Starring: Paul Giamatti, Hope Davis, James Urbaniak, Harvey Pekar
Directed by: Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini

American Splendor is a splendor to watch. This biographical story of famed underground comic book writer Harvey Pekar is part comedy, part drama and even part documentary, but all good.

Pekar was a miserable child who grew into a miserable man who worked in a dead-end job and decided to write down his musings on life in comic book form. Upon meeting legendary underground comic artist Robert Crumb, they started a comic book series, titled "American Splendor", with Pekar as the main character, going through his daily routines and ranting against things and people he dislikes. The movie retells the genesis of the comic as well as Pekar's meeting his equally miserable wife and his cancer scare, as well.

The movie is lightly comic, with a few laughs here and there, but the oddest parts are when the movie cuts to the real Harvey Pekar commenting on what we just saw acted out brilliantly on screen by the great Paul Giamatti. We see that the real Pekar is...peculiar, to say the least. We also get to see actual interviews Pekar did in the 80s on Letterman. Pekar was invited back many times, mostly to be made fun at, and each subsequent appearance becomes uneasier than the last.

American Splendor is most definitely not for everyone. Those who don't like seeing movies that take risks, stay away. But if you're like me and becoming ever more jaded at the predictable crap we keep getting at the movies, then please see this movie. It's different. And in today's Megaplex, different is good.

DroopyMcC
Jack