American Splendor
|
List Price: Our Price: $1.74 You Save: $8.23 (83%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.23 (click here) Category: DVD See more DVD releases |
|---|
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
Movie Reviews of American Splendor
Movie Review: The Tenuous Life of an American Anti-Hero
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved this movie. The actors just couldn't have been any more brilliant. Another critic wrote that Mr. Pekar's personality was not worth making a film about. That person also wrote that they had no empathy for Harvey regarding his illness. You attack a person because you don't like the way their cancer is portrayed on film? You've got to be kidding. Those scenes were heart-wrenching. I lost my best friend of 27 years and another friend of 5 years recently to cancer, and was married to a man who had prostrate cancer at 18 and lived a semi-crippled life physically and socially because of it, so get off that soapbox. This film is not for the shallow viewer, obviously. But that makes sense, because it is not mainstream, and that is the whole point.I had heard of Harvey on and off over the years. I was never into the underground comics - found them too vile for my taste, yet, they are a part of our total national culture and are an excellent illustration of yet another part of society that the mainstream wishes didn't exist. That is the reason the film needed to be made. Hats off to the producers. One has to use one's mind while watching this film, which may be a strain for some creatures who are happy to be fed the cinematic schlock the rest of the cattle are eating. Not me, thanks. I won't have what they are having.
It was clear to me from the first scene where little Harvey doesn't have a Halloween costume, that something might have not been right in his home growing up. Perhaps little Harvey was not popular at school, therefore was left out of the conversations kids have about what they will wear, or perhaps he just didn't understand the concept of Halloween (it is possible)and was unable to find 'fun' in dressing up in costume. He even says "Hey lady, I'm just a kid from the neighborhood" after she gives him the third degree about what where his costume isn't. He just wanted candy like everyone else, but wasn't 'part of' the "Halloween" mindset. Like baboons, humans are social creatures and whoa to the little baboon who doesn't fit in. This is Harvey's personal pathos. Any chimp should be able to see that.
This is my take on Harvey: he is no dope. He is an avid reader and devotee of complex jazz. He does not hold back his thoughts, which many people find irritating, but all he does is parrot reality back to the rest of us. Apparently not everyone likes truth.
Harvey's insistance on being honest, as seen in the Letterman show debacle,(which I remember watching on TV), kept him on the outside fringes of mainstream society. His gift is the ability to simplify complex life problems and convey them in his cartoon text.
This is not a case of "Being There" (the film). This is Harvey the reductionist, boiling down his observations of everyday life into simple digestible statements. That is his strength. He is not a visual artist. He needed the assistance of artists to illustrate the pathos he observed, and the combination worked.
I was in tears at the end of the film, as he hugs his wife after the surprise retirement cake party, because it was very clear to me that he has felt disconnected from other people for most of his life. He is honest with his film audience when he states that he made the flick for some extra 'change' to help him thru his retirement. He lets us know that there is no "happy ending". It doesn't get more honest than that. Does Hollywood come out and tell you to see a movie so they can afford to fly their private jets to their private vacation islands in the south Pacific? I think not. Hollywood folks always talk about their 'art' - that it is all that matters. Give me a break. Art is art, rich or poor. One needs to remember that Harvey had just been knocked out by cancer and retired from what was certainly not a high-paying job, and had a teenage daughter and wife to support, remember?
No, this is not the story of a whining, boring person. This is a story of a real antihero, and is a story the rest of us should pay attention to. Harvey's commentary in his comics, and the film, rip apart the mass-consumption-throw-away mentality of america by offering a realistic glimpse of the actual tenuousness of our fabricated, made-for-tv lives.
Rock on Harvey, wherever you are.
Movie Review: THE ALL-TIME AMERICAN UNDERDOG
Summary: 5 Stars
PAUL GIAMATTI STARS AS THE OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE HARVEY PEKAR, A WORKING CLASS HERO WHO BECAME A NATIONAL SENSATION DURING THE 80'S WITH HIS REALISTIC CARTOONS DEPICTING HIS OWN DAILY ROUTINE.
