American Splendor

I guess I am sucker for biographies of weird people. This certainly qualifies for that.What makes this film different from others is the combination of fictional and real people playing the two main characters: Harvey and Joyce Pekar. For most... Full review

Throughout the years, people have read dozens of comic books: Spider-Man, Batman, Superman, The Green Latern, X-Men, Hulk, etc., looking for escape from reality, but at the same time, looking for a relation from those books. With "American Splendor" on... Full review

I'm sorry, but I just saw this movie this week on cable, and went out and bought the DVD immediately thereafter. I have since watched it about 15 times, so far. I'm not a comic book fan (at all), and... Full review

It's always hardest to write about what you love and I not only love, but also, to steal a joke from Woody Allen in ANNIE HALL, loaf, luff and lerve this magnificent film. Therefore this will be difficult. Here goes... Full review

-Can't explain it but America seems to be fixated on watching other people's life. be it the MTV smash "Real World" or the video game "the Sims" and now comic books. Pretty soon someone will release a CD featuring the... Full review

Harvey Pekar is a filing clerk at his local hospital; he is miserable; he is on his way out of a second terrible marriage and his only interests are collecting second hand records, reading and listening to jazz. However a... Full review

In `American Splendor,' Paul Giamatti plays Harvey Pekar, the comic book creator who became famous as a recurring guest on the David Letterman Show. A resident of Cleveland, Pekar was a socially backward man who found he had the talent... Full review

One of the very best films of 2003, this is such an original and brilliant bio-pic.Harvey Pekar is a file clerk working at a V.A. hospital in Cleveland.Pekar is terminally depressed and is amazingly played by Paul Giamatti (where's his... Full review

I must confess that I was a bit apprehensive in going to see this film. I thought it would be one of those movies that are hyped to the max by the adoring critics, but that it would turn out... Full review

Successfully innovative, American Splendor combines fiction and reality in a spellbinding and amusing way, winning awards at Cannes and Sundance, and proving its maxim that life is pretty complex (and endlessly fascinating) stuff . . .The story features Harvey Pekar,... Full review

Yet, it is downright invigorating to stumble across "American Splendor" and be able to experience its captivating humor and easygoing charm. American Splendor [Special Edition] It is as if a making-of scene has been inserted into the actual movie. ... Full Review

Like a diamond in the rough, "American Splendor" is a true art movie, with unique filmmaking features and great performances all around. Grossing just over $6 million at the box office, "American Splendor" is not a huge commercial success but it certainly deserves a second and hopefully, more successful run on home video. ... Full Review

I have never read an issue of Harvey Pekar's "American Splendor" comic book, but the man's reputation is impressive. If "Seinfeld" had been set in Cleveland and if Jerry had been a little more misanthropic and a lot less cheerful, it would have been "American Splendor. ... Full Review

By SEAN AXMAKER SPECIAL TO THE POST-INTELLIGENCER In the world of comic-book movies, "American Splendor" is the real deal, the warts-and-all adventures of the most unlikely hero on the comic stands. Paul Giamatti lets his paunch go, his posture curl in a rounded slump and his lips curl into a sour sneer to play the curmudgeonly writer. ... Full Review

However, American Splendor is the better of the two with its heart, humor and depth. A truly funny scene shows Pekar drawing his own preliminary story boards: crooked wavy lines and haphazard stick figures. ... Full Review

Attaching the team behind the Harvey Pekar biopic "American Splendor" to a film version of Emma Mclaughlin and Nicola Kraus's novel "The Nanny Diaries" has the potential for some depth and quirkiness above and beyond standard chick flick fare. But ... Full Article

It takes a special sort of grumpiness to address your wife and adopted infant daughter as "man", generally in the course of some shrill and ill-tempered complaint. ... Full Article

SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF "American Splendor," the story of morose underground comic legend Harvey Pekar and his autobiographical comic book series, won the best picture award in the second annual Seattle Film Critics Awards. ... Full Article

"American Splendor" will appeal to some of the same movie audiences that took to "Ghost World."And no, it's not just because both movies were based on independent comic book stories. ... Full Article

"The unexamined life is not worth living."If Socrates had not said those words, they could have come from Harvey Pekar.The inventive and wildly entertaining film about Pekar's life in theaters this week demonstrates that very principle. ... Full Article