Genre: Drama, Comedy, Black Comedy, Love, Marriage, Prison, Comic Book, Superhero, Halloween, Biography
Tagline: Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff.
Plot: Harvey Pekar, the hilariously downtrodden Cleveland comic book artist, is the subject of AMERICAN SPLENDOR, titled after Pekar's autobiographical series. Played by actor Paul Giamatti, Pekar also appears as himself, giving the film a documentary feeling with many behind-the-scenes on-set shots. Directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini maintain this balance between the actors and the real-life characters--Pekar's wife Joyce and coworker Toby also appear on set as themselves--while crafting a funny, difficult, heartwarming tale that encapsulates Pekar's life, work, and uniquely bizarre perspectives.Peckar is a pessimistic file clerk with no hope of ever rising above his boring job, slobbish apartment, and bad attitude. Wonderfully set in his ways, Peker's constant self-deprication is clearly a front for his prolific interests in music and art. When his friend Robert Crumb (James Urbaniak) gets his big break as a comic book artist, Pekar decides to try his hand at the craft. Though he can't illustrate, his stories are good, and Crumb agrees to help draw the pictures. Soon several artists are illustrating Pekar's American Splendor series, and the comic book's readership grows. The film continues through the events of Pekar's life--meeting wife Joyce Brabner, appearing on
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 Cult comic-book writer Harvey Pekar -- crank and peculiar optimist -- is brought to life in a remarkable narrative film that's also part animation and documentary.--Stephanie Zacharek (Salon)
American Splendor is a triumph. It’s an original voice filmically combining the comic book vignettes on which it is based with the acted and real story of Harvey Pekar, a man talking about his life in a comic book. 9/10--Avril Carruthers (Movie-Vault.com)
Sweet, funny and off-kilter, American Splendor blurs the boundaries between documentary and drama, creating something striking and original.  --Nev Pierce (BBC Films)
One’s reception of the film as art depends solely on whether you see it as a sell-out or an inside joke that takes some time to assimilate. 89/100--Jon Lap (Apollo Guide)
The year's most original movie has arrived. First-time feature filmmakers Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini's "American Splendor" is as inventive as "Being John Malkovich," as psychologically quirky as "Ghost World" and as honest as the day is long.--Jack Mathews (New York Daily News)
Inventive, original and very, very funny, American Splendor is brilliantly directed and features terrific performances by Giamatti and Davis – a very early contender for the Best Films Of 2004.  --Matthew Turner (ViewLondon)
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| Directed by |
Shari Springer Berman
Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's, Hello, He Lied & Other Truths From the Hollywood Trenches, Wanderlust | Robert Pulcini
Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's, Hello, He Lied & Other Truths From the Hollywood Trenches, Wanderlust |
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| Music By |
Mark Suozzo
The Last Days of Disco, Barcelona, Metropolitan |
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| A wonderfully quirky biopic about an ordinary, real guy who is not really ordinary or real at all. 7/10 --Anton Bitel (Movie Gazette)
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