Donal Logue, Earl Billings, Harvey Pekar
Harvey Pekar is file clerk at the local VA hospital. His interactions with his co-workers offer some relief from the monotony, and their discussions encompass everything from music to the decline of A...( read more
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Directed by: Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
Release Date: August 15, 2003
DVD Release Date: February 3, 2004
Stats: 1,939 reviews
Probably the best comic adaptation made so far. It made people take Giamatti a little more seriously too which helped his career no end. A great film!
Nicely underplayed biopic of 'one of life's losers done good' . A successful early role for Giamatti who displays the appropriate brooding cynicism. Real people and comic animations are blended effectively into the narrative. Good to see such an unusual character given the biopic...( read more)
American Splendor is its main character, Harvey Pekar. It's clever and innovative, sure, but it's also a dour asshole and it's up to the viewer to decide if it's something worth knowing. I would never choose to associate with someone like Pekar in the course of my lifetime. He re...( read more)
Paul Giamatti is brilliant and Harvey Pekar is actually allowed to be himself as he narrates this movie about his life that's part-documantary and part film with comic book elements scattered throughout. It's long and a bit drawn out, but if you like this kind of thing then you'l...( read more)
A humbled rumination on the prospects of a hero and a celebration of the everyday man, American Splendor is a sweetly bleak tale of life at a simple, base level. For what can be easily perceived as cynical through its drab quirks moulds itself into a form of understanding - Harve...( read more)
American Splendor is stylish, intelligent and original. Yet it is appropriately humble and honest to life, as bitter-sweet as it can be. The characters are given a lot of depth and the story builds in a way that pulls you in to life of Harvey Pekar. He is a seemingly likeable man...( read more)
Im not into the comic books but I definitely liked the movie even though I wasnt expecting to
This film is lost on me. It mixes reality and fiction on topics I know little about - comics and a comic book writer. Also based on a true story, this tells the story of Harvey Pekar, an ordinary man leading a mundane life of nothingness. He writes a comic book based on his life ...( read more)
One of the most originally-told, smartest and entertaining biographical tales I've ever seen. A masterpiece in modern cinema. American Splendor is definitely a sample of American brilliance.
80/100
It's a humane and witty treatment of an average life that, incidentally, speaks to the worth and inherent drama of average lives. full review
Magnificently audacious movie, in which fact and fiction sometimes coexist in the same frame. full review
One of those rare, inventively made movies that isn't so taken with its own novelty it loses sight of its characters. Its warmth is for real, and it enwraps you. full review
It's an inventive, mind-expanding exercise in heart and soul. full review
Proof that ordinary guys can hold the comics, and the screen, as well as superheroes. This Halloween, I want to be Harvey Pekar. full review
One of the most uniquely inventive cinematic experiences of the decade thus far. full review
An act of unabashed postmodern self-commentary employed to deliberately blur the distinction between the authentic Harvey Pekar and actor Paul Giamatti's faithful recreation. full review
the thin line between life and fiction.... this movie is really something special...
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