American Splendor (2003)
Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff.
Starring: Paul Giamatti, James Urbaniak, Hope Davis, Judah Friedlander, Earl Billings, James McCaffrey, Maggie Moore, Vivienne Benesch, Chris Ambrose, Joey Krajcar, Josh Hutcherson, Cameron Carter, Daniel Tey, Mary Faktor, Harvey Pekar, Shari Springer Berman, Larry John Myers, Barbara Brown, Danny Hoch, Eli Ganias, Sylvie Kauders, Rebecca Borger, Charles Eduardos, Robert Pulcini, Toby Radloff, Joyce Brabner, Donal Logue, Molly Shannon
Director: Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
Running Time: 101 minutes
US MPAA rating: N/AUK BBFC rating: 15
Comedy, Documentary, Drama
Almost all movies adapted from comics are Hollywood blockbusters featuring superheroes with extraordinary powers, like Superman, Batman, Spiderman, Blade, DareDevil, X-Men, Hulk and so on. 'American Splendor', however, is an altogether different affair - based on 'nobody guy' Harvey Pekar's autobiographical comicbooks 'American Splendor' and 'Our Cancer Year', the film documents Pekar's decidedly anti-heroic life - by day a not so mild-mannered hospital filing clerk, by night an obsessive-compulsive self-chronicler, regular guest on David Letterman and, latterly, survivor of testicular cancer. No battles between good and evil, no superhuman exploits, just the everyday thoughts and experiences of an irascible working man trying to eke out an existence.
From its opening sequence in which, at the end of a line of trick-or-treaters disguised as various superheroes, a young, costumeless Pekar complains 'I ain't no superhero - I'm just a kid from the street', 'American Splendor' is concerned with the unsung heroism of an ordinary life, going out of its way to tell Pekar's story without any idealisation or 'Hollywood bullshit'.
At the same time, the film is a sophisticated exploration of the paradoxes which emerge when real life becomes art. Just as in the original comics Pekar's character was drawn in radically different styles by a range of artists, including Pekar's long-time friend the underground artist Robert Crumb ('they made a movie about him too', as Pekar says), so too in the movie Pekar appears elusively in a number of different guises. We see him as both a still and animated handdrawn cartoon, and played by actors as both a boy (Daniel Tay) and an adult (Paul Giamatti). In one scene Giamatti's movie version of Pekar is seen watching a stage version of himself (Donal Logue), while in another scene, Hope Davis (who plays Pekar's wife Joyce) watches the real Pekar with David Letterman on a television screen, only to greet Pekar's Giamatti-incarnation coming off the Letterman set. The real Pekar reads out his voice-over narration (which was in fact written not by Pekar but by the directors), complaining that Giamatti 'don't look nothin' like me'. In the middle of scenes, there are unexpected cuts in which the actors are revealed to be sharing a soundstage with the real people that they have just been portraying, while the real Joyce Brabner and the real Pekar argue about whether Pekar's comics represent an accurate depiction of his life.
Amidst all these artfully postmodern disruptions of the dramatic illusion, Pekar becomes a strangely fragmented figure, difficult to pin down despite the fact that he is always right there in front of us.While he is without doubt different from most screen heroes, his mediated appearance in comics, on stage, on television, and now in this film itself all militate against his constant protestations that he is 'real' and 'no phoney showbiz guy' - after all, everything in 'American Splendor' is artificial and contrived, and even the 'real' Pekar is following someone else's script.
Documentary makers Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini have created an intelligent challenge to their own craft. Coming at a time when so-called reality television is at its most popular,'American Splendor' raises important questions about the contradictory relationship beween real life and its representations in the media - but at the same time the film is always playful, telling a funny, dramatic tale with a quirky voice.
It's Got: A divorce on the grounds that 'this plebeian lifestyle just isn't working', a nerd obsessed with piña colada-flavoured sweets and 'Revenge of the Nerds', and a hilarious performance from Hope Davis as the neurotic intellectual Joyce ('I guess I have a borderline health disorder that limits me politically when it comes to eating').
It Needs: Pekar for President!
Alternatives: 'Crumb', 'Ghost World', Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Summary: A wonderfully quirky biopic about an ordinary, real guy who is not really ordinary or real at all.
Review Date: 26th December 2003
External Links
Official Web Site
American Splendor at the IMDB
Comments3 Comments |
| "So so, ok'ish but gets a bit dull after a while. 5 out of 10" |
| Comment by:- Dave B | | 27 July 2004 | ip: logged |
| this movie was really awful. my girl summed it up best by saying "that just ruined my day." we were having a great day till we saw that movie. not because it was somehow sad, because it's pseudo-intellect feel-good-about-being-normal crap was just, it just made me feel like a jack-ass for existing. like you know when you're around something happening that's stupid and you feel shame for the human race? man me and my girl, maannnn, we were having a good time, then we saw that, and i think it damaged our relationship cos at the end it was so awkward. just like..."man...that movie sucked." the last thing this world needs is this pseudo-intellect garbage; the movie is retarded, and it's really sad that the reviewer uses words like "postmodern" and "fragmented" and thinks he's some authority when he's just a guy writing for a stupid website who got swept up in a bad movie cos it was different. bad means bad. where are the honest reviews? maybe some REAL critics should rate these things. |
| Comment by:- Paul | www.macroplex.net | 23 November 2004 | ip: logged |
| This movie is wonderful because it rings true. It's so unlike most of the low-grade hollywood films that are supposed to portray real life, when in fact they are fantastical and unrealistic. Paul Giamatti is irritable, plagued by the problems that everyone faces. The cleverness of having the real Harvey Pekar filmed in the movie was a wonderful touch, as well as the quirky relationship between Pekar and his wife. The movie coaxes you into liking Pekar, as crabby and unlikeable a person as he seems to be. That convincing is part of what makes this film brilliant. It's heartwarming, but by no means mushy or a tear-jerker. One comes away feeling like a hero, and a sense that we are all heroic for what we battle in life. |
| Comment by:- Madeline | | 26 December 2004 | ip: logged |
