Directed by Shari Springer Berman, Robert Pulcini
An original mix of fiction and reality illuminates the life of comic book hero everyman Harvey Pekar.
Esplendor americano, Görkemli hayatim, Americka divota, Görkemli Hayatım, אמריקן ספלנדור, Anti-Herói Americano, Sikersztori, Американски разкош, 아메리칸 스플렌더, Американское великолепие, アメリカン・スプレンダー, 美国荣耀, Můj svět, Splendoare americană, Amerykański splendor, อเมริกัน สเปลนเดอร์, 美國榮耀, Американська пишнота
Denmark15 
Norway15 
NetherlandsAL 
Romania15 
Sweden15 
USAR 
France 
Austria 
Germany6 
Spain7 
Czechia15+ 
Poland16 
Hungary16 USAR USAR 
UK15 Austria Czechia Denmark France Germany Hungary Netherlands Norway Poland Romania Spain Sweden UK USA 
(16 year old paul giamatti, already twice divorced, bald spot eclipsing hair, eyes that scream profanity, perfectly spherical beer belly): i will be one of the most underrated actors of my generation
“If I die, will that character keep going ?.....
Or will he just fade away ?”
What an absolute joy this was to watch !
Everything from the meta-textual nature of the film to the slice of life direction made this an excellent bio-pic.
I’ve always enjoyed bio-pics that resembles the mind of the artist which it is capturing. Most bio-pics follow the same template and feel the same but.... every now and then you get a : “Man on the Moon” or a “Rocketman” that take the imagery and intellectual properties of said artist and make something which is uniquely theirs. “American Splendor” would definitely fit into this category.
The direction was fantastically meticulous, the acting was incredible and…
One of those films that has been in my queue for a long time, and to be honest, after watching it, I wouldn't mind leaving it there for much longer. I mean, Paul is unsurprisingly excellent in his portrayal of this eccentric real-life character, a neurotic with a sense of humour that occasionally comes across as a more snarky and less intelligent version of Woody Allen. The decision to meld reality and fiction was an interesting and somewhat clever one, as it gave the film a distinct style and was well-integrated into the story. Also, the cinematography has this quality that makes the film look less cinematic and more like a television series of possibly bigger budget.
All in all, although it features a lead strong performances and some nice creative decisions, sadly the story wasn't that compelling for me.
TODAY SCHEDULE
Devil In The Brain
Revolver
American Splendor
Fall
One of the most creative slice of life bio-pics I've ever seen.
The Aughts were truly the Decade of the Schlub. The two most consistently excellent actors of the 00s were Philip Seymour Hoffman and Paul Giamatti, and no film encapsulated the essential predicament of the American Schlub like Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini's American Splendor. A schlub doesn't have the most brains, and he's certainly not athletic, and he's painfully aware of each and every one of his shortcomings, without possessing the wherewithal to correct them. The triumph of Harvey Pekar is that he can make his own painful inadequacies into art and, miracle of miracles, have people respond to it. It's the ultimate dream of schlubs everywhere, but in the final, aching twist, even that recognition isn't enough to end his torment, just make it bearable. That's the most a schlub can hope for in this life.
A creative look at Harvey Pekar (Paul Giamatti), a real life comic book hero of the mundane. This film cleverly blends documentary-like footage of the real Pekar and his wife Joyce Brabner.
There is no comic in history with a character like Harvey Pekar. It started as an underground indie comic named American Splendor and it featured Pekar just darkly moping about his life. It has a wonderfully absurdist angle by concentrating on minute things and the personality quirks of the people in his life. He didn’t draw the comics—they were illustrated by talented artists, most notably Robert Crumb.
Pekar, a cantankerous and grumpy man who worked in a file office, was able to make himself famous by appearing on…
“Well, there’s a reliable disappointment.”
100% aging into Harvey Pekar
Movies based on real events ranked
52 Week Challenge
(Watch a film with a character that shares the same name as you)
I was going to watch Milk and then I stumbled upon this film and I just love Paul Giamatti so much I couldn’t not watch this film.
Yk this wasn’t what I expected it to be based on the description, but i still really enjoyed it, it was a great underdog story done in a really original documentary style of filmmaking. At first the characters may seem nonsensical and caricature like but I absolutely adored when they switched to the real life people and you saw for your own eyes how flawless the performances are.
Cinematic Time Capsule
2003 Marathon - Film #14
Who is Harvey Pekar?
He’s the guy that makes Debbie Downer feel like an upper. And this is his movie. It’s not really documentary, and it’s not really a biopic. It’s kind of its own thing and they premiered it at Sundance and it ended winning the Grand Jury Prize. There were plenty of rave reviews and it even earned an Oscar nomination for its screenplay. Go figure.
Pekar writes comics about his life and this film recreates those comics and even features the real Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner watching themselves portrayed by the real Paul Giamatti and Hope Davis who attend a play to watch themselves portrayed by the real…
I always liked this movie but watching it for the purpose of rating/reviewing on Letterboxd made me realize just how brilliant a film American Splendor actually is.
The movie has an incredibly unique structure of being a bio-pic (with the great Paul Giamatti in the lead, and Hope Davis great as Joyce) while mixing in some well done Documentary elements. The real life Harvey Pekar is the narrator, we see him (along with his Wife and Genuine Nerd Toby Radloff) in a few talking head-esque segments (including one where the actors also share the screen), we also get the real David Letterman footage utilized (plus Toby Radloff's MTV appearance).
But that's not it! The film does a great job of…
creative and heartwarming. sometimes boring but always charming.
I knew nothing about Harvey Pekar before watching this but Paul Giamatti is such a stupidly good actor that I now feel like I know everything about him. Pretty heartbreaking story and the quirky approach really gave it that authentic comic book feel, ending up as a sort of downbeat Scott Pilgrim.