BY: Fernando de Mello Pimentel
From the streets of Cleveland, OH, emerged the legend of "AMERICAN SPLENDOR", a comic book which faithfully depicted the ups and downs of a man who represented an entire generation of blue-collar workers in an America increasingly dominated by the yuppie ideology of the 80's. Our hero was a former V.A Hospital file clerk named "Harvey Pekar", a middle aged, self-loathing character who suffered from intense depressive compulsions which would constantly keep him in a state of intense negativity. Everything, from his attitudes to his dressing code, would illustrate his total lack of self-esteem. Such careless conditions would lead Harvey to undergo two failed relationships, which would end up taking a severe toll on his personal life.
As of the second rejection, Harvey starts looking at life with different eyes. It's when he has an epiphany and decides that he will make the most out of the ordinary. Tired of the childish thematics of super-hero and animal cartoons, he decides to create a comic book in which the main character is no one but himself. He then starts to narrate his own real life experiences through his stories, using the cartoon media as his vehicle. Illustrations are crafted by underground comic artists such as the legendary Robert Crumb, a personal friend of Harvey's which he met back in the early 60's in Cleveland. Everything which happens to Harvey's life has the potential to become comic book material.
As soon as the comic books hit the street they become a major sensation, and do a great deal to help Pekar's personal life. Through his own gloomy vision of the world which sorrounded him, Pekar was able to generate a very refined form of dark humor which conquered a series of fans throughout the nation. One of these fans ended up becoming his loving wife, Joyce Brabner.
On the screen, faithfully portraying Pekar, is Paul Giamatti. His impersonation is so near perfection, that even when Pekar himself appears in the movie it is quite hard to tell who is who. Giamatti's acting is superb. He fills Pekar's shoes with no difficulty and feels quite comfortable in them. Giamatti demonstrates great easiness in playing the self-loathing, all-time loser type. Similarities between his character "Miles" from "SIDEWAYS" and "Harvey Pekar" are quite obvious. Both share these common personality traits, which Giamatti so authentically delivers through his acting. In a supporting role is actress Hope Davis, playing Harvey's wife, Joyce. Both Paul Giamatti and Hope Davis, in addition to their phenomenal acting skills, are aslo very noticeable for their physical similarities to the original Harvey Pekar and Joyce Brabner.
Another strong point which comes to the aid of this motion picture is its cartoon-like form of narrative with shots which very much resemble a comic book. Boxes and dialogue balloons are carefully inserted in certain moments through-out the movie as to enhance the look and feel of this cartoon-driven plot. Animated drawings of Harvey himself interact with Paul Giamatti's character, a graphic resource which adds much credibility and interest to the picture as a whole.
With an interesting solid plot and grandiose acting by Paul Giamatti, "AMERICAN SPLENDOR" is destined to become a cult classic. It is one of those movies which so brilliantly deals with the weaknesses of human character and the possibilities of turn-arounds in life. Finally, it also explores a genre which many times can become dull by the exaggerations and misconducts which are so common when exploring biographies. In this case, the theme was sharply conducted by director Robert Pulcini, who did a great job in leveling the characters' virtues and limitations without letting one overshadow the other.
***** A CULT CLASSIC !!!!
All Rights Reserved - 2007 FPimentel Poems & Publishing Co.
Movie Review: A splendid film about the transfiguration of everyday life
Summary: 5 Stars
I have to admit with some shame that prior to this movie, I did not know who Harvey Pekar was. But that did not in the least limit my ability to enjoy this movie, which was one of the most interesting that I have seen in a long time. The theme of the movie as a whole is brilliantly summed up in the first few seconds of the film. Several boys go up to a house on Halloween, all of them costumed as Super Heroes except for one boy, who is dressed up merely as himself: Harvey Pekar. The movie as a whole is about Pekar's attempt to tell his own mundane, dull, and disappointing life in a comic book. Instead of a comic book about super heroes, he envisioned a comic book about himself, a file clerk at the Veterans Hospital in Cleveland. The movie tells the story of Pekar's life in varying degree of details, highlighting his meeting R. Crumb in the 1960s and Crumb's inspiring him to start a comic, despite his inability to draw. By taking incidents from his own life, involving his friends and colleagues, designing the frames of the comics, and then hiring artists to illustrate his stories (many by Crumb himself), Pekar manages to create something unique, funny, and, in its own strange way, triumphant and beautiful. The film implies that we can all be the heroes of our own story.
