American Splendor

The randomness of having 400+ channels of television to watch can be a good thing and a bad thing. A couple weeks ago I was flipping around the dial when I came across a screening of American Splendor on HBO. I haven’t seen this movie in quite a few years, so long in fact that I pretty much forgot what it was all about. To my disappointment I turned it on 30 mins into it and like a true movie purest decided I would have to record another showing of it to watch at a later time. Thank god I made that tough tough decision when I did. This is quite possibly one of my favorite comic book movies. Thats right, better then spider man, the x-men, iron man, etc etc. I say that because I am not a comic book lover, hardly ever read them and I know that comment could raise the ire of a few of you purists out there.

What American Splendor is to me, is a perfect snapshot of life and despair and the willingness to put yourself out there when you really didn’t have to. No one was clamoring for Harvey Pekar to tell his life story. Why would they? He was a file clerk in Cleveland who couldn’t draw and was seemingly about to explode in a fit of rage at any moment. But Harvey didn’t care and decided that his life was worthy of documentation. The ability to capture your own voice in writing is a tricky thing to do and Harvey nailed it.

This movie on the other hand managed to nail it as well. It didn’t just take Harvey’s comics and translate them to the screen, it had Harvey narrate his own story and then get Paul Giamati to act it out. It is a genuinely brilliant portrayal and tough choice to do, because Harvey and Paul would appear in the same scenes together, making the trueness of Giamati’s choices even stronger. This is a fascinating look and simple yet complex fellow.

On an added bonus note, the portrayal of Robert Crumb? none other then the voice of the modern cartoon classic superhero/villian Dr. Rusty Venture: James Urbaniak. I thought that was too cool to not mention.