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Happiness is way overrated. This is the feel-good message
that I learned by watching “American Splendor,"
the new film directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert
Pulcini, based on the comic books by Harvey Pekar and Joyce
Brabner. Happy people are a waste of flesh. Bags of shit with
feet. Walking around, all day long, whistling a tuneless song
with stupid smiles on their faces. They hold doors open for
old ladies and coo over hairless babies with spittle dripping
from their chins. They jog. They eat fiber. They get enough
sleep. They shop at Ikea. And no, I’m not jealous of
them.
The wonderful film “American Splendor” is a love
letter to the crazy people of this world. No, I’m not
talking about the guy on the corner wearing an American flag
diaper spinning tales of alien butt probes), but the general
weirdoes and malcontents that cross your path on a day-to-day
basis. The cranks and curmudgeons. The nutjobs, nerds and
neurotics. They are the people who truly make life worth living.
Perfection is boring and limited in its applications; it is
the aberrations, the fuck-ups, that stand out and make us
realize that the world is a much more interesting place than
we thought it was. You hear that mom?
In the film “American Splendor," Paul Giamatti plays
Harvey Pekar, disgruntled file clerk and all-around crank
who, in the mid-70’s, teamed up with underground comic
artist R. Crumb to create “American Splendor," a
chronicle of his day-to-day existence.
In “American Splendor,” Harvey Pekar plays Harvey
Pekar, a guy who is having a movie made about his life, and
takes mild interest in the whole filmmaking process. (“Did
you read the script?” asks the director. “Sort of,”
replies Harvey).
Crude drawings of Harvey Pekar play Harvey Pekar. They make
comments to Harvey Pekar and the actor playing Harvey Pekar
about the life of Harvey Pekar and the movie being made about
Harvey Pekar’s life. Following this?
Stay calm. It’s not as confusing as it sounds. The combination
of straight narrative, documentary filmmaking and animation
actually works. “American Splendor,” like the comic
it is based on, thrives on breaking the fourth wall. There
is one scene in which Giamatti and Judah Friedlander (who
plays Pekar’s übernerd friend Toby Radloff) discuss
the merits of certain types of jellybeans. The camera then
pans to the craft service table, where the real life Pekar
and Radloff talk about jellybeans as Giamatti and Friedlander
sit quietly behind them. (in the movie it makes perfect sense).
At one point Pekar and his wife Joyce Brabner (played by Hope
Davis) see a play based on their lives. The stage actors (Donal
Logue and Molly Shannon) aren’t playing the real Pekar
and Brabner, but instead play Giamatti and Davis playing Pekar
and Brabner! I need to lie down.
Another thing I learned from watching “American Splendor”
is that life gets somewhat more bearable when there is someone
equally fucked up to share it with.
Just when it seems that he can’t get through another
lonely day, Pekar meets and swiftly marries Joyce Brabner
(“I think we should skip the courtship and just get married,”
says Brabner after an awkward first date). Brabner is played
by Hope Davis AND the real Joyce Brabner (you thought this
was going to get easier?) She seems to be the only person
who is able to match neuroses with Pekar, and watching the
two of them argue over which one of them is more fucked up
was more entertaining than every explosion from every action
movie I had to sit through all summer.
My hat goes off to Hope Davis for her deft portrayal of such
a complicated woman. Between “Splendor”, “About
Schmidt” and “The
Secret Lives of Dentists," Davis has carved out a
niche for herself as “the woman who won’t tell you
why she’s upset.”(“Honey, what’s wrong?”
“NOTHING!”) This exchange can be found in every
Davis-featured movie (and in every single disasterous relationship
I've had when I invariably go drinking with my friends after
I believe her answer). When Davis finally sells out and agrees
to be the female lead in Hollywood’s next disaster blockbuster,
you can be sure that she’ll play a geologist or marine
biologist who’s upset for some reason. And then the aliens
attack.
But, as good as Davis is, this is really Giamatti’s film.
Considering that his prior roles have consisted of such characters
as “Pig Vomit", “Veal Chop” and “Limbo
the Ape”, it’s nice to see him finally get a leading
role. Giamatti carries the entire film on his hunched-over,
hairy shoulders. He seems eternally pissed off at the world,
and faces every situation, whether it’s an appearance
on Letterman or a nasty bout of testicular cancer, with the
same grimace. Cantankerousness never seemed so appealing.
One last thing I learned from watching “American Splendor”:
everyone has a soul mate. If the preternaturally fucked up
Pekar can find a woman he can love and bicker with as they
both grow old, then anyone can. If a person as hunched-over
and troll-like as Harvey Pekar can find a woman who love him
and his cancerous testicle, then anyone can. No matter who
you are, or how unattractive you might be, there is a person
out there who will understand you and piss you off like nobody
else would be able to. If it can happen to Harvey Pekar, then
it can happen to me.
Any minute now…
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Above:
Paul Giamatti plays Harvey Pekar
in "American Splendor."
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