American Splendor | | Cast : | Shari Springer Berman, Paul Giamatti, Harvey Pekar | | Director : | Robert Pulcini, Shari Springer Berman | | Studio : | HBO Video | | Format : | Color, Closed-captioned, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | September 12, 2003 | | DVD Released Date : | October , 2004 | | Language : | English (Dubbed), English (Original Language), French (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | June 09, 2005 | | Summary | The agony and the ecstasy | Content
 | This is the movie biography of the cartoonist Harvey Pekar who literally turned suffering into in art form.
Pekar is a lovable curmudgeon who always seems to see impending doom on the horizon and a cloud in every silver lining yet we cannot help but find Harvey Pekar to be a really lovable guy.
He lives in an apartment in Cleveland that he never seems to clean with his prized collection of Jazz records.
Pekar's cartoons have had a cult following for a while and take the form of autobiography, an autobiography of a common man, an "everyman", and the annoyances of everyday modern life which he encounters. The comics are done in somewhat of a tongue-in-cheek, insightful and some times a sarcastic style of humor that elevates the boredom and misery of life to an almost mystical perspective.
The film takes us from his youth, his friendship with R. Crumb, his love of old Jazz, the relationship with his wife, his day job as a filing clerk at the local hospital VA and the nuts and bolts of his work as an underground cartoonist where Harvey where we see him writing the dialogue and drawing stick figures that are later elaborated on by various artists (including Crumb). Also followed in this movie is his sudden success when he is "discovered" , his bout with cancer and the adoption of their daughter.
It gives a character sketch of someone to whom life has not exactly been kind but we also get the feeling that Pekar has done a good job sabotaging himself all along the way. You might actually find yourself asking yourself why Pekar sabotages himself as he does and the answer, if this is a true portrayal of the man, might be because he suffers from too much integrity.
The movie is done in a very creative style with Paul Giamatti playing Pekar through out the movie with Pekar himself showing up in and out of the movie in interviews on the set and film clips of his appearances on the Leterman show as well as some animation and of course close ups of some of the cells of Harvey's comics.
The casting of Giamatti was perfect and the actor pulls off the portrayal of Pekar supurbly and with ease.
The portrayal of the blossoming relationship with his wife is particularly touching and is quite sentimental for a guy who seems to take pride in being anything but sentimental.
Pekar finally being recognized as a social critic and artist of merit is taken as a mixed blessing by Harvey in true Pekar fashion and yet Harvey is seen as being pulled dragging and kicking through the hype.
Whether or not this indeed a true portrayal of the man the Harvey Pekar of this movie come across as being a many of integrity.
His struggle with cancer is told with honesty and in it we see our anti-hero as someone who is quite heroic.
A very entertaining movie about a real character.
Included with the DVD is a mini-comic book which I found quite delightful.
Jim Connell "Hallstatt Prince"
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| Rating | | | Date | April 25, 2005 | | Summary | Odd & quirky | Content
| This movie is very hard to describe. It's based on a true story and sometimes feels like half documentary and half movie because it switches from the actor playing the main character to the real "Harvey Pekar" (the underground comic book writer of "American Splendor"). The movie also shows the real people in Harvey's life and then switches back to the actors playing them. It uses a lot of comic book drawings and animation in the film too.
Harvey Pekar, (played by Paul Giamatti), is a frustrated file clerk at a V.A. Hospital that eventually is inspired to create comic books based on his own life. He is a grouchy and depressed working-class everyman type of guy. He eventually meets and marries "Joyce", (played by Hope Davis), who is a quirky and sometimes depressed comic book seller. There are a lot of very funny moments in this movie but I think the average/mainstream movie viewer won't really like this movie because it's really strange and I thought the character "Harvey Pekar" was very annoying. But in an odd way, it's still interesting. It took a while for me to start liking it enough to not turn off the DVD player. I was interested enough to keep watching. But I have no desire to see the movie again. I recommend this movie for someone that likes really quirky and offbeat movies and wants to see something really different. Art-house crowds will probably love this movie. I rate it: C- |
| Rating | | | Date | April 06, 2005 | | Summary | Almost as fine as the books | Content
| Longtime fans of Harvey Pekar (I was turned on to the American Splendor books as a college student in 1987) will absolutely love this! Very faithful to the original and to Harvey Pekar and what he stands for.
The switching back and forth between the real Harvey and the actor who portrays him gets a bit confusing and jarring at times, and it will require multiple viewings for those not familiar with the adventures of our man Mr. Pekar and Joyce, Mr. Boats, Toby, etc. (Freddie the Moocher or Emil the hermit aren't in the film, but that's a minor complaint). The actor playing Mr. Boats, the elderly black crumudgeon, is a tad stiff. I've always visualized James Earl Jones or Louis Gossett Jr. in that role.
But the film as a whole works as the story of the triumph of the common everyday working man in spite of himself. You'll recoil at the exploitation of Toby the nerd (his identifying with the comedy "Revenge of the Nerds", a scene straight from the AS books, is funny, sad, and touching at the same time), and you'll cheer as Harvey "socks it" to David Letterman and his audience.
Read the American Splendor Anthology, see the movie (more than once), laugh, think, and enjoy. |
| Rating | | | Date | April 01, 2005 | | Summary | Marty goes to Hollywood | Content
| 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!
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| Rating | | | Date | February 15, 2005 | | Summary | An accuracy uncommon in Hollywood | Content
| This isn't an "everyman" film, as I've seen it commented on. It's a film about a very dysfunctional man, living a sub par existence, who, upon realizing that he wanted to leave an indelible mark on the world much as his friend did with the Crumb strips, reached down and found something to comment on. What did he comment on? Everyday circumstances in the dysfunctional world he lived in. "Everyman" is your average man. Harvey Pekar was far from average.
That said, this was a terrific film. Giammati was amazing as Pekar, and really captured his essence on film. And if we wondered how well he did so, the film showed us the real Harvey Pekar, and the real people that surrounded him. And the real people that surrounded him were sensationally dysfunctional. Yet amidst this lack of functionality, Pekar somehow *did* leave an indelible mark. Many admired him for his writing, but for as many people that admired him for his writing, the same amount - or more - found fun in mocking him. Let's face it - David Letterman had him on his show for comedic effect, and nothing else. Pekar was nothing more to him than a "stupid pet trick", and when Pekar finally told Letterman off I applauded.
In the early parts of the film I wasn't sure whether or not I liked the back and forth of the "fictional" world - the film world - and the real world: the real Harvey Pekar and his band of dysfunctional compatriots. As I watched, however, I grew to appreciate it. I knew that if the real life segments hadn't been included, I would have second-guessed the film. How could someone really live such a disastrous existence and make a name for himself? It seems implausible. Yet it happened. And, as I said, if not for the real life segments, it would have been difficult to imagine.
I was so pleasantly surprised to see all of the real life characters represented so accurately. Rarely does a film do this. A typical Hollywood film would have had someone much more attractive than Giammati playing Pekar, and thank god this wasn't a typical Hollywood film. This brought us into his world, into his house, into his mind, into his soul.
Frankly, while Giammati is receiving well deserved accolades for his performance in Sideways, this was the defining performance of his career.
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