Funny that it's not a documentary, because they certainly had the people and the places. Ok, so maybe I ain't the kind of guy you'd expect to be reviewing a movie? Why not, I'm a guy who's seen a movie or two, from the inside as well as the cinema. I've even taken a couple of cinema classes, you know? So why not? I spend some days working on movie sets, being an extra, writing on my Handspring when I'm not acting, eating or talking. Or watching the movie get made, seeing the behind-the-scenes stuff get done.
These guys who did this movie, couldn't be more normal. Which means weird, like you and me, not making much of a big fuss over it. Just getting on with their lives, doin' the best they can. Normal stuff, you know? But told straight out, like no holds barred, tellin' it like it is, warts and all. Cleveland, that's it, just like Cleveland really is, a city without any glory, but it's real, and it makes it through every day, so it's there when you wake up in the morning, just the same old Cleveland.
Maybe the fact that it's about the reality of Harvey Pekar's life will turn some people off, but this movie is a stunning and vibrant piece of filmmaking. It has `immortal' written all over it, more than any version of `Death of a Salesman' ever could, my apologies to Henry Miller and Dustin Hoffman both, but this one is the unvarnished truth and reality. I don't want to beat this into the ground, but it's probably the Cleveland thing, about living close to a reality that doesn't need dressing up for the Clevelanders to feel like it's presentable. Paul Giamatti has not just portrayed Harvey, he's come to inhabit his being so that the whole of Harvey's existence seems to breathe through Paul's acting. It was fantastic to see them on the set together, and revealed how close to the bone this movie really is.
Actually, it's really about Cleveland, and about Harvey, so if those things get you down, that's not anybody's problem. Like Harvey's wife Joyce (played beautifully by Hope Davis) said, `all American cities depress me in the same way', and the gritty reality of American Splendor is universal, or at least `all American'. By examining the local reality extremely closely, we see the universal people, situations and truths, and that's the real beauty of this movie.
All the acting was superb, with quirks all over the place, and unvarnished conflicts that seemed to be three dimensional, reaching right out of the screen and into the auditorium during the screening. Funny that it's not a documentary, because they certainly had the people and the places. But it worked great as a docu-drama, and Harvey seemed to enjoy it too, so there you go, don't you? Can't go far wrong when the subject is an on-screen collaborator like Harvey. You couldn't go far wrong by going to see this in the cinema. I'll bet you will line up with me to buy the DVD when it's out, because this is better than Spinal Tap and Wayne's World rolled together.
©2004, David C.P. Leland, All rights reserved. The right of David C.P. Leland to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.