Not much happens in the film, but it manages to be riveting despite this. The big events in the narrative are Pekar's meeting R. Crumb, his decision to write his own comic, meeting his wife, a series of guest appearances in the late 1980s on the Dave Letterman Show, and his bout with cancer. Throughout this, there is no attempt to make Pekar look better than he is. He is depicted as physically unattractive, a bit weird, a chronic underachiever, more than a little neurotic, and extremely self-absorbed. But despite all this, there is an honesty in looking at his life and depicting it pretty much as it is, warts and all. The way he deals with everything with an indefatigable sense of humor and his determination to do something to give his life a focus and a purpose is heroic in a very real and concrete way, as opposed to the fake, fictional heroism of Superman, Batman, or the Green Lantern.
It would be difficult to overpraise Paul Giamatti in playing Harvey Pekar or Hope Davis in playing Joyce Brabner, the woman who marries Pekar. Both the real Pekar and the real Brabner appear on camera as well, as do most of the real life models for Pekar's characters. In fact, the way the movie narrative flows seamlessly between real life individuals, to actors, to comic book depictions is one of the strong points of the film. In one scene, the Paul Giamatti playing Pekar and Judah Friedlander playing Pekar's friend (and minor MTV celebrity) Toby Radloff are onscreen while the real Harvey Pekar and Toby Radloff have a conversation. In another part of the film, Hope Davis and Paul Giamatti are supposedly backstage at the Dave Letterman show, but when Giamatti as Pekar exits to go onstage with Letterman, it cuts to footage of the real Pekar being interviewed by Letterman. I was reminded of the famous Margritte painting, where he has a painting of a pipe with the words "This is not a pipe" underneath. By moving from the real Pekar to an actor playing him, it is a way of saying "This is not Harvey Pekar" whenever Giamatti is onscreen. Moreover, it intimates that Giamatti is a cinematic equivalent of the various Pekars drawn in the comic books.
This is a great movie, and one that I hope gets the attention that it deserves. It is very different than the movie CRUMB, but I imagine that it will especially appeal to those who enjoyed that strange but fascinating documentary.
Movie Review: Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff.
Summary: 5 Stars
Being familiar with Harvey Pekar's comic book American Splendor, I was really pleased to see the movie was about as close to the source material as any other movie I've ever seen. I haven't had an opportunity to read Our Cancer Year, a graphic novel by Harvey and his wife Joyce about Harvey's bout with cancer, but that storyline is also incorporated into this movie.
Harvey Pekar, played by Paul Giamatti, leads an ordinary life in the city of Cleveland, working as a file clerk in a VA hospital, divorced twice, scours garage sales and thrift stores for rare Jazz records, is thoroughly well read, and observes the people in his life and his surroundings fairly closely, taking it all in, good and bad. Harvey does tend to a rather morose individual; so don't come into this movie looking for tales of happiness and joy. A chance meeting with a greeting card artist and future underground comic legend Robert Crumb develops in to a long-standing friendship through their similar interests. Once Crumb becomes famous for his unusual style of comic books, Harvey decides he wants to try his hand at it, creating, with the help of Crumb's illustrations, stories about his life titled American Splendor. No superheroes here, but more of a realistic portrayal of his own life, warts and all. Soon he develops cult fame, and meets his future wife, Joyce, a comic book storeowner from Delaware. Harvey's fame manifests itself in a sort of bizarre fashion, leading to a number of appearances on David Letterman's late night talk show, and even trickles down to people he knows and includes in his book, specifically his ultra nerdy co-worker and friend Toby Radloff, played wonderfully by Judah Friedlander.
