Customer Reviews

American Splendor

5 star:		(63)
4 star:		(44)
3 star:		(10)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Being familiar with Harvey Pekar's comic book American Splendor, I was really pleased to see the movie was about as close to the source material as any other movie I've ever seen. I haven't had an opportunity to read Our Cancer Year, a graphic novel by Harvey and his wife Joyce about Harvey's bout with cancer, but that storyline is also incorporated into this movie.

Harvey Pekar, played by Paul Giamatti, leads an ordinary life in the city of Cleveland, working as a file clerk in a VA hospital, divorced twice, scours garage sales and thrift stores for rare Jazz records, is thoroughly well read, and observes the people in his life and his surroundings fairly closely, taking it all in, good and bad. Harvey does tend to a rather morose individual; so don't come into this movie looking for tales of happiness and joy. A chance meeting with a greeting card artist and future underground comic legend Robert Crumb develops in to a long-standing friendship through their similar interests. Once Crumb becomes famous for his unusual style of comic books, Harvey decides he wants to try his hand at it, creating, with the help of Crumb's illustrations, stories about his life titled American Splendor. No superheroes here, but more of a realistic portrayal of his own life, warts and all. Soon he develops cult fame, and meets his future wife, Joyce, a comic book storeowner from Delaware. Harvey's fame manifests itself in a sort of bizarre fashion, leading to a number of appearances on David Letterman's late night talk show, and even trickles down to people he knows and includes in his book, specifically his ultra nerdy co-worker and friend Toby Radloff, played wonderfully by Judah Friedlander.

One of the things I really enjoyed about this movie was the inclusion of the real Harvey Pekar and other people in his life, such as his wife, Joyce, and his very odd friend, Toby Radloff. Harvey does some narration, and appears in a few scenes with other, real life people, who are portrayed by actors in the movie, in scenes between the scenes, if that makes sense. It allows for a comparison between the actors playing the characters and the real life people those characters are based on. It sounds like it would be a little disjointed, but directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini pull it off wonderfully. What was most interesting to me was how much Paul Giamatti got into the character of Harvey, from physical appearance, speech, dress, attitude, and even mannerisms. Sometimes I wasn't sure if I was watching Paul Giamatti's Harvey Pekar or the real Harvey Pekar. One of my favorite scenes is one where Harvey discusses the peculiarity of his name, and how odd it was that he found a couple of other people in the phonebook who shared his name.

Presented in a wide screen format, the movie looks great. Also included are a plethora of extras, including a reprint of a comic insert Harvey Pekar created for Entertainment Weekly, a group commentary including the real Harvey Pekar, a featurette, and a few hidden items that aren't too hard to find. (The one with the real Toby Radloff is great.)

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Like Crumb and Ghost World (both great films in their own right), American Splendor focuses on a subculture that is seldom glimpsed by the mainstream --that of underground comic book writers. American Splendor is the name of a comic book created by Harvey Pekar, played in this film by Paul Giamatti, who expertly captures the personality and nuances of Pekar. We know this because this film is part documentary, with the real Pekar (and other characters dramatized in the film) giving commentary throughout. This technique of mixing the real with the fictionalized works well for this movie, which is about a person who is almost obsessively introspective and constantly wondering about his identity. Although he is a counterculture hero of sorts, Pekar lived most of his life in an extremely low key manner --as a file clerk for a VA hospital. Most of his comic books were derived from the people and events he experienced at work and around the streets of Cleveland. At the start of the film, Pekar's wife has left him, complaining that she cannot stand the "plebeian life" anymore. Although Pekar himself is hardly content with his own life, he also seems to require it. At one point he muses that he'd be lost without his work routine. Later, one of his female fans named Joyce (Hope Davis) writes to Pekar and they get married almost immediately, "skipping the whole courtship thing," as Joyce puts it. Joyce is a fellow misfit, and they seem like a perfect match. The strength of this film is in the way it captures the whole sense of life (to borrow a phrase from Ayn Rand) of Harvey Pekar. Before seeing this, I had never heard of him or his comic book, but I am always intrigued by people who live on the fringes and create something original from their unconventional vantage points. Pekar reveals himself as a perverse sort of character who seems to need a degree of conflict, even misery, in his life. As he gains in popularity, it seems likely that he could, like his friend and collaborator Robert Crumb, have launched a career out of his art and quit his day job, but he doesn't do this until the very end when he formally retires. He appeared several times on David Letterman's Late Night show, but finally resented the way the host used him for laughs. I enjoyed the scene of his final appearance on the show, when he publicly insults the smug Letterman; I wish more people would do things like that. Directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, helped by the cast and the actual characters of course, have created a masterpiece in this multifaceted portrayal of a unique modern artist.

