SnoReptilePlenty Memorable, crazy movie

Humbersi The first must-see film of the year.

Cooktopi The acting in this movie is really good.

Hadrina The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

estebangonzalez10 "If you're the kind of person looking for romance or escapism or some fantasy figure to save the day... guess what? You've got the wrong movie."From the very opening scene co-directors, Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, present us with a rather unconventional film by blending a feature narrative with documentary style footage. Through voice over narration, Harvey Pekar, introduces his character played by Paul Giamatti as an ordinary man living a complex and depressing life. So while this biopic follows a traditional narrative style, it also interrupts it by showing documentary footage of the real people being portrayed in the film explaining the events that took place. The film also includes animation throughout the narrative from Pekar's underground comics, so from the opening credits the audience is introduced to a very different, but clever biopic. Paul Giamatti gives one of his best performances to date and I was glad to finally see him play a lead role. If you are a fan of his work, than by no means will you want to miss this film because his portrayal of Harvey Pekar is perfectly captured in a very natural way. There is nothing ordinary about the character Paul plays, Harvey has a very depressive and unique view on life, and the way he portrays the normal events of his life are told in a sour but hilarious way. Harvey's story alone is worth knowing, but the way the film combines the different styles in this movie make it stand above other traditional biopics.The film tells the true story of Harvey Pekar (Paul Giamatti), an ordinary man living in Cleveland and working as a filing clerk in a VA hospital. He seems to get through each depressing day thanks to his enthusiasm for music and comic books, which he collects. One day while searching for LPs at a garage sale, he meets Robert Crumb (James Urbaniak). They become friends through their passion for jazz music and comics, and eventually Crumb becomes a famous comic book author. This inspires Harvey to begin writing about his ordinary life, and through his unique and dark sense of humor he eventually begins to have some underground success. American Splendor is the title he gives to his autobiographical graphic novels which narrate the common events that take place in his life. In his work he often includes his interesting co-workers: the autistic Toby Radloff (Judah Friedlander), and the veteran Mr. Boats (Earl Billings), with whom he shares hilarious interactions. Thanks to the success of his comic he also gets to meet his future third wife, Joyce Brabner (Hope Davis), and their depressing relationship also becomes an important part of his work. These interactions about the working class and Pekar's way of telling them are the heart of this biopic.In a way American Splendor's sense of humor reminds me a lot of Seinfeld, although Pekar's vision of life is far more depressing. The blending of documentary footage and narrative feature works thanks to Giamatti's spot on performance. Having the real Harvey Pekar and the actor portraying him in the same film could have been a disaster, but Giamatti captures his mannerisms so well that it works and takes this character study to a higher level. I also thought the secondary characters in this film were all very interesting. They were all so quirky and different, but their interactions with Harvey made for some funny material. One of the scenes that stood out for me was the scene where Harvey and Toby are criticizing The Revenge of the Nerds movie. American Splendor is a very innovative and odd film and one worth checking out despite lacking some better pacing at times. Still it stands out by combining fact with fiction in a very creative and funny way.

hettin03 In American Splendor, the theme is on the character with a focus on the plot. The main character is Harvey Pekar. He works as a file clerk at the VA Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio. His third wife, Joyce, is a minor main character. The real Harvey Pekar does voice overs and makes occasional appearances throughout the movie.This is a real life film about Harvey. The events of his life start at around age 10 when he is shown trick or treating with his friends. Everyone is in costume except Harvey. The person handing out candy at one house asks what character Harvey is dressed as. Well, Harvey is dressed as himself. This is character enough. The movie tells the story of how Harvey started his own comic book series. He decided to write comic sequences illustrating his everyday, mundane life. In an early scene, we see Harvey coming home after a doctor visit and finds his second wife packing up to leave him. At this point, things in Harvey's life start to really go down hill.After this, he finds himself dateless and lonely. And, it's no wonder. Harvey is so frumpy looking and walks around with his head down and shoulders bent as though he has a big chip on his shoulders.One day, Harvey is at a yard sale looking for that quarter priced bargain. He runs into a friend that introduces him to a well known comic book writer, Robert Crumb. Robert and Harvey become fast friends and start hanging out together, listening to music, with Harvey reading and Robert drawing characters for his comics.After a few scenes, Harvey is at the grocery store and is waiting in line to check out. He is held up by a lady who is arguing with the store manager over a price of one of her items. This is when Harvey gets his brilliant idea to write comics about his everyday life. Of course, the characters he draws are all stick figures. Because Harvey can't draw, he'll need to find someone to do this for him.We then see Harvey at home, working all night on this idea of his. Morning comes and it's time to go to work. He decides to take the material he has been working on with him so he can get the opinions of his coworkers. They all agree what Harvey has created is good. He then takes his work to his comic book friend, Robert, who also approves of Harvey's writing. Robert takes the material to have it published.Harvey then meets a girl, Joyce, a comic book enthusiast who works at a comic book store on the east coast. She can't find Harvey's latest issue so she decides to write him a letter to request a copy of his latest edition. Harvey calls her and they begin a telephone relationship. Joyce decides to visit Harvey. She moves in with him and they get married.Everything that portrays Harvey is depressing. The lighting and lack of color contribute to this depressed feeling that Harvey has. It's like a dark cloud follows him wherever he goes. In fact, Harvey is a very depressing person. It's written all over him. Everything is dull and drab. His clothes, apartment and even the areas of town he walks around in are colorless.Something else that contributes to Harvey's character is the repetitive idea of how things don't seem to go his way. He feels things should happen without any effort on his part. We see this idea repeated in several scenes where Harvey is walking around in a depressing part of town with his hands in his pockets and a scowl on his face. His apartment is depressing with junk, books and dirty dishes laying all around. And, we see Harvey always laying around, listening to music and reading. To me, these scenes convey how Harvey looks and feels about life, his life.His wife, Joyce, is depressing, too. She never smiles, nor does she show much expression. Even Joyce lays around in bed all day. So, we see this depressing pattern throughout the movie.Another movie I've seen that's based on the character is Citizen Kane. We watch how Charles Foster Kane, the main character, builds his newspaper empire. In American Splendor, we see how Harvey builds his comic book business. Although Harvey's business isn't what you would call an empire, it is something he has created. Both movies are built on the character's life.I like movies where the theme is about a person and their life. Especially, when it's a true story. It's very interesting to see the lives of others and watch how they grow into the person they are. Even though the title of this movie is the name of Harvey's comic book series, the comic book represents the main character and the writer, which is the theme of this movie.

