AMERICAN SPLENDOR Rating: (out of 5 stars) Directors: Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini Producer: Ted Hope Writers: Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini Director of Photography: Terry Stacey Cast: Paul Giamatti, Hope Davis, Judah Friedlander, Harvey Pekar, Joyce Brabner Visit the IMDB page for full cast and crew

Click on the photo to buy merchandise from American Splendor.

(Read the interview with Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini)

(Read the interview with Harvey Pekar)

Review by: Memo Salazar
8/11/03

It's always a little unsettling when you see a band you've loved for years receive sudden mass exposure. Sure, it's exciting (and flattering) to see the world catch on to what you already knew, but the sweet taste of commercial success almost always carries the nasty aftertaste of uncreative backwash. Similarly, those of us who have followed the tiny but thriving world of alternative comics have seen the culturally hip slowly sink their claws into our precious domain. The fear of commerce permeating and corrupting such a fresh, vibrant form of art keeps us toggling between wanting to tell the world about our discoveries and wanting to keep them a secret.

Such is the case with American Splendor, a film based on the comic of the same name. Like Crumb and Ghost World, American Splendor draws from the creative well of an unknown talent, this time in the form of a Mr. Harvey Pekar. Since the late 70s, Harvey's been detailing his life in comic book form -- and I do mean detailing. No daily routine or ten-second moment is too minute for Harvey's pen; rather than concocting grandiose plots, Harvey chronicles his unflashy life as a Cleveland hospital file clerk, issue after issue, for his small but devoted following to enjoy. Now comes a movie, made by Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini, which attempts to preserve the spirit of the series while adding its own worthwhile spin. Skeptical as always, expecting the usual disappointment, I must admit to being pleasantly surprised.

While Ghost World, also based on an alternative comic, could be considered a flawed success at best, American Splendor rarely buckles under its lofty creative goals. The filmmakers achieve this with simple technical tricks: an unassuming, fictional, indie-style recreation of Pekar's life (taken from his stories), non-fiction interviews with (and engrossing narration from) the always-vibrant Pekar himself, footage from his actual tv appearances on David Letterman, and animated sequences that glue it altogether. This hodge-podge of styles, like the hodge-podge of illustration styles in the comic (Pekar uses several artists to draw his stories) are interwoven to create Pekar's filmic portrait.

Leads Paul Giamatti and Hope Davis portray Pekar and his wife, Joyce Brabner, with honesty and compassion; Pekar himself comes off on-screen the way he always has on paper: a cheap, working-class miser with a passion for art who hides none of his flaws and ends up charming you anyway. Since the comic is mostly a series of vignettes Pekar's been delivering for over two decades, the filmmakers had the challenge of culminating all this material into a more digestible feature-length narrative without watering it down into a formulaic storyline. They mostly succeed, focusing more on the love story between Pekar and Brabner and their subsequent marital challenges, giving the audience a more palatable, enjoyable experience. (We'll never get tired of watching people go through the labyrinth of relationships, will we?)

One of the comic's strengths is that it rarely focuses on plot; Pekar's minimalist style digs so far into the mundane, the mixture of neo-realism with structural innovation renders his work nothing short of brilliant. The movie's more conventional focus on what could essentially be labeled a quirky love story, while respectable and never pandering, is nevertheless a few steps down from the comic. Sometimes, as with the ending of the film, American Splendor the movie is downright beautiful. Usually, though, it's merely "really enjoyable." Not bad for a couple who had never read the comic before joining the production.

In the case of most comic-to-movie adaptations, the question is always "nice try, but why did you even bother?" With American Splendor, however, the answer is clear. Far from diminishing the value of the American Splendor oeuvre, Berman & Pulcini's adaptation is a worthy addition to both Pekar's stories and independent cinema -- a film you will definitely appreciate, whether you've read the comic or not.

(A Fine Line Features release. Opens in New York, Los Angeles and Cleveland on August 15, 2003.)

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