One of the things I really enjoyed about this movie was the inclusion of the real Harvey Pekar and other people in his life, such as his wife, Joyce, and his very odd friend, Toby Radloff. Harvey does some narration, and appears in a few scenes with other, real life people, who are portrayed by actors in the movie, in scenes between the scenes, if that makes sense. It allows for a comparison between the actors playing the characters and the real life people those characters are based on. It sounds like it would be a little disjointed, but directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini pull it off wonderfully. What was most interesting to me was how much Paul Giamatti got into the character of Harvey, from physical appearance, speech, dress, attitude, and even mannerisms. Sometimes I wasn't sure if I was watching Paul Giamatti's Harvey Pekar or the real Harvey Pekar. One of my favorite scenes is one where Harvey discusses the peculiarity of his name, and how odd it was that he found a couple of other people in the phonebook who shared his name.
Presented in a wide screen format, the movie looks great. Also included are a plethora of extras, including a reprint of a comic insert Harvey Pekar created for Entertainment Weekly, a group commentary including the real Harvey Pekar, a featurette, and a few hidden items that aren't too hard to find. (The one with the real Toby Radloff is great.)
Cookieman108
Movie Review: An offbeat movie about an offbeat kind of man
Summary: 5 Stars
This is really a great film about Harvey Pekar, the underground comic book writer who created the comic book series "American Splendor". I'm surprised this movie hasn't garnered more critical attention than it has. The movie basically takes you from the end of Harvey's second marriage up to the point of his retirement as a file clerk. Pekar is living a life of quiet desperation - everything in his life is generic. The film lends a dingy quality to Pekar's surroundings that really gives it that "garage sale" look right down to the light fixtures in his apartment. Even the supermarkets and restaurants Harvey frequent make K-mart look classy. Unlike his friends and coworkers though, he is painfully aware of the reality of his life. He has a moment of clarity one day while waiting in line at the grocery store behind a woman who is arguing over why she should pay 1.50 for six glasses that are marked two dollars, when he thinks of a way to strike out at all of this - he decides to document his feelings in a comic. Unfortunately, Harvey can't draw. He comes up with the narrative, but is only able to show stick figures as the actual characters in the drawings. Harvey's big break is that he has become friends with underground comic Robert Crumb before Crumb was famous and the two were just a couple of "ordinary" guys looking for bargains at Cleveland rummage sales. Crumb is impressed with the statement Harvey is trying to make and agrees to do the illustrations, thus the comic "American Splendor" is born.
To me, the best part of this movie is the love story between Harvey and his third wife Joyce. These two people are just weird enough to make it work. What makes it work is that they have staked out their own individual claims to different enough territories in the land of weird that their respective neuroses don't bump into one another too badly, as had happened in Harvey's past marriages. Harvey is a man who has very un-mundane statements to make about his mundane world, but doesn't have any real illusions about changing it. Joyce is a self-diagnosed depressed anemic who has memorized the DSM 3 and is therefore happy to diagnose people with personality disorders and then pretty much takes them as she finds them, in spite of her claims of being a reformer. Because neither one wants to change the other, the relationship works.
The film is really cleverly done, with comic book illustrations showing what Pekar is thinking in various situations along with narration and a couple of interviews with the actual Pekar and his wife interspersed throughout the film giving it a real feeling of authenticity. Paul Giamatti is simply marvelous as the caustic "warts and more" Harvey Pekar. How often do you see an actor share the screen with the person he is playing, as happens in this film, and not even notice a blip in continuity? His performance is that good. Giamatti certainly deserves better than playing supporting roles in films like "Big Fat Liar". Kudos also to James Urbaniak for his small role as artist and illustrator Robert Crumb. For the small amount of time he is on the screen he really captures the essence of the guy.