvey Pekar, who with his wife Joyce Brabner has documented his life as a working stiff in Cleveland with wry observational humour and a kind of ironic superhero vibe. In the film, we see several incarnations of Harvey--as a kid in the 1950s, as a man from the '60s to the '90s (played by Giamatti), as himself in ingenious narrative clips and "off-screen" moments, and as cartoon versions of himself. All of this combines to paint a picture of an everyday hero who triumphs over the crises of work, health, romance and conscience.

This is a fantastic story that cuts right through our idealistic view (supplied by TV and movies) of what life should be as opposed to what it really is. It addresses issues of fame, wealth and love in ways we rarely see on screen--realistic, hopeful, scary! The film is stunningly well written, directed and edited, inventively using comic book graphics and never getting caught up in irrelevant gimmicks or tired script structures. It bracingly tells things as they are, and merges the actors with the people they're playing in ways that are revelatory and absolutely hilarious.

Yes, the film keeps us laughing from start to finish, helped by the fact that Pekar and Brabner are almost criminally witty--brilliantly and insightfully played by Giamatti and Davis. The film is also filled out with wonderfully eccentric side characters, such as Harvey's colleague Radloff (played by Friedlander) and underground cartoonish granddad Robert Crumb (Urbaniak), as well as witty cameos from the likes of Logue and Shannon (playing Harvey and Joyce on stage) and extensive clips from Harvey's appearances on David Letterman's chat show. The most striking sequence is one in which Giamatti strolls through street scenes and comic book frames pondering Harvey's existence while talking about the other Harvey Pekars who've lived in Cleveland. Astonishing. And with a point too! Yet while the film has a lot to say, it's also a remarkable film biography of a simple curmudgeon who continues to use his own real life as art--on the page, on television, on the stage and now on the big screen.

Rich Cline

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