American Splendor

Rating:
Summary: Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff.
Review: Being familiar with Harvey Pekar's comic book American Splendor, I was really pleased to see the movie was about as close to the source material as any other movie I've ever seen. I haven't had an opportunity to read Our Cancer Year, a graphic novel by Harvey and his wife Joyce about Harvey's bout with cancer, but that storyline is also incorporated into this movie.

Harvey Pekar, played by Paul Giamatti, leads an ordinary life in the city of Cleveland, working as a file clerk in a VA hospital, divorced twice, scours garage sales and thrift stores for rare Jazz records, is thoroughly well read, and observes the people in his life and his surroundings fairly closely, taking it all in, good and bad. Harvey does tend to a rather morose individual; so don't come into this movie looking for tales of happiness and joy.

A chance meeting with a greeting card artist and future underground comic legend Robert Crumb develops in to a long-standing friendship through their similar interests. Once Crumb becomes famous for his unusual style of comic books, Harvey decides he wants to try his hand at it, creating, with the help of Crumb's illustrations, stories about his life titled American Splendor. No superheroes here, but more of a realistic portrayal of his own life, warts and all. Soon he develops cult fame, and meets his future wife, Joyce, a comic book storeowner from Delaware. Harvey's fame manifests itself in a sort of bizarre fashion, leading to a number of appearances on David Letterman's late night talk show, and even trickles down to people he knows and includes in his book, specifically his ultra nerdy co-worker and friend Toby Radloff, played wonderfully by Judah Friedlander.

One of the things I really enjoyed about this movie was the inclusion of the real Harvey Pekar and other people in his life, such as his wife, Joyce, and his very odd friend, Toby Radloff. Harvey does some narration, and appears in a few scenes with other, real life people, who are portrayed by actors in the movie, in scenes between the scenes, if that makes sense. It allows for a comparison between the actors playing the characters and the real life people those characters are based on. It sounds like it would be a little disjointed, but directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini pull it off wonderfully. What was most interesting to me was how much Paul Giamatti got into the character of Harvey, from physical appearance, speech, dress, attitude, and even mannerisms. Sometimes I wasn't sure if I was watching Paul Giamatti's Harvey Pekar or the real Harvey Pekar. One of my favorite scenes is one where Harvey discusses the peculiarity of his name, and how odd it was that he found a couple of other people in the phonebook who shared his name.

Presented in a wide screen format, the movie looks great. Also included are a plethora of extras, including a reprint of a comic insert Harvey Pekar created for Entertainment Weekly, a group commentary including the real Harvey Pekar, a featurette, and a few hidden items that aren't too hard to find. (The one with the real Toby Radloff is great.)

Rating:
Summary: There's something missing here...
Review: From all the great reviews I read about this movie, I thought this would be a great change from all the intellectually devoid movies out there. I like comics, Paul Giamatti and any deviation from your typical hollywood movie. But this has gotta be one of the most boring and difficult movies I've ever watched. The characters are very uninteresting and I never really cared about anything going on. And this guy narrating various points of his own life got really annoying! I think it's a great idea, but the way it's executed made the movie even more uninteresting...I will not recommend this movie to anyone.


Rating:
Summary: It takes a hero to be an honest every man
Review: Harvey Pekar is just such a hero. The acerbic comic author here offers the audience exactly what makes his comic of the same name so special, a window into the life of the every man, with all the pain and foibles that go with it. Pekar's searing honesty of his own problems and triumphs, non extraordinary perhaps on a global sale but all amazing on the personal level, give his audience a keen window of what it means to be an average person struggling to make it buy.

All of the performances here are excellent, though Giamatti and Davis deserve special mention for their wonderful portrayals. They bring these people to life. The director's interesting technique of placing Pekar as a commentator on his own life keeps the film from slipping into melodrama and keeping the distance that gives the comic is powerful perspective. Harvey's humor is much here in evidence, even when his life dips towards tragedy and that is the rock on which this excellent film rests. Some may find the intimacy of the film uncomfortable, but given the tendency of modern film to often flatten life, I found it wonderfully refreshing.

Harvey Pekar, refreshingly unspoiled by is better than 15 minutes of fame, is a treat that every viewer should enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: American Ennui
Review: American Splendor started off life as a ShowTime special, and frankly it shows. The movie is basically a Biopic of the creative life of the comic book writer Harvey Pekar, who rose to prominence in the comic book world by putting himself in his comic books and complaining about ho life sucked to be normal. Sorry if this spoils it for you, but at least you now don't have to see this movie. Frankly I've had more entertaining experiences at the dentist. I'm normally a big fan of small, non-Hollywood movies, but I also like my movies to have a plot, a theme or for the love of god, something happening. American Splendor merely recounts a life that's in turns dull, amusing, heartbreaking and sad. It is retold by the awful device of having the real Harvey Pekar occasionally interviewed and occasionally narrating, with some horrible "out-takes" of him between narrations, a comic book Harvey Pekar between some scenes, and the wonderful Paul Giamatti acting out certain scenes from this bleak and dreary life. Yes I understand that life is grim and it sucks to be alive and all, but this movie really has nothing else to say, no hope, no real irony, no commentary on the human condition, just as series of painfully slow twists and turns in this sadly forgettable life. If you are a fan of Harvey Pekar, you'll probably enjoy seeing this. If you've never heard of him you'll get a kick from seeing him on Letterman, if you smoke then realize that every cigarette takes a minute off your life and life is short and you should spend the few minutes you have left doing anything other than watching this mournful piece of drivel. On second thoughts, perhaps that's the point of the movie....

