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American Splendor

Paul Giamatti (Actor), Shari Springer Berman (Actor, Director, Writer), Robert Pulcini (Director, Writer) Rated:

Format: DVD

353 ratings

IMDb7.4/10.0

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Genre	Drama
Format	Multiple Formats, AC-3, Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Contributor	Harvey Pekar, Joey Krajcar, Mary Faktor, Robert Pulcini, Paul Giamatti, Judah Friedlander, Cameron Carter, Hope Davis, Josh Hutcherson, Daniel Tay, Declan Baldwin, Joyce Brabner, Barbara Brown, Larry John Meyers, Shari Springer Berman, Chris Ambrose, Vivienne Benesch, Christine K. Walker See more
Language	English
Runtime	1 hour and 41 minutes

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Product Description

Based on the life and work of underground comic book writer Harvey Pekar- a prickly poet of the mundane who knows that all the strategizing in the world can't save a guy from picking the wrong supermarket checkout line.

Product details

Aspect Ratio ‏ : ‎ Unknown
Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
MPAA rating ‏ : ‎ R (Restricted)
Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 7.5 x 5.5 x 0.5 inches; 4 Ounces
Director ‏ : ‎ Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
Media Format ‏ : ‎ Multiple Formats, AC-3, Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Run time ‏ : ‎ 1 hour and 41 minutes
Release date ‏ : ‎ April 6, 2010
Actors ‏ : ‎ Paul Giamatti, Shari Springer Berman, Harvey Pekar, Chris Ambrose, Joey Krajcar
Subtitles: ‏ : ‎ English, Spanish, French
Producers ‏ : ‎ Christine K. Walker, Declan Baldwin
Language ‏ : ‎ English (Dolby Digital 5.1), Unqualified, English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
Studio ‏ : ‎ HBO Video
ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0000U0X20
Writers ‏ : ‎ Shari Springer Berman, Harvey Pekar, Robert Pulcini, Joyce Brabner
Number of discs ‏ : ‎ 1

Best Sellers Rank: #20,098 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
- #2,638 in Comedy (Movies & TV)
- #3,556 in Drama DVDs

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353 ratings

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3 star		7%
2 star		3%
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GoodReadin

Entertaining; I don't normally read comics

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 14, 2022

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I don't always read comics but when I do I read American Splendor.

Helpful

An offbeat movie about an offbeat kind of man

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 17, 2007

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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.

2 people found this helpful

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cookieman108

Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on February 6, 2004

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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.)

Cookieman108

37 people found this helpful

Helpful

Great view into Harvey Pekar's world and his comics

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 15, 2020

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American Splendor is a biography of comic book writer Harvey Pekar. The film stars Paul Giamatti as Pekar. That was a stroke of casting genius because he played the role to perfection. Just like his comics, American Splendor features Pekar’s unique outlook on life.

The movie has the real Pekar doing voice overs to introduce the major scenes and even little interviews. The film also plays around with the narrative. For example in one scene Pekar gets really angry he’s behind an old woman arguing about prices at a supermarket and cartoon characters of himself start popping up to the left and right of him telling him about his frustrations with not just that situation, but his life. That would become the basis of his comics and what set him apart from the mainstream. He wasn’t writing about superheroes or monsters. He was taking on his day to day experiences like record collecting or being cheap or the people at his job working in the file department at a veterans’ hospital. Pekar approached all of them in his own peculiar and usually cynical way.

The film does a great job getting a glimpse into Pekar’s unique world view which was what his comics were all about.

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Keith M

Innovative, Funny And Poignant

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on August 24, 2020

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Writer-director pairing of Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini’s 2003 depiction of the life and work of ground-breaking comic book creator Harvey Pekar (including of his autobiographical comic book American Splendor) is one of the most inventive ‘biopics’ you’ll find anywhere. Featuring another superbly understated and hilarious performance by leading character actor Paul Giamatti as the maverick loner Pekar, the film blends conventional 'faction’ film, documentary-style interviews with real-life protagonists and, morphing in and out, Pekar’s comic book (drawn) character creations in an almost unique and highly memorable way. The film is a kind of ‘rags to riches’ story or maybe rags to slightly less dishevelled rags, charting 'loser’ Pekar’s alternative/underground lifestyle from the 60s through to the mid-1980s in (mainly) run-down Cleveland, Ohio and with running themes of the author’s pessimistic, obsessive-compulsive and anti-establishment tendencies. The film is to be particularly commended for its stunning visual design, with cinematography by Terry Stacey, as well as its featuring an eclectic soundtrack including Jay McShann, Dizzy Gillespie, Lester Young and John Coltrane (Pekar being a big jazz fan) as well as The Clash, Marvin Gaye and The Pretenders.

