American Splendor

Harvey Pikar, a hospital file clerk, had two loves: comic books and rare jazz records. Being that neither of these included his (second) wife, she left him. He met Robert Crumb just as the latter was about to become a name in underground comics, and complained about the fact that comics never deal with the lives of ordinary people. Crumb liked the idea and agreed to illustrate the life of Harvey, and the result was "American Splendor". That was in the seventies, and since then Pikar's life has had a lot of ups and downs, mostly having to do with his third wife. This forms the basic plot of Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini's film. It is a brilliant work that moves between genres and layers: Paul Giamatti playing Pikar, Pikar himself commenting on the film being made about him, comic book techniques that speed up the plot. Underneath it all, this is a small comedy that looks at the way in which a person can overcome the banality of life.