American Splendor (2003)

How sad is this?

Fantastic!

Absolutely Brilliant!

It is not deep, but it is fun to watch. It does have a bit more of an edge to it than other similar films.

I had never heard of Harvey Pekar or his work before "American Splendor" got released. Now that I've seen the movie, I'm impressed. The movie makes clear that Pekar (Paul Giamatti) didn't want to condescend to his audience. He just wanted to show life as it was. No sugar-coating, just the truth. As is often the cast with great artists, misery made for some fine work. An unusual trick that the movie uses is to intersperse footage of the real Pekar talking about why he created the cartoons that he did. He had some good things to say.Basically, this is what movies should be. It should go without saying that Giamatti does a perfect job as Pekar. Equal credit should go to Hope Davis as a fan whom he marries, as well as some other cast members (you gotta love what Pekar's friend says about "Revenge of the Nerds"). I'd also like to see the other movies directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini. Definitely see it.Watch for a young Josh Hutcherson as the boy dressed as Robin.

"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.

The movie has a knack of feeling incredibly simple, but is actually quite complex in its construction. For example, a lot has been said about Paul Giamatti's performance, and rightly so since it is at the heart of the film, but I'm convinced that those who call American Splendor a character study are doing so in error. It is really an ensemble piece crafted so well that it feels simpler than it actually is. Consider the contributions of Hope Davis and Judah Friedlander (both of whom give performances equal to Giamatti's), who disappear into their roles. The same can be said about the entire cast. Consider too the on screen presence of the real Harvey, Joyce, and Toby, without whom the film would have not had nearly the color and texture that it has.The movie does another neat trick by being both faithful to the comics and being an uplifting and original biopic of its own. The screenplay, which weaves reality, fantasy, documentary, and animation is build on so many layers that in lesser hands, the film would feel disjointed and confusing, yet the writer/director team of Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini never confuse us.

I seriously wanted to like this movie. It is an indie classic and it starred Paul Giamati, so it was supposed to be right up my alley. But American Splendor was not my cup of tea.The main character, Harvey Pekar (based on the real life guy, who made a few cameos throughout the film), was about the most vile and obnoxious protagonist in the history of protagonists, in my opinion. He was a whiny, disinterested, ungrateful slob who spent all of his time complaining about his life rather than trying to fix it. When in reality, he was actually a pretty lucky guy- he had a job, friends, a loving wife, fame, he survived cancer, people made a movie about his life etc.From a writing standpoint, this movie was slow. Pekar's character was, as has been mentioned, very passive (at least from his own perspective). Things happened to him instead of him making them happen. No wonder I didn't sympathize with him. It seems like the only thing he actually did for himself was start to write comics, but even then, it was only after he stumbled across a random person who happened to be a cartoonist.Another thing that annoyed me about American Splendor was the sort of artsy director thing of plugging cartoons into the frame. The technique may have been well received by critics who are more appreciative of that sort of thing, but I found it distracting. I think it reminded me of Hulk, which has made it to my worst-movies-of-all-times list.So I can understand why Pekar's comics earned their acclaim; I'll admit it. His readers took all of his depressed insights with a grain of salt and found them funny as opposed to annoying. They might even be able to identify with one or two of his thoughts. But put into the context of his life, every single one of these pessimistic ideas every single second of this guy's life was just too much for me to handle. His depression and whining is so constant and overbearing that it's beyond funny for me. I get that the title of his comics and of this movie is sarcastic, but I think our way of life in America deserves a little more credit that the way Pekar views it all.Thanks but no thanks on American Splendor. Sorry Giamati, not your best movie.