Consistent with the film’s major theme of the loner/loser alienated by the forces of conventional (capitalist, corporate) society, we get much of the ‘nerd’ concept here (often to very amusing effect). This is played up initially as Harvey meets James Urbaniak’s fellow ‘comic-obsessed’, Robert Crumb, (the creator of the Fritz the Cat comic strip) – Crumb then helping set-up the initial version of Pekar’s comic American Splendor – and also by Judah Friedlander’s fellow (Veterans Association) hospital worker, Toby Radloff. There is a delightful sequence where Radloff persuades Harvey to attend a screening of the 1984 film Revenge of the Nerds, including an associated philosophical discussion on the film! Harvey’s kindred spirit here is Hope Davis’ similarly anti-establishment comic book store owner, Joyce Brabner, whose up-and-down relationship with Pekar represents the emotional heart of the film. Both Giamatti and Davis are outstanding with the film’s (Oscar-nominated) screenplay getting the mix of serious and comic spot on. Throughout, each of Pekar, Brabner and Radloff alternate with their ‘factional’ selves to entertaining effect, such as during the notable series of appearances Pekar made on the popular US talk-show, Late Night with David Letterman, in which Harvey nails his anti-establishment colours to the mast to controversial effect. The film also avoids descending into mawkishness as it becomes apparent Harvey has developed a serious medical condition, instead giving us a memorable ice-skating scene to the tune of John Coltrane’s My Favourite Things.

Comparators are not obvious as the film has a highly original look-and-feel. Woody Allen’s Annie Hall has been (rightly, I would say) cited both for the humour, generally, and the interjection of real-life characters and there are also similarities with the films of Alexander Payne and The Coen Brothers’ film, Inside Llewyn Davis (for the darkly comic depiction of the struggling artist). However, American Splendor stands, to a large extent, on its own as an original piece of cinema.

One person found this helpful

andy

Not the norm

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 25, 2016

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Though an award winning film (Sundance Film festival Grand Jury Prize amongst others), this is most probably not a film for everyone, and having read some of the reviews I wondered it it was one for me. A mixture of documentary, action and comic strip, American Splendor may well be unique in its approach to delivering its narrative, but once I got how the film works, I found it to be a very enjoyable and rewarding film.

You certainly don’t have to be a fan of American underground comic books to enjoy this film – I’m not a comic book fan and I hadn’t heard of Harvey Pekar, but if you appreciate cinema that is not the norm then this could well be a very rewarding film for you. If you do watch the film, I would recommend (after watching the film) looking at the extra features and especially the Commentary feature.

Superb acting from all of the cast and superb direction, with a great story that is delivered very cleverly, also with great music.

On the DVD you get:

American Splendor (1 hour 41)
Scene Selection
(Optional) Commentary with Toby Radloff, Harvey Pekar, Joyce Brabner, Danielle Batone, Paul Giamatti, Robert Pulcini, and Shari Springer Berman,
Meanwhile (a link to the extras)
Extras:
The Road To Splendor (3 minutes 46 sec)
Harvey Pekar meets BBC Collective bbc.co.uk/collective (15 minutes 21 sec)
Theatrical Trailer (2 minutes 17 sec)
Behind The scenes:
Paul and Hope (1 minute 15 sec)
Genuinne Nerd (1 minute 1 sec)
Robert Crumb (56 sec)
Blue Screen (57 sec)
Title Sequence (47 sec)

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Whatley

Nothing much happens; just everyday life, but that’s the point.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on October 17, 2018

Verified Purchase

Good film with some smart crossovers between the actors and the real people they’re portraying, most notably Harvey Pekar himself.
Paul Giamatti is as excellent as ever.
I just need to get it the dvd replaced by Music Magpie though as it skips 2/3’s of the way in.

Amazon customer

Great Film

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on January 9, 2019

Verified Purchase

A truly innovative take on the life of a comic writer that takes no extra steps to make the lead likable or conventionally funny yet provokes genuine amusement and genuine emotion. A film that succeeds in all levels in its execution and intent with wonderful moments that break the fourth wall to gain a better perspective on the more unglamorous life of an artist.

Vincent Gibbon

An aquired taste

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 10, 2019

Verified Purchase

Slow but keeps you gripped in a depressingly funny way

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