American Splendor

Download American Splendor
(biography, comedy, drama)
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 American culture to new flavors of jellybeans and life itself. At home, Harvey fills his days with reading, writing and listening to jazz. His apartment is filled with thousands of books and LPs, and he regularly scours Cleveland's thrift stores and garage sales for more, savoring the rare joy of a 25-cent find. It is at one of these junk sales that Harvey meets Robert Crumb, a greeting card artist and music enthusiast. When, years later, Crumb finds international success for his underground comics, the idea that comic books can be a valid art form for adults inspires Harvey to write his own brand of comic book. An admirer of naturalist writers like Theodore Dreiser, Harvey makes his American Splendor a truthful, unsentimental record of his working-class life, a warts-and-all self portrait. First published in 1976, the comic earns Harvey cult fame throughout the 1980s and eventually leads him to the sardonic Joyce Barber, a partner in a Delaware comic book store who end ups being Harvey's true soul mate as they experience the bizarre byproducts of Harvey's cult celebrity stature.

actors:

Chris Ambrose	as Superman
Joey Krajcar	as Batman
Josh Hutcherson	as Robin
Cameron Carter	as Green Lantern
Daniel Tay	as Young Harvey
Mary Faktor	as Housewife
Paul Giamatti	as Harvey Pekar
Harvey Pekar	as Real Harvey
Larry John Meyers	as Throat Doctor
Vivienne Benesch	as Lana
Barbara Brown	as Nurse
Earl Billings	as Mr. Boats
Danny Hoch	as Marty
James Urbaniak	as Robert Crumb

directors:
Shari Springer Berman
Robert Pulcini
rating:7.70

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I must confess that I was a little apprehensive about going to see this film.
I thought it would be one of those movies that are hyped the most by
critical adoration, but which are an affection of respondents
and not the great film everybody is making it.

Well, I was completely surprised by the brilliant film sampling
directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini. They have created a film
working at different levels. First, is the story of Harvey Pekar said
in cinematic terms. Secondly, by presenting the real Harvey Pekar speak
to the camera as it is interviewed, it adds another dimension on
directors vision as far as we say in their own words that
yes, there is a real person whose life we are experiencing. And thirdly,
serves as the strange comic Harvey Pekar that could have conceived in
his mind.

Harvey Pekar is an example of a strange man who lives and functions within
American society, however, for all practical purposes, is in its own little world of
collection of books and records of its writing and ironically
comment on what he sees around him. Are we going to say that they are normal and
Harry is not? What if it turns out that Harvey had every test, and that
had no clue? Let the audience decide for itself.

Principals great achievement is the brilliant casting.
Paul Giamatti is the closest thing anyone would have selected the real Harvey. So far, only
I saw Mr Giamatti in comedies that do not have the weight of
this movie. His take on Harvey is so intense that there are parts where we see the actor and
immediately, the real Harvey comes in a different scenario.
Separating them is almost impossible, as the performance of Giamatti leads to
Harvey and vice versa. He is totally credible. The
shows that what you're doing on screen is what we expect that the real Harvey to fazer in their own lives.

The other is the incredible casting of Hope Davis as Joyce Brabner. Mrs Davis
receives the essence of Joyce with very little effort. We can almost see the
Joyce Hope Davis will result in the real Joyce
we see in the interviews as herself. The resemblance is striking. Davis is exceptional
in the film. We wonder what might have attracted its Harvey,
in the first place. Of course, we realize his passion for comics, but in a physical
level, these two, as a couple, are miles and miles apart. However, his
marriage, unlike Harvey's two others before it, survives and grows.

Mrs Davis scenes with young Danielle are pure poetry. We can see it in his face
she motherhood is very important, however, can not have a child with
of their own Harvey. She is fully rewarded at the end with the arrival
Danielle which is a kind soul Joyce and a mother because his real
could not be bothered with it.

The rest of the cast is equally superb. Judah Friedlander as Toby
is both funny and pathetic. It is another product of society live in.
are also effective, James Urbaniak as the illustrator Bob Crumb he sees in
Harvey's stories the great potential of comic books.

This is a triumph for all those who took part in this movie.
It is always more difficult to write about what I like and not just love, but also
, to steal a joke from Woody Allen in Annie Hall, bread, and Luff
lerve this magnificent film. Therefore, this will be difficult.
Here goes anyway ...

Nobody can deny that possibly this is innovative in its use
the real Harvey Pekar (and those of his life) often interfere in the
fictionalised account. But this is more than a trick cigar. This
works brilliantly. Instead of distancing the viewer from the narrative
makes one feel more involved in world cinema. How dare this work? Such
-Arty farty things usually guaranteed to annoy me - but
this is nothing short of revealing in its Russian doll-like idea of
have a fiction within fiction and reality ... there is no need to be
some kind of high-film critic compared to appreciate it!

All performances are gob-smackingly good, and there is no single
time the movie bored, irritated, patronised or rings a false note
. The cast inhabit their roles just as they were born to play.
and determination not to idealize them or their situations, makes
my cynical anti-Hollywood production values heart sings with joy.

Do not, I ask you, be intimidated by the epithet "cult" that this
film has been tarred as if only an appeal to comic-book fans. No,
the appeal is universal - dealing with existential
Pekan's concerns and their quest for the meaning of his life. It is criminal in americas
Esplendor with all its wit, heart and slickness is no longer considered
or more widely known.

masterpiece.

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Download American Splendor
See also: Biography: Erin Brockovich

See also Biography Born on the Fourth of July

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