American Splendor

Released 2003
Stars Paul Giamatti, Harvey Pekar, Hope Davis, Joyce Babner, Madylin Sweeten, Danielle Batone, James Urbaniak, Judah Friedlander, Toby Radloff
Directed by Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini

Harvey Pekar (Paul Giamatti) was a working-class stiff, a file clerk who found an outlet for his creativity by chronicling every minutia of his life in Cleveland, Oh., for more than 20 years in a comic-book series called American Splendor. This revealing biopic co-stars Hope Davis and tells Pekar's story through two-dimensional images, archival footage and more.

Summary from www.netflix.com

I don't read underground comics, so I had never heard of Harvey Pekar before. I didn't find him to be a real fascinating guy, but I sure found this movie fascinating. The way it blends a documentary style with animation with traditional film-making is ingenious. Also, having the real Harvey narrate and talk about the actor portraying him while switching between Harvey and Paul is just brilliant--they even have the real people in the same shots with the actors. Everything in this film is free to move and morph in any direction without concerns about breaking rules, and it's so exhilarating that I was able to look past the fact that I didn't learn very much about what makes Harvey Pekar a celebrity. He's a gloomy curmudgeon who dishes out pithy statements in his comics (and apparently on a radio talk show) while struggling through his everyday life. I can see where that would have been appealing in an underground comic, because it was something no one had done before, but I would like to know how he was able to sustain a radio show and the Letterman spots. Although he and his crew weren't funny intentionally, they were surrounded by a cloud of comedy borne from tragedy. The filmmakers exploited this to the fullest as I'm sure Letterman did, and it all worked perfectly. Kudos to everyone involved in this project for doing something new, and congratulations to them for pulling it off. Now I want to see those Letterman spots. --Bill Alward, February 9, 2004