Check this out. This is mostly a biopic about underground comic book creator, Harvey Pekar, but there are some documentary elements thrown in as well. The REAL Harvey Pekar narrates this fantastic film even criticizing the filmmakers for picking a guy (Paul Giamatti) that he claims looks nothing like him. There are times throughout the movie where we're treated to the real Harvey, his wife, and friends in an interview format. Harvey Pekar eventually made it all the way to David Letterman in the '80s. Instead of recreating the scene on film, the filmmakers instead used the actual footage from the show.

We all love Harvey. It's kind of hard not to. He's just some guy trying to live his life while wading through all the BS and stupidity that surrounds him. He gets so sick of it that he finally puts it down in the form of a comic book. The rest is history. Absoulutely one of the best films of 2003. Check it out.

I'm not a comic book fan or reader whatsoever and I went into this film with some trepidation, but after seeing it I can't help but call it a great movie. Paul Giamatti portrays Harvey Pekar, an underground comic book writer of the 1970s (to present) who showcases in his works the everyday mundane existence of average Americans, including himself. Never wholly good or bad, just life from an honest and gritty perspective a la Charles Bukowski. In this docu-movie we follow Harvey through his years of obscurity as a Cleveland file clerk who befriends the infamous Robert Crumb, to the peak of his celebrity as he does several spots on the Letterman show. He is shown to be a gruff and tempermental character but with a soft side that makes him wholly enjoyable. So as not to give any of the storyline away for those unfamiliar with the artist, Harvey, through all of his struggles with career and marriage remains the same grounded average Joe. For the real fans there are even several spots with the writer himself in this sometimes comic book movie.

The casting is rather good with Giammati in the lead and Hope Davis as his forceful but understanding wife. Giammati is a cross between Vincent D'Onfrio and Nick Tortelli (Carla's husband)from cheers (whatever his name is) and is always a believable force on the screen. Hope Davis is the Velma of the seedy underground comic/geek underworld. The rest of the supporting cast are great stock characters and mirror the real life entities which encompassed Pekar's life. For those of you who might have been put off by the Crumb movie, this was done far more conventionally and without the grotesque, sad nature of the afforementioned film. But that's probably more to do with the subject and not ability. A good alternative to the typical Hollywood big-budget schlock.

Disgruntled file clerk and social misfit Harvey Pekar (Paul Giamatti) lucks into a degree of fame, if not fortune, when underground comics legend Robert Crumb (James Urbaniak) collaborates with him on a comic about his life. Pekar lives in a state of existential misery, desperately lonely and angry about his outsider status. His comics, though, make him a kind of hero to average suffering folks and even bring him a little family by the end of the film (his wife, Joyce Brabner, is wonderfully played by Hope Davis). We are left with the sense that life never has and never will be smooth sailing for Pekar, but the struggle has its own worth and nobility and, in the end, will bring you more than mere surrender ever will. This may be a rather sweet, conventional message for a film that aims to be so subversive and counter-cultural, but it is reassuring all the same.

Writer/directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini employ a mix of animation, documentary and bio-pic conventions to relate their story, with varying degrees of success. Showing excerpts of Harvey's actual appearances on the David Letterman Show instead of recreating them with actors is a stroke of genius and I appreciated the unapologetic, direct way these sequences were handled: we see Paul Giamatti waiting in the wings, followed by a cut to the real Harvey walking out onto the stage. At other times, such as having the real Harvey comment on the actor chosen to play him, it seems somewhat contrived and echoes a complaint that he makes during the film of having been co-opted by the system.

All in all, a very entertaining, interesting film with wonderful performances. PS: I can't end my review without mentioning Judah Friedlander's wonderfully quirky, hilarious, and touching performance as uber-nerd Toby Radloff. Certain key characters also appear as themselves during the film.

What a sweet film this is: not in a mushy sentimentalistic sort of way, but with the kindness of redemptive grace. Even the moments of meanness in the narrative are transformed by something like an omnipresent forgiveness in the face of adversity and weakness: the beauty of our ordinary lives!

