American Splendor (2003)

If Tom Waits was a nerd who never got around to playing music and opted to write comic books instead, he would have been America’s much-needed Harvey Pekar before Harvey Pekar ever filled the vacant position. Thank God that Waits is God and became a musician, correction, the musician, and Harvey – who died last week at 70 as I write this – turned his life into a comic book.

See, Pekar turned an art form dedicated to super heroes and monsters on its ass, and then stuck his thumb up it. His basic rule: Saving the world? Fuck it. Hell, living in it is difficult enough. He had artists such as R. Crumb to fill in the art work. This brilliant fourth-wall cracking 2003 adaptation celebrates this genius-oddball-file clerk by breaking down the rules of film, it’s at once a straight-forward biopic with Paul Giamatti as Pekar and Hope Davis as his third wife, Joyce, and a documentary featuring interviews of the real people on stages, and an interactive comic book come to life. There’s even a scene where the Giamatti and Davis as Mr. and Mrs. Pekar watch a play with actors (Donal Logue and Molly Shannon) playing a scene we just witnessed. No film has ever been made like this, them or since.

By celebrating Pekar, directors and writers Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini celebrate the best intention of this whacked, sinful, exuberant land we call America: That anyone can rise above the muck. Even briefly. You just have to have the will. And the luck. Or the bad bad luck that others find inspiring, in a twisted way. American Splendor, indeed. Oh, best first date ever committed to film. Hands down. Giamatti is a genius here, getting Harvey's mannerisms down cold. My favorite film of 2003. Giamatti should have capped an Oscar. The film, too. A