Rating:
Summary: Oscar Sham.
Review: What a crime that this movie was not nominated for more Oscars!
Paul Giamatti is fantastic...and so is this movie.

Rating:
Summary: Definately not for everyone...
Review: Color me unimpressed with "American Splendor." Although I happily attend over 50 movies a year, many of them outside the mainstream, this movie just served as a reminder of why some movies are rightfully marginalized. I found the characters uninteresting, the exposition as pretentious as it was creative, and the story dull as dishwater. The only moment I laughed was at the end, when Pekar moans "We adopted a kid, but she has ADD and is a real handful." At that moment, I was right there with the guy's weary frustration, but my weary frustration wasn't with the kid in question, but with this silly movie.

Rating:
Summary: Nowhere Man¿
Review: The Plot: Harvey Pekar took his dead-end life as a file clerk in the early Eighties and became a minor celebrity by basing a hit cult comic around himself. From the difficulties of being stuck in line at a supermarket through to battling Cancer, his work is brilliantly portrayed as the film uses a mix of animation, the perfectly cast Giamatti, while blending both archive footage and recent narration by the real life Pekar perfectly.

Standout Scene: As reality is suspended briefly the actors take a backseat to listen to Pekar & the supremely funny Toby Radloff take centre stage.

Any Good? Pekar once called out David Letterman's talk show as manipulative shtick and American Splendor makes no bones about giving one in the eye to the establishment too. This is a genuinely funny film from the ultimate 'anti-American-Dreamer,' and should definitely not be missed.

Rating:
Summary: Real life funnies
Review: I just love films about malcontents, those people angry at the duplicity and the phoniness of everyone around them. Many of these malcontents are incurable neurotics, but God, you've gotta love them. Such a man is Harvey Pekar, the cranky hero of "American Splendor." Pekar is able to channel his rampant dissatisfactions by writing for an underground comic book aptly titled "American Splendor." Pekar, captured to a tee by Paul Giamatti, adapts in comic book form his life as a file clerk at a Veterans Administration hospital. He also writes about his co-workers and other people around him, many of whom are present in the film along with the actors who portray them. Some of the most comically bizarre scenes, as depicted in the film, are Pekar's appearances on the David Letterman show. I found these scenes funny and a touch harrowing. Hope Davis plays Pekar's equally emotionally flawed wife. Ms. Davis' gives a very funny, almost deadpan portrayal, that is never less than real.

If you want to see a non-Hollywood type film about real people, which is also original, hilarious, and not a little inspired, you can select no better film than "American Splendor."

Rating:
Summary: A QUIRKY OFF-BEAT FILM THAT'LL SNEAK UP ON YOU..
Review: What a sweet film this is: not in a mushy sentimentalistic sort of way, but with the kindness of redemptive grace. Even the moments of meanness in the narrative are transformed by something like an omnipresent forgiveness in the face of adversity and weakness: the beauty of our ordinary lives!

While somewhat slow at the outset, it sneaks up on you, makes you laugh and then think. Pulcini ostensibly follows a simplistic narrative, but technically the film's a marvel of ingenuity. Enough has been written already by other reviewers about this aspect, and it has to be seen to be appreciated anyhow, so I'll leave that be.

But the main thing that impresses me is how this film, like those of Satyajit Ray, Ingmar Bergman, and Francois Truffaut, revives in the viewer a sensitivity, all too easily blunted by today's horrific headlines of cynicism, hatred, greed, and despair, to what it can mean to be simply human, surviving -- and creating.

One of my all time favorites. I highly recommend this off-beat offering from Pulcini! Rave review or otherwise, you must savour it for yourself.

Rating:
Summary: Marty goes Hollywood
Review: Witness the everyman gain his fifteen minutes of fame only to find himself parodied and exploited for being just that -- an everyman.

Thanks to Robert Crumb and his cadre of underground comic writers, Harvey Pekar and his average existence has been immortalized in "American Splendor." Who else could go from drawing stick-figure frames about his life to having his life chronicled in critically acclaimed comic books, a play and a feature film.

The film is surprisingly as gentle and moving as it is humorous and nerve-wracking. Hah! A bit like a real man's life, huh? I found myself both squirming in discomfort and laughing out loud at the sheer insanity of everyday situations.

The film breaks all kinds of walls, not just the fourth, in part by incorporating the real-life subject with the fiction, archival footage with off-stage dramatization. I love the scenes with Harvey and Paul Giamatti on the set together. I also really enjoyed the intermingling of animation over the shoulder of live actors. The film seems effortless in its portrayal of this everyman and his everyday world that comes so close to falling apart and yet continues on with what actually amounts to a happy ending.

This one will be a landmark in the new cinema-virtualite.

Whereas "Crumb" was a decidedly dark and almost voyeuristic look into the life of an artistic misfit-genius, "American Splendor" celebrates life and its foibles, follies and joys.

Kudos!