Themes: Writer's Life, Battling Illness, Down on Their Luck
Main Cast: Paul Giamatti, Hope Davis, Harvey Pekar, Shari Springer Berman, James Urbaniak, Judah Friedlander
Release Year: 2003
Country: US
Run Time: 100 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
The documentary directing team of Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman makes their narrative feature debut with the biographical comedy drama American Splendor. Harvey Pekar (Paul Giamatti) is a comic book writer inspired by the work of his friend Robert Crumb (James Urbaniak). Pekar writes his comics about the sad monotony of everyday life, based on his own life in Cleveland, OH, working as a file clerk at a veteran's hospital and spending his time reading books and listening to jazz. He meets up with Joyce Brabner (Hope Davis) and they enjoy a depressive relationship together. The filmmakers employ a combination of live-action film, video, and animation, including narration and commentary from the real-life Harvey Pekar. The screenplay was based on Pekar's comic book series American Splendor, which he has been writing since 1976 on Dark Horse Comics, and the 1994 book-length comic Our Cancer Year, written by Pekar and Brabner. American Splendor won the Grand Jury Prize in the Dramatic Competition at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
Review
The best thing about the film adaptation of American Splendor is that it captures Harvey Pekar's unique voice, and the comic book's bristly tone. This is no small feat. Directors/screenwriters Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini cannily integrate documentary footage of Pekar, his wife, Joyce Brabner, and others commenting on the film and the real events that the film depicts. A black-and-white animated version of Pekar also appears frequently. At one point, Pekar (Paul Giamatti) leaves Brabner (Hope Davis) in the green room to appear on David Letterman's show. Davis watches the monitor as actual footage of Pekar's appearance is seen on the monitor. The filmmakers sacrifice some narrative momentum with their technique, but it's well worth it because American Splendor ends up capturing Pekar in all his uncompromisingly grizzled glory in a way that a straightforward biopic wouldn't have. Pekar has always tried to avoid pandering to his audience, and to the filmmakers' credit, they don't try to soft-pedal him; even when dealing with a character's terminal illness, they avoid any kind of sentimentality. Giamatti delivers a wonderfully cranky performance in the title role, while Davis is dependably superb as the hypochondriac and insanely impulsive Brabner. James Urbaniak brings depth to what could have been a cartoonish role as comic book artist Robert Crumb, while Judah Friedlander is surprisingly spot-on as the genuinely cartoonish Toby Radloff, Pekar's longtime friend and co-worker. Pekar's brittle relationships with Brabner and Radloff set the tone for the film. These aren't lovable goofballs, so much as full-bodied characters of whom one's opinion changes, depending on how they're behaving in a particular scene. The filmmakers allow the viewer to make up his or her own mind about these complex people, and that is the best service they could have paid to Pekar's work. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
Earl Billings - Mr. Boats; Joyce Brabner - Real Joyce; Madylin Sweeten - Danielle; James McCaffrey - Fred; Danielle Batone - Real Danielle; Maggie Moore - Alice Quinn
Credit
Twinkle - Animator, Julia King - Associate Producer, Ann Goulder - Casting, Michael Wilkinson - Costume Designer, Chip Signore - First Assistant Director, Shari Springer Berman - Director, Robert Pulcini - Director, Robert Pulcini - Editor, Mark Suozzo - Composer (Music Score), Linda Cohen - Musical Direction/Supervision, Therese DePrez - Production Designer, Terry Stacey - Cinematographer, Ted Hope - Producer, Robert Desue - Set Designer, Whit Norris - Sound/Sound Designer, Shari Springer Berman - Screenwriter, Robert Pulcini - Screenwriter, Nicholas Renbeck - Supervising Sound Editor, Twinkle - Visual Effects, Harvey Pekar - Book Author, Joyce Brabner - Book Author
American Splendor is a 2003biopic about Harvey Pekar, the author of the American Splendor comic book series. The film is also in part an adaptation of the comics, which dramatize Pekar's life. The film was written and directed by documentarians Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, who share writing credit with Pekar and his wife, Joyce Brabner.[1] It stars Paul Giamatti as Pekar and Hope Davis as Brabner. However, it also features appearances from Pekar and Brabner themselves (along with Toby Radloff), who discuss their lives, the comic books, and how it feels to be depicted onscreen by actors. It was filmed entirely on location in Cleveland and Lakewood in Ohio.[2]
In the film, the artist who illustrates Brabner's Our Cancer Year is referred to by the nickname "Fred," and not his full name, Frank Stack.
In the film, Joyce is shown asking Harvey if they should "skip the whole courtship thing and just get married" during their first date. In the comics Harvey doesn't propose to her until at least the second date.
Columnist Jaime Wolf wrote a laudatory review of the film in Slate, also drawing attention to formal parallels with Woody Allen's Annie Hall and other Allen films.[4]
Pekar wrote about the effects of the film in American Splendor: Our Movie Year.
