52 Pick-Up # 35 – American Splendor (2003)

Movies like this make me glad I've been trying to minimize what I know about some of these movies going in. Not that I haven't had my share of pleasant surprises in general, but in this case, I really liked how this swerved from what I was expecting.

With that said, welcome back to 52 Pick-Up. For those just tuning in, first up, let me say enjoy the eight months of backlog. Second, let me explain this is an informal challenge to myself to keep writing throughout the year by picking 52 movies for a first time watch and writing my initial impression/reaction here. Often these are chosen at random, with the occasional placing of my thumb on the scale for thematic relevance.

That was not what happened for this week, but I just felt like I should be putting that in the general rundown, especially as the thumb WILL be coming into play again soon.

But, that's for another time. This week, meanwhile, I'm going back to another one of my gaps from the aughts, and one I'm glad I did finally correct. So, on with American Splendor.

As a movie, American Splendor kind of threads between a couple of categories. It's one part biopic, one part adaptation (the source material itself somewhat autobiographical), one part documentary. In all three cases, the focuses is on independent comics writer Harvey Pekar (appearing as himself at times while being played by Paul Giamatti at other times), recounting his entry into comics, his marriage, and his later battle with cancer.

Yeah, that description doesn't sound like much just written out. Then you see the movie and what it does with that.

One of the biggest strengths of the movie, as I somewhat hinted at above, lies in how it's executed. Rather than filling the beats of a more traditional biopic, American Splendor intercuts the past recreations with, at the time, present day discussions with the real Harvey Pekar. In some cases, it's discussing what was just shown, others, it's setting up what's coming. Despite this, Pekar isn't treated as a narrator as much as he's getting the opportunity to personally weigh in on what we've seen or are about to see. Further, Pekar isn't alone in these sections. He is often accompanied by either his wife/collaborator Joyce Brabner (portrayed in the flashbacks by Hope Davis) or co-worker Toby Radloff (played in flashbacks by Judah Friedlander.)

The incorporation of these scenes works for the movie on a few levels. For one, it brings an interesting element of nuance to this that a straight biopic would be a bit more hard-pressed to achieve. There are points where it's clear there's some difference of opinion between Pekar and his colleagues, most notably Brabner at times, and the fact the movie never tries to shy away from showing that from the actual people is a welcome detail to include. Additionally, it adds more of a sense of a creative voice to the movie. Given the subject of the movie, Pekar himself making his name in comics by taking vignettes of his life and the people around him and recreating them in comics, the idea of having the actual Pekar running alongside filmed re-enactments of details of his life feels like a suitable way to translate his work (adapting both American Splendor and Our Cancer Year.)

Alongside those major stylistic elements, it also has the advantage of helping one really appreciate the casting for this movie. Paul Giamatti is always a welcome presence as a rule, but he is in top form here as Pekar, and it's genuinely surprising that his performance went largely ignored come awards season that year. Besides being good all its own, being able to see him alongside the real Pekar really lets one see how well he did justice to the man without just making a very spot-on impression. Likewise, Davis and Friedlander are both inspired choices for Brabner and Radloff. The latter was especially surprising for me – as someone who mainly knows Friedlander from his work on 30 Rock, I was genuinely struck by how thoroughly he disappears into his portrayal of Radloff and how spot on it is with the older version of the man we see in the interview sections.

I will admit at this point, going into this movie, I didn't know too much about Pekar or his writing. From that perspective, this made an incredibly engaging introduction to the man and has got me interested in seeking out some of his work. 

I feel a little bad keeping this one brief, but it's also a movie where, like I said, a lot of its appeal lies in seeing just how it was done. This is worth seeking out as a truly novel take on a biopic befitting its uniquely prickly subject.

So hopefully this has inspired some of you to go looking. This is one I'd recommend taking for a spin.

With that said, it's time to wrap up this week and start packing my bags. Partly because, as I said several months back, Camp John Waters draws near. The other reason is next week, I'm back to Italian movies for another visit to the wonderful world of giallo with 1976's The House With the Laughing Windows.

Till then.