re:mote voices

Title: American Splendor
Cast: Paul Giamatti, Harvey Pekar, Shari Springer Berman, Larry John Meyers, Vivienne Benesch, Danny Hoch, James Urbaniak
Director: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini

the plays the thing! the play within the play! or at least the play within the film within the comic within the film? um. yeah. american splendor is the film of the life of harvey pekar, a file clerk who started doing an underground comic about his life called american splendor. somewhere along the way pekar seems to have gained a strange kind of fame - with a play of his comic having been done before, and regular appearances on letterman.

despondent after his second divorce and inspired by the work of his friend robert crumb, pekar starts to write a warts and all comic. through this he meets his current wife, and she becomes part of his life, and part of his comic. so that when he got cancer they coped by writing a comic about the whole experience.

as a film there is a somwhat experimental approach to the narrative. G playing pekar and D playing joyce, while pekar himself narrates the film him and his wife appear for interview sections. with this we see events unfold, become transcribed as comic, and in the case of the play re-enacted by a second set of actors.

american splendor has a definite sense of humour, but its an observational grittiness that is as much about how fucked up life is. a fact that at times outweighs the humour, so that we are much more aware of the tragic. in the end though it is about the balance between the two, which is achieved.