American Splendor
Ordinary Life is Pretty Complex Stuff
American Splendor is the story of a little-known working-class everyman, and first-class curmudgeon, Harvey Pekar. Pekar finds love, family and a creative voice through the underground comic books he creates, but still can't manage to find the quicker supermarket checkout line. Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff.
Pekar, played by Paul Giamatti, is a frustrated file clerk at a V.A. Hospital, but also a comic book fan who befriends the young illustrator Robert Crumb and is soon inspired to create comic books based on his own life, entitled American Splendor. Along the bumpy journey, he meets, marries and falls for Joyce, an admiring comic book seller, played by Hope Davis.
Also appearing in the movie are the real Harvey and Joyce, comic book renderings of the couple and cameos by some of Harvey's closest friends. In this truly original, ultimately heartwarming film, you will find yourself deeply immersed in a world of American Splendor.
Member Reviews
Great movie with a fascinating character. - KeithTalent
Paul Giamatti plays Harvey Pekar, the real-life writer of the comic American Splendor. I liked this quite a bit, more so in the first 2/3 of the film as I felt the last third got a little too sappy and a bit boring. Watching the dysfunctional Pekar trying to figure out his life, collecting records and comics, hanging out with Robert Crumb, and even stumbling through the beginnings of American Splendor was all awesome and fun and the way they sprinkled in real footage and interviews with the real people, including Pekar was very cool and worked pretty much seamlessly. It's actually a unique film in that sense in the way they spliced the real with re-creation. If the entire film had remained as strong as the first 75-85 minutes, this would have been an easy 9 for me, but some of the later stuff, while important to Pekar's overall story, just didn't resonate as well. Cool movie though.Finally a REAL movie! - loobie
I thoroughly enjoyed this refreshing movie. Everything about it was great - the characters, the actors, the stories, the humor, the blurring/overlapping of real image and animation, the soundtrack, the cinematography, etc...An intelligent, real movie. Incidently, my favorite character is Toby. The scene where he wants to see "Revenge of the Nerds" was hilarious. Well done!Graphic, Novel - SPSullivan
One of the remarkable things about "American Splendor" is how real it feels. This being a biopic that might seem like a redundant statement, but it's no secret that a lot of films which profess to be based on actual events often come across as feeling false and fictionalised. "American Splendor", however, is about real people living real lives, enduring the hoary combination of the mundane and the unexpected we all inevitably confront. That grounding in reality owes much to the terrific cast. Giamatti and Davis in particular offer wonderfully nuanced performances, giving a "warts and all" perspective on Pekar and Brabner without turning them into caricatures. But, ironically, what also helps make "American Splendor" feel so real is that way the filmmakers acknowledge its very unreality. Perhaps drawing inspiration from those comic book stories where the scripters and artists write themselves into the action, we actually get to meet the real Pekar and Brabner -- which also affords us an appreciation of just how pitch-perfect the stars' portrayals really are. And Berman and Pulcini have managed to give "American Splendor" a very comic-book-style visual flair without it becoming cumbersome, nicely acknowledging their source material. Like Pekar's comics work, "American Splendor" is both very, very different and very, very good.
Member Reviews
Read All...
Great movie with a fascinating character. - KeithTalent
Paul Giamatti plays Harvey Pekar, the real-life writer of the comic American Splendor. I liked this quite a bit, more so in the first 2/3 of the film as I felt the last third got a little too sappy and a bit boring. Watching the dysfunctional Pekar trying ...Finally a REAL movie! - loobie
I thoroughly enjoyed this refreshing movie. Everything about it was great - the characters, the actors, the stories, the humor, the blurring/overlapping of real image and animation, the soundtrack, the cinematography, etc...An intelligent, real movie. Incidently, ...Graphic, Novel - SPSullivan
One of the remarkable things about "American Splendor" is how real it feels. This being a biopic that might seem like a redundant statement, but it's no secret that a lot of films which profess to be based on actual events often come across as feeling false ...