American Splendor

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Richard L One of the more creative approaches to a biographical movie I've ever seen, and although it perfectly incorporates the real Pekar (and his TV appearances) into the film, as others have said there just wasn't really all that much to his life to make it interesting. Even so, the film's heart is in the right place and it certainly has its moments and some lingering feeling of both comfort and heaviness that most films can't even elicit in the first place. Rated 3/5 Stars •  Rated 3 out of 5 stars 10/29/24 Full Review Miles M Although illustrating some interesting points, and Giamatti's performance is solid, a good portion of the movie is a bore-nothing that I could take out of it other than that and the creative style of filmmaking. An unappealing depressive film with some very unlikeable characters. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 12/31/23 Full Review Audience Member A VERY 2003 biographical comedy about comic book writer Harvey Pekar. It takes some interesting time hopping approaches to its narrative and has a unique comic visual flair to the whole thing, but it's all a little too humdrum for its own good. I sort of liked it, but I won't return to it. Rated 2.5/5 Stars •  Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/12/23 Full Review Greg H Please seek out these books. Pekar was such a hidden genius and the movie went above and beyond to focus on that, but you can't get a more real sense of the man unless you read his work. Rated 5/5 Stars •  Rated 5 out of 5 stars 08/03/22 Full Review Audience Member Certain stories are obviously age restricted, but what about considering age group via empathetic relatability as in already passed the depicted checkpoint in life? Will the sense of humor be shared fully? Not an original screenplay but rather an adaptation of graphic novels below the radar that can only rely on this film as their immortality to bring up their creative existence. In the meanwhile, the film currently garners attention mostly of the cast, tied secondarily between solely story and source material. It grimaces similarly in the veins to Terry Zwigoff's works when conversing slice of life realistic truism in satire commentary that plainly amuses whilst amid in a pitiful state, representing rock bottom's creative loss before the eventual surprisingly embraced acceptance. Paul Giamatti perfectly embodies the sort of everyman that defines the actual author with mirroring contexts throughout the comedic docudrama, and same goes for Hope Davis on charismatically bringing the heartened meaning of completeness with the most generated humor that's honestly not adjacently pathetic. Their separative chemistry buildup goes over daily struggles till their threads ties convincingly at questionably sudden engagement before realizing connective wholesome growth towards the theming behind the comics' subtexts. Pitiful nature of eased sympathy applied worrisomely by honesty, but the overall performative deliverance deserves its given fair rating, albeit viewed not of age yet besides grasping ahead. (B+) Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/17/23 Full Review Audience Member Paul Giamatti is a natural curmudgeon, which makes him the perfect fit to play comic book author and proud Clevelander, Harvey Pekar. American Splendor tells the story of Pekar in an enjoyable, stylistic way, incorporating the real people behind the (surprisingly real) characters — for example, playing the actual clip of Pekar's many appearances on Letterman and Radloff's appearances on MTV. At first, you think there's no way someone like Mr. Boats (Earl Billings) or Toby Radloff (Judah Friedlander), but then boom, there they are, in the flesh — on this note, Friedlander as Radloff is by far my favorite aspect of the movie. The comic for which the film gets its name is my type of comic — everyday people dealing with everyday issues, wrapped in a cloak of Cleveland sardonic humor. Pekar gets the inspiration for his comics from his own life, where he works in the filing department of a hospital. I enjoyed American Splendor for its unique direction and interesting subject matter, but I'm attracted to stories about cantankerous artists (I also love Paul Giamatti). If you're in the mood for something comic-centric but are Marvel'd out, throw on American Splendor. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/01/23 Full Review Read all reviews

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