American Splendor 2003
This is an interesting and very different movie that I put off watching for a few years. I knew it was about an underground comic book artist like Robert Crumb, who was profiled several years before in the movie Crumb. That movie, a documentary, profiled the generally successful story of the almost disturbingly weird title character. In American Splendor the subject is Harvey Pekar who, it turns out, is not an artist, but a writer. His friend, Robert Crumb, did the drawings for the comic book series also called American Splendor. Pekar writes autobiographically about everyday life in the rust belt of Cleveland. The movie goes back and plays out some scenes from his life with Paul Giamatti doing an absolutely amazing version of Pekar. It isn’t necessarily that he looks like Pekar, but he totally captures him. How do I know? Because Pekar himself is in the movie from time to time as himself and also does the narration. Giamatti even watches the real Pekar in one scene with almost stunned reverence. Later Giamatti as Pekar goes to a stage adaptation of the comic book series which stars yet another actor as Pekar. They also show real footage of Pekar himself as a guest on Letterman in the 80’s. This is the kind of stuff that critics just drool over. There has never been a movie like this.
Pekar himself is a grumpy, depressed slob with all kinds of health problems. He works as a clerk at a Veterans Administration hospital with a number of other odd people who always seem to find work in government jobs (and who also appear as characters and in real life in the movie, with Toby being played less well, though the real Toby isn’t that believable either). Honestly, the V.A. probably attracts an even more unusual lot than regular government. Anyone he knows automatically turns up in his comic books, which were later illustrated by a number of other artists. The guy isn’t unlikable necessarily and has been married three times (he has friends and can convince women to marry him), with the third time being the charm for him so far. Towards the end, the movie takes a very sweet turn that Pekar would probably hate except that it seems to be true. Fortunately, as he will tell you, he’s still got a lot of problems.
This is an unusual movie, but if you want something different, this is it. You could watch Crumb first to get an idea of this world, but you could just as easily watch it later on and fill things out a little better. A-.
Written: 24 Sep 2007