American Splendor Review

by Susan Granger (ssg722 AT aol DOT com)
September 9th, 2003
Susan Granger's review of "American Splendor" (HBO Films/Fine Line Features) Awarded the top prize at Sundance this year, this is the dramatized true-life story of Harvey Pekar, a Veterans Administration Hospital file clerk in Cleveland who, inspired by the example of his pal Robert Crumb, documented the mundane, day-to-day details of his life in comic-books.
    Paul Giamatti plays the irascible, obsessive-compulsive Pekar, who realizes "Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff." Hope Davis is Joyce, his depressive wife, while Madylin Sweeten is their adopted daughter. Pekar's co-workers are a motley collection of misfits, the funniest being the slow-speaking, simple-minded Toby (Judah Friedlander), discussing "Revenge of the Nerds." And, of course, there's Robert Crumb (James Urbaniak), whom Pekar meets at a garage sale. With Crumb's encouragement and illustrations, Pekar's career as a cult cartoonist is launched. The narrative veers toward the dramatic when the dour Pekar copes with cancer for a year.
    Directed by the documentarians Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, the film utilizes an interesting mixed-media approach. The movie screen morphs into a comic book panel with images of the real, gravel-voiced Harvey Pekar, who narrates the film, intercut with his fictional self and his fictionalized family. There's archival footage from Pekar's pugnacious appearances on "Late Night With David Letterman" and a staged version of "American Splendor." Amid the fact and fiction, Paul Giamatti delivers a tour-de-force performance, finding humor and humanity in one of life's real losers, as does Hope Davis. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "American Splendor" is a clever, imaginative 7 - getting points for originality and the soundtrack with Coltrane's "My Favorite Things" and Chocolate Genius' "Ain't That Peculiar."

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