American Splendor R
Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff
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Also released as:
American Splendor
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DVD Details
- Rated: R
- Run Time: 1 hours, 41 minutes
- Video: Color
- Encoding: Region 1 (USA & Canada)
- Released: February 3, 2004
- Originally Released: 2003
- Label: HBO Home Video
Performers, Cast and Crew:
Starring | Paul Giamatti & Hope Davis | |
Performer: | Judah Friedlander, James Urbaniak, Danny Hoch, Daniel Tay, Robert Pulcini, Maggie Moore, Donal Logue, Molly Shannon & James McCaffrey | |
Directed by | Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini | |
Edited by | Robert Pulcini | |
Screenwriting by | Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini | |
Composition by | Mark Suozzo | |
Produced by | Ted Hope | |
Director of Photography: | Terry Stacey |
Entertainment Reviews:
Rating: A- --
Like Ghost World before it, Pulcini and Berman have taken an unconventional comic and given it a cinematic make-over.
Full Review
Quickflix
A glorious rebuke to all this summer's recycled, effects-ridden, laboriously "fun" Hollywood disappointments piled along the wayside like so many crashed cars.
Full Review
Newsweek
Channels Pekar's vision of art and life as twinned struggles. One of cinema's great first-date sequences is here. We're splendidly shown how a lower-class nine-to-fiver has his own creative selves and richly expressive life.
Full Review
Vue Weekly (Edmonton, Alberta)
Rating: 3.5/5 --
Played to perfection by Paul Giamatti, Pekar defies the categories of hero, villain, or even anti-hero. He simply exists, an ordinary man trying to make the best of a largely disappointing life.
Full Review
Far Out Magazine
The rare artist biopic that goes beyond the dull march of events and actually illuminates the creative process.
AV Club
Underneath all this schtick pulses a restrained, pensive take on how the terrific loneliness of the modern human condition can be ameliorated through its narration. Misery loves company, in other words, especially if it's comically described.
Full Review
The Brooklyn Rail
It would be a mistake to regard American Splendor as an anthem for the common man. It is the uncommon that is being celebrated here.
New York Magazine/Vulture
Product Description:
Harvey Pekar, the hilariously downtrodden Cleveland comic book artist, is the subject of AMERICAN SPLENDOR, titled after Pekar's autobiographical series. Played by actor Paul Giamatti, Pekar also appears as himself, giving the film a documentary feeling with many behind-the-scenes on-set shots. Directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini maintain this balance between the actors and the real-life characters--Pekar's wife Joyce and coworker Toby also appear on set as themselves--while crafting a funny, difficult, heartwarming tale that encapsulates Pekar's life, work, and uniquely bizarre perspectives.
Pekar is a pessimistic file clerk with no hope of ever rising above his boring job, slobbish apartment, and bad attitude. Wonderfully set in his ways, Pekar's constant self-deprication is clearly a front for his prolific interests in music and art. When his friend Robert Crumb (James Urbaniak) gets his big break as a comic book artist, Pekar decides to try his hand at the craft. Though he can't illustrate, his stories are good, and Crumb agrees to help draw the pictures. Soon several artists are illustrating Pekar's American Splendor series, and the comic book's readership grows. The film continues through the events of Pekar's life--meeting wife Joyce Brabner, appearing on David Letterman, struggling with cancer, and adopting a daughter--always showing Pekar's no-frills approach to life. A creative and punchy film, AMERICAN SPLENDOR invites viewers into the odd world of Pekar and his comic-book antihero persona.
Pekar is a pessimistic file clerk with no hope of ever rising above his boring job, slobbish apartment, and bad attitude. Wonderfully set in his ways, Pekar's constant self-deprication is clearly a front for his prolific interests in music and art. When his friend Robert Crumb (James Urbaniak) gets his big break as a comic book artist, Pekar decides to try his hand at the craft. Though he can't illustrate, his stories are good, and Crumb agrees to help draw the pictures. Soon several artists are illustrating Pekar's American Splendor series, and the comic book's readership grows. The film continues through the events of Pekar's life--meeting wife Joyce Brabner, appearing on David Letterman, struggling with cancer, and adopting a daughter--always showing Pekar's no-frills approach to life. A creative and punchy film, AMERICAN SPLENDOR invites viewers into the odd world of Pekar and his comic-book antihero persona.
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Product Info
- Sales Rank: 29,531
- UPC: 026359203121
- Shipping Weight: 0.35/lbs (approx)
- International Shipping: 1 item