American Splendor (2003)

...life goes on.   -The Beatles, Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da

Part way through American Splendor, I thought to myself, This is just like The Matrix. Whenever I watch The Matrix, I begin to get that exciting I-can-do-anything feeling. Watching this film made me feel the same way - I mean, here's this guy - he starts out as a file clerk and becomes a comics legend. But by the time the movie ended, I didn't have that feeling any more.

Not that the movie is necessarily depressing, but it's just so real. American Splendor is the story of Harvey Pekar, who in the 70's began to write comics about life - about the everyday stuff that goes on in a normal person's day-to-day existance. He titled the book American Splendor and it became an underground hit, illustrated by various artists such as comics legend R. Crumb. The movie details his life starting out as a hospital file clerk, meeting R. Crumb and collaborating with him, meeting his wife Joyce, appearing on the Letterman show a number of times, and ending with...well, I won't spoil it for you.

The first thing that is striking about American Splendor is its comic book look and feel. Other movies (like Mallrats or Hulk) have tried, with some success to incorporate a comic-like look, but American Splendor wins the award for being most successful and most creative. Imagine narration via comic-book panels, and you've only scratched the surface.

Another fascinating thing about the movie was the juxtaposition of the actors with the real people they portray. Harvey Pekar himself narrates the film, and various scenes transition from the narrative, where the actor Paul Giamatti plays Pekar, to seeing the real Harvey Pekar doing voice-over and being interviewed. One scene shows the actors playing Harvey and one of his hospital colleagues having a conversation near their real-life doubles. It's this kind of innovation that make this film so fascinating.

I like where Pekar takes his comic - and where the movie follows. Life isn't always about overcoming obstacles and feeling the triumph of the human spirit. Heck, sometime life is an obstacle. I realize that many entertainment mediums are used primarily as methods of escape, but sometimes it gets old when every protagonist reaches every goal. Most of the time, I feel like I don't reach half my goals. Half the time it feels like I don't reach any. Pekar understands this and brought this kind of realism to his comics. Sometimes it's comforting to watch a movie and remember that it's not the case that everyone else but me is beautiful, and everyone else but me regularly has all of their goals and dreams fall into place in the third act after overcoming a couple of obstacles in the second. While nobody wants to sit and rehash the tiresome annoyances of everyday life, Pekar handles these things with such a creative genius that they become relatable and fascinating at the same time.

			See it if you enjoy good movies about real people, if you like it when excellent films go against the grain of the "successful movie" formula, or if you like to relate, however dysfunctionally, to the characters you see on the big screen. Don't see it if you like to have your art or entertainment packaged in a gold wrapper and served to you on a silver platter, happily ever after.

© 2003 Jim Manchester