While somewhat slow at the outset, it sneaks up on you, makes you laugh and then think. Pulcini ostensibly follows a simplistic narrative, but technically the film's a marvel of ingenuity. Enough has been written already by other reviewers about this aspect, and it has to be seen to be appreciated anyhow, so I'll leave that be.

But the main thing that impresses me is how this film, like those of Satyajit Ray, Ingmar Bergman, and Francois Truffaut, revives in the viewer a sensitivity, all too easily blunted by today's horrific headlines of cynicism, hatred, greed, and despair, to what it can mean to be simply human, surviving -- and creating.

One of my all time favorites. I highly recommend this off-beat offering from Pulcini! Rave review or otherwise, you must savour it for yourself.

This isn't an "everyman" film, as I've seen it commented on. It's a film about a very dysfunctional man, living a sub par existence, who, upon realizing that he wanted to leave an indelible mark on the world much as his friend did with the Crumb strips, reached down and found something to comment on. What did he comment on? Everyday circumstances in the dysfunctional world he lived in. "Everyman" is your average man. Harvey Pekar was far from average.

That said, this was a terrific film. Giammati was amazing as Pekar, and really captured his essence on film. And if we wondered how well he did so, the film showed us the real Harvey Pekar, and the real people that surrounded him. And the real people that surrounded him were sensationally dysfunctional. Yet amidst this lack of functionality, Pekar somehow *did* leave an indelible mark. Many admired him for his writing, but for as many people that admired him for his writing, the same amount - or more - found fun in mocking him. Let's face it - David Letterman had him on his show for comedic effect, and nothing else. Pekar was nothing more to him than a "stupid pet trick", and when Pekar finally told Letterman off I applauded.

In the early parts of the film I wasn't sure whether or not I liked the back and forth of the "fictional" world - the film world - and the real world: the real Harvey Pekar and his band of dysfunctional compatriots. As I watched, however, I grew to appreciate it. I knew that if the real life segments hadn't been included, I would have second-guessed the film. How could someone really live such a disastrous existence and make a name for himself? It seems implausible. Yet it happened. And, as I said, if not for the real life segments, it would have been difficult to imagine.

I was so pleasantly surprised to see all of the real life characters represented so accurately. Rarely does a film do this. A typical Hollywood film would have had someone much more attractive than Giammati playing Pekar, and thank god this wasn't a typical Hollywood film. This brought us into his world, into his house, into his mind, into his soul.

Frankly, while Giammati is receiving well deserved accolades for his performance in Sideways, this was the defining performance of his career.

Life's a funny thing. You eke out an anonymous existence in ratty apartments at a clerk job at the V.A. hospital, submit ideas for stories about your seemingly mundane life (you can bearly draw a straight line)for an underground comic book and they make a classic movie about you. Harvey Pekar is one lucky fellow that the task of making the movie of his life was left to the gifted directors Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman.

Pulcini and Berman imaginatively tell Harvey's story through interesting devices such as through traditional actors, actual participation by the real-life counterparts themselves or through cartoon panels. At one point in the film the real Harvey Pekar is talking and you can see the actor playing him, Paul Giamatti, laughing in the background. Normally this would be a daunting task for an actor to have the real-life person appear in the same film as you but Giamatti is such a consummate actor that he is more than up to the task. Also providing excellent work here are Hope Davis as Harvey's soulmate, Joyce, and Judah Friedlander as Toby, a nerdy co-worker(and proud of it)of Harvey's. The grimy Cleveland locations also add to the feel of the film as do the use of vintage records on the soundtrack(probably obscure jazz records from Harvey's personal collection). In a perfect world this film should have enjoyed greater box office acceptance than it did like, say, a lesser independent film like "Napoleon Dynamite". I have attempted to recommend this film to other people and it's usually met with a shrug. When I attempt to explain what the film is about it's usually met with puzzled uninterested looks. Some things in life don't come wrapped in pretty paper and a bow. Just ask Harvey.

I have to admit with some shame that prior to this movie, I did not know who Harvey Pekar was. But that did not in the least limit my ability to enjoy this movie, which was one of the most interesting that I have seen in a long time.

