American Splendor.

Review #1534: American Splendor.

Cast: 
Paul Giamatti (Harvey Pekar), Hope Davis (Joyce Brabner), Judah Friedlander (Toby Radloff), James Urbaniak (Robert Crumb), with Harvey Pekar, Joyce Brabner, Toby Radloff, Earl Billings (Mr. Boats), Maggie Moore (Alice Quinn), James McCaffrey (Fred), and Madylin Sweeten (Danielle) Written and Directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini.

Review:
"We're used to coming from the most obscure world and trying to make it accessible to people. So something that's already accessible made us nervous"
“Of course I don’t think I have it made by any means. I’m too insecure, obsessive and paranoid for that."

Anybody can have a story made about them, provided that there is something of interest to really drive its creators to make it more than what might have been done before. The film is the theatrical debut of Berman and Pulcini, a wife-and-husband duo who had both graduated from Columbia University with a master's degree in film. They first worked together with Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's (1997), a documentary about the end of a famous restaurant. American Splendor started in 1976 by Harvey Pekar under the desire for him to make comics as more than just fantasy or adventures, inspired by what he read from Robert Crumb's underground work in the 1960s. In 1972, Pekar showed him some basic drawings that drew upon his life and Crumb was interested in drawing them alongside others, for which Pekar would publish himself on an irregular basis (he did this for the first sixteen issues, which went from 1976 to 1991 with a page count of at least 52 pages each) before having Dark Horse Comics and Vertigo help in publication for the remaining 23 issues that followed until the last one in 2008 before his untimely death in 2010. The comics were autobiographical in nature that led him to a description as "poet laureate of Cleveland" for his work in detailing a life as it was happening (while working as a file clerk at a Veteran's Administration hospital for over thirty years) that surely will seem familiar to anyone who details numerous aspects of their life on the Internet for others to look at, although I'm sure no one also did graphic novels about a year detailing their treatment of cancer or had their life's work even result in productions in the theater (the appearances on the Late Night show with Letterman are a different beast all together, mixing real footage and re-enactment).

This is a curious and offbeat film about a human life because of its approach to depicting the life of an offbeat man and the people around him, which as you might notice includes actors playing Pekar, Brabner, and Radloff while also featuring them within documentary segments to go with certain moments of animation of Pekar that end up making a hybrid production, filmed on a budget of around $2 million dollars (shot in Pekar's native Ohio in Cleveland and Lakewood) that was originally destined for airing on HBO before becoming a HBO Films release. It is likely one of the most offbeat and most relevant adaptations of a comic book ever made, but it also probably one of the more interesting takes on the everyman ever put to film, because there definitely is a little bit of Pekar in us when it comes to the idea that maybe all of us have a story begging to be told, whether one is a file clerk or something else. There is both the cinematic vision of Pekar we see that is both biting and diverting and also the real touch that lends further perspective to what is important while also emphasizing just how well the main performances are. Let's start with Giamatti, who perfectly captures the caustic nature of the man we see and hear that sticks to us like gum on the shoe for all the right reasons in conviction that makes great pathos come alive without overextending himself as an outsider everyman. Davis achieves just as much in seeping right into the part played with no brazen difficulty, matching Giamatti in reflective awkward honesty that contributes well to a bit of perspective of following along with the second end of an ordinary couple of people with their spike of chemistry. Friedlander and Urbaniak do fairly well in contributing moments to stand out in their own way, whether that means a particularly speaking style (reflecting the actual Rafloff that we see both in archive footage and later on) or as a sort of dandy that will surely be familiar to those knowing of artists like Urbaniak with Crumb. Whether one knows much about the comic doesn't really matter to its enjoyment (a statement that can apply to several adaptations), but having Pekar and Brabner there helps in figuring out the perspective for reality's sake, which works depending on how much one is on the level with these folks. As a film about being oneself and persisting on with the habits that make a life different from another, I fairly enjoyed the experience as one excelling in creativity and its main performances that make it a good ordinary accomplishment that will prove effective for those into what it is selling from off the streets in Cleveland.

Overall, I give it 9 out of 10 stars.