Intermission: Quirky, gritty lives make for excellent films

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Jim Wunderle owns Wunderle Sound Services and is a Springfield free-lance writer and musician.|ret||ret||tab|

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This time of year between the holiday blockbuster season and the Oscar presentation is usually filled with good news and bad news. On the downside, a lot of nondescript dreck is released. On the upside, especially for a smaller, more conservative market such as Springfield, some of the previous year's finest films finally hit our local screens. That's the case with "Girl With a Pearl Earring" and "The Cooler," two great films are well worth your time and money.|ret||ret||tab|

Also on the upside is the fact that this time of year sees the release to the home video market of some of the past year's best films. "Lost in Translation" has already nabbed a number of Golden Globe Awards and made every critic's Top Ten list. It was just released, as were two for excellent of 2003's best, and rightfully acclaimed, movies "American Splendor" and "Thirteen."|ret||ret||tab|

For those unfamiliar with the irascible graphic novel writer and world-class curmudgeon Harvey Pekar, "American Splendor" is a hard movie to describe. I first became aware of Pekar in the 1980s when he made several rather confrontational appearances on David Letterman's show. He was working as a file clerk at a Veterans' Administration hospital in Cleveland and started writing stories of his daily affairs at work in the 1970s. Legendary cartoonist Robert Crumb began illustrating the stories and the book series "American Splendor" was born.|ret||ret||tab|

Co-writers and directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini have crafted a truly unique film that stars Paul Giamatti as Pekar and Hope Davis as his wife at first a fan and then a fellow graphic novelist Joyce Brabner. The real Pekar and Brabner pop in and out of the movie as well, and we see some clips of Pekar battling it out with Letterman. The overall effect is stunning, and while Pekar is never going to win any congeniality contests, his and Brabner's life stories are fascinating. Brabner wrote the text to "Our Cancer Year," a graphic novel that deals with Harvey's bout with testicular cancer. These "comic books" deal with the real lives of an "average" American couple, and the movie completely captures the feel of the books. |ret||ret||tab|

Another film with an interesting back story is "Thirteen." Director Catherine Hardwicke was dating Nikki Reed's dad. The 13-year-old girl was having some problems, and Hardwicke advised her to keep a journal. When Hardwicke read it, she had the idea for this film that she co-wrote with young Reed, who in real life was the "good" girl, but in the film plays Evie, the "bad" one. Nikki's real life character renamed Tracy is played by Evan Rachel Wood, and Holly Hunter gives a knockout performance as Tracy's divorced mom who is trying her best to make ends meet by running a beauty shop in her kitchen. She's also trying to stay clean and sober and has the habit of helping every down-on-their-luck friend she has, including a boyfriend fresh from rehab who Tracy, longing for her absent father, loathes.|ret||ret||tab|

At the beginning of seventh grade, Tracy quickly finds out a lot of the girls at school have advanced quite a bit from elementary school.|ret||ret||tab|

The most popular and hottest girl around is Evie. She smokes, shoplifts, has sex, and lives with a "cousin" guardian who pretty much seems to ignore her antics. This will be uncomfortable territory for anyone with young teens. |ret||ret||tab|

Tracy tries her best to befriend Evie and the two do become close after Tracy snatches a wallet and treats Evie and another girl to a shopping spree. Evie virtually moves in with Tracy and her family and begins to influence Tracy in many of the wrong ways.|ret||ret||tab|

Hunter is nominated for a best supporting actress role and has never been more engaging. The film is unnerving, but director Hardwicke and her young co-writer/star Nikki Reed have done a great job together, giving their film a sense of realness much like a documentary. It's powerful stuff.|ret||ret||tab|

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