American Splendor
April 2004 Reviewed by: Marc Mickelson Format: DVD	(all ratings out of 5): Overall Enjoyment Picture Quality Packaged Extras Sound Quality

Ever since Batman was made into a film and earned hundreds of millions of dollars, adapting comic books to movies has been all the rage. It does not always work, though. Spider-Man was probably a good choice for film treatment, but Richie Rich was certainly a bad one. What makes comic books such ready fodder for movies -- very clear delineation of good and evil -- is also what makes them difficult subjects to handle well. Melodrama is part and parcel of comic books, and there can be only so much doom from which humanity needs saving.

Then there is American Splendor. To say the least, this is a different kind of comic book. It's based on the exploits of a real-life anti-hero, Harvey Pekar, who worked at the Cleveland Veterans Affairs Hospital as a file clerk during the day, and wrote jazz reviews and practiced his particular brand of curmudgeonly behavior during the rest of his waking hours. Then one of those fortuitous twists of fate happened: Pekar crossed paths with artist and illustrator Robert Crumb, who agreed to illustrate his ramblings on modern life.

First published in 1976, the comic book American Splendor was an underground hit, with different illustrators taking turns bringing Pekar's exploits to life. American Splendor, the movie, documents much of this, as well as Pekar's brush with fame via Late Night with David Letterman and his bout with cancer. The way the commonalties of life become interesting -- or rather the way Pekar observes those commonalties -- makes this movie work. He certainly shows a fiction writer's touch. But American Splendor is more than a reworking of the events of the comic book that shares its name. Pekar and wife Joyce, played in all their eccentricity by Paul Giamatti and Hope Davis, are characters in the movie. The real Harvey and Joyce (along with a few others) make appearances, not only letting viewers see how closely observed they are as "fictional" characters but also giving the movie a sense of reality. Although not a documentary, American Splendor has something of a documentary feel -- it's about real occurrences and includes the real people who lived them. The picture and sound of the DVD are both good, but the package is short on extra materials. The only one of significance is "My Movie Year," a comic book included with the DVD that documents what was happening to Harvey even as American Splendor was being made.

American Splendor is rife with offbeat charm, and as it dances between onscreen and the real world you will realize that it is far more honest and artful than the abundant reality shows on TV. Harvey Pekar is as obsessive and neurotic as he appears in the movie, and just as endearing as the angry but harmless file clerk that he is.

American life is about wars, presidential elections, and Super Bowls (with and without bare breasts). American Splendor is about supermarket checkout lines, filthy apartments, and jellybeans. You choose.

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