If you were a fan of the David Letterman show in the 80s, you'll know who Harvey Pekar is. He's the cranky, ordinary guy from Cleveland who went on the show in an old t-shirt and dirty jeans and ranted and raved about his miserable life, as depicted in his comic books entitled 'American Splendor.' He and Letterman had a great, frequently hilarious rapport until Harvey took it too far one night and turned his bile on Letterman himself. Exit stage left, never to be seen again.

Until now, that is. Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini's American Splendor, winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance festival earlier this year, is all Harvey, all the time, sometimes in the form of actor Paul Giamatti - who plays Harvey in the 'fictional' scenes - and sometimes in the form of Pekar himself who submits to interviews peppered throughout the film. Springer Berman and Pulcini's decision to tell Pekar's story via a stylistic grab-bag that melds documentary-biography, comedy, drama and comic-book graphics is especially apt given Pekar's work.

Pekar's comics (often with artwork by a friend from his youth, one Robert Crumb) have always drawn directly from his life, mixing, like the film, biography and fiction, comedy and drama. Pekar is a self-styled 'ordinary' working-class guy, who made his job as a file clerk, his various ailments, his relationships - especially with long-time partner Joyce (Hope Davis) - and his general mad-at-the-world attitude the subjects of his successful cult comics. Wild-eyed, crazy-haired hypochondriac that he is, Pekar (you really do want to call him Harvey after seeing the film) has a strange charm, an innocence almost, that makes you root for him. By turns completely mundane and genuinely funny, Pekar's irony-laden work has been taking that charm and innocence - cranky though it may be - and spinning it into gold for 25 years now.

Having recently retired from his file clerk job and suffered a cancer scare - one of his comic book series was called 'Our Cancer Year' and that year figures prominently in the film - Pekar was due for a little more widespread attention. Springer Berman and Pulcini's zippy amalgam of styles looks set to do that. It couldn't happen to a crankier guy.