The theme of the movie as a whole is brilliantly summed up in the first few seconds of the film. Several boys go up to a house on Halloween, all of them costumed as Super Heroes except for one boy, who is dressed up merely as himself: Harvey Pekar. The movie as a whole is about Pekar's attempt to tell his own mundane, dull, and disappointing life in a comic book. Instead of a comic book about super heroes, he envisioned a comic book about himself, a file clerk at the Veterans Hospital in Cleveland. The movie tells the story of Pekar's life in varying degree of details, highlighting his meeting R. Crumb in the 1960s and Crumb's inspiring him to start a comic, despite his inability to draw. By taking incidents from his own life, involving his friends and colleagues, designing the frames of the comics, and then hiring artists to illustrate his stories (many by Crumb himself), Pekar manages to create something unique, funny, and, in its own strange way, triumphant and beautiful. The film implies that we can all be the heroes of our own story.

Not much happens in the film, but it manages to be riveting despite this. The big events in the narrative are Pekar's meeting R. Crumb, his decision to write his own comic, meeting his wife, a series of guest appearances in the late 1980s on the Dave Letterman Show, and his bout with cancer. Throughout this, there is no attempt to make Pekar look better than he is. He is depicted as physically unattractive, a bit weird, a chronic underachiever, more than a little neurotic, and extremely self-absorbed. But despite all this, there is an honesty in looking at his life and depicting it pretty much as it is, warts and all. The way he deals with everything with an indefatigable sense of humor and his determination to do something to give his life a focus and a purpose is heroic in a very real and concrete way, as opposed to the fake, fictional heroism of Superman, Batman, or the Green Lantern.

It would be difficult to overpraise Paul Giamatti in playing Harvey Pekar or Hope Davis in playing Joyce Brabner, the woman who marries Pekar. Both the real Pekar and the real Brabner appear on camera as well, as do most of the real life models for Pekar's characters. In fact, the way the movie narrative flows seamlessly between real life individuals, to actors, to comic book depictions is one of the strong points of the film. In one scene, the Paul Giamatti playing Pekar and Judah Friedlander playing Pekar's friend (and minor MTV celebrity) Toby Radloff are onscreen while the real Harvey Pekar and Toby Radloff have a conversation. In another part of the film, Hope Davis and Paul Giamatti are supposedly backstage at the Dave Letterman show, but when Giamatti as Pekar exits to go onstage with Letterman, it cuts to footage of the real Pekar being interviewed by Letterman. I was reminded of the famous Margritte painting, where he has a painting of a pipe with the words "This is not a pipe" underneath. By moving from the real Pekar to an actor playing him, it is a way of saying "This is not Harvey Pekar" whenever Giamatti is onscreen. Moreover, it intimates that Giamatti is a cinematic equivalent of the various Pekars drawn in the comic books.

This is a great movie, and one that I hope gets the attention that it deserves. It is very different than the movie CRUMB, but I imagine that it will especially appeal to those who enjoyed that strange but fascinating documentary.

What to make of this film? I asked myself that question after I emerged from the theater. Although in certain respects it reminded me of other documentaries (e.g. those produced by Frederick Wiseman and Michael Moore), it is quite unique and therefore, for me, difficult to discuss. Co-directed and co-written by Shari Springer-Berman and Robert Pulcini, American Splendor has a somewhat schizophrenic nature in that real people (Joyce and Harvey Pekar) interact with those cast to portray them (Hope Davis and Paul Giamatti) as Springer-Berman and Pulcini examine the life of a file clerk employed by a veterans hospital in Cleveland. Certain aspects of his life were previously portrayed in comic books which comprise the American Splendor series (illustrated by various people, including Robert Crumb played by James Urbaniak) and in Our Cancer Year (1994), co-authored by the Pekars.

All this probably sounds much more complicated than it seems to be when seeing the film itself. The narrative wanders along from one episode to the next. Along the way, Joyce and Harvey meet and marry, bicker, pout, struggle with finances, work together, bicker some more, etc. After Harvey appears on David Letterman's television program, he gains some degree of celebrity. Intriguing to me is his steadfast refusal to compromise any of his cranky opinions, notably about the very media which attract public attention to him. Also impressive is the skill with which Springer-Berman and Pulcini coordinate the aforementioned interaction between real people and members of the film's cast. Throughout the course of the film, I sensed a tension between the two groups...most evident in Harvey's body language which suggests both distance and hostility. With regard to the quality of acting, it is consistently outstanding.

Earlier, I acknowledged the difficulty of discussing this film and my remarks thus far no doubt confirm that. So, rather than wander much further in this review, I will conclude with this observation: Imagine a film inspired by such diverse sources as John Bunyan, Franz Kafka, W.C Fields, Larry David, and the Simpsons.