TheExpatriate700 American Splendor is an excellent film exploring the life of the late Harvey Pekar, the comic book writer who documented his working class life in a series of graphic novels. The film combines stylistic innovations with two excellent performances by Paul Giamatti and Hope Davis, both of whom give Oscar worthy performances.The most striking part of the film is its mimicking of the comic book format, through the use of on-screen divides between scenes, as well as animated depictions of Pekar's comic book. These give the film visual verve, while capturing Pekar's work in a way that a traditional biographical approach could not.Even more important are the excellent performances by Giamatti and Davis, which anchor the entire film. They embody their characters (and their real life counterparts) in such a way that they come alive for the viewer.Most importantly, the film captures the tedium and ugliness of working class life which was the heart of Pekar's graphic novels. Pekar's mundane existence as a file clerk lies at the center of the movie, ignoring the tendency to pretty things up in Hollywood films. Thus, this film belongs on every comic book lover's shelf, next to Crumb.

calvinnme This is really a great film about Harvey Pekar, the underground comic book writer who created the comic book series "American Splendor". I'm surprised this movie hasn't garnered more critical attention than it has. The movie basically takes you from the end of Harvey's second marriage up to the point of his retirement as a file clerk. Pekar is living a life of quiet desperation - everything in his life is generic. The film lends a dingy quality to Pekar's surroundings that really gives it that "garage sale" look right down to the light fixtures in his apartment. Even the supermarkets and restaurants Harvey frequent make K-mart look classy. Unlike his friends and coworkers though, he is painfully aware of the reality of his life. He has a moment of clarity one day while waiting in line at the grocery store behind a woman who is arguing over why she should pay 1.50 for six glasses that are marked two dollars, when he thinks of a way to strike out at all of this - he decides to document his feelings in a comic. Unfortunately, Harvey can't draw. He comes up with the narrative, but is only able to show stick figures as the actual characters in the drawings. Harvey's big break is that he has become friends with underground comic Robert Crumb before Crumb was famous and the two were just a couple of "ordinary" guys looking for bargains at Cleveland rummage sales. Crumb is impressed with the statement Harvey is trying to make and agrees to do the illustrations, thus the comic "American Splendor" is born.To me, the best part of this movie is the love story between Harvey and his third wife Joyce. These two people are just weird enough to make it work. What makes it work is that they have staked out their own individual claims to different enough territories in the land of weird that their respective neuroses don't bump into one another too badly, as had happened in Harvey's past marriages. Harvey is a man who has very un-mundane statements to make about his mundane world, but doesn't have any real illusions about changing it. Joyce is a self-diagnosed depressed anemic who has memorized the DSM 3 and is therefore happy to diagnose people with personality disorders and then pretty much takes them as she finds them, in spite of her claims of being a reformer. Because neither one wants to change the other, the relationship works.The film is really cleverly done, with comic book illustrations showing what Pekar is thinking in various situations along with narration and a couple of interviews with the actual Pekar and his wife interspersed throughout the film giving it a real feeling of authenticity. Paul Giamatti is simply marvelous as the caustic "warts and more" Harvey Pekar. How often do you see an actor share the screen with the person he is playing, as happens in this film, and not even notice a blip in continuity? His performance is that good. Giamatti certainly deserves better than playing supporting roles in films like "Big Fat Liar". Kudos also to James Urbaniak for his small role as artist and illustrator Robert Crumb. For the small amount of time he is on the screen he really captures the essence of the guy.