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August 15, 2003
American Splendor
(out of four)
Harvey Pekar is not your average comic-book hero. He's short, cranky and nebbish with absolutely no superpowers to speak of. But that's exactly why he's developed such a fervent fan base among underground comic fans. You see, Harvey Pekar's just an average Joe. By day, he works a dead-end job as a file clerk at the local V.A. Hospital. But when no one else is looking, he scripts the more cantankerous moments from his largely uneventful life for other artists to illustrate.
Drawn by everyone from Robert Crumb to Joe Sacco, Pekar's autobiographical misadventures have been catalogued in the comic book 'American Splendor' since 1976, earning its self-deprecating hero a cult-like following and an American Book Award. In routines as mundane as searching for his keys or choosing the right supermarket checkout line, Pekar demonstrates a knack for finding the poetic in the everyday.
Now, in the same-named movie, filmmakers Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini take a crack at adapting Pekar's story for the big screen. Paul Giamatti delivers the performance of his career as the suitably disgruntled Cleveland native, but the directors aren't content simply recycling Pekar's best comic-book vignettes. Instead, they also mix in documentary footage of the man himself (as both narrator and subject) as well as multiple hand-drawn incarnations of the character. It all adds up to an endearing postmodern exercise full of outrageous characters and wry observations about life's little mysteries.
[as featured on Moviefone.com]
Posted by Peter Debruge on