Stars: Paul Giamatti, Hope Davis, Chris Ambrose

Director: Shari Springer Berman

Summary: Harvey is a file clerk at the local hospital and a music enthusiast in his spare time. He has thousands of books and LPs and scours the markets for additions to his collection. At one of these sales he meets a fellow enthusiast who years later is to find success in underground comics. Years later Harvey is inspired to do the same...

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 workmate Toby also appear on set as themselves--while crafting a funny, difficult, heartwarming tale that encapsulates Pekar's life, work, and uniquely bizarre perspectives.
Peckar 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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One of the most acclaimed films of 2003, American Splendoris also one of the most audaciously creative biographical movies ever made. Blending fact, fiction and personal perspective from the comic books that inspired it, this marvellous portrait of Harvey Pekar--scowling curmudgeon, brow-beaten everyman, insightful chronicler of his own life, and frustrated file clerk at a Cleveland VA hospital--is an inspired amalgam of the media (comic books, TV, and film) that lifted Pekar from obscurity to the status of a pop-cultural icon. As played by Paul Giamatti in a master-stroke of casting, we see Pekar and his understanding wife (played by Hope Davis) as underdogs in a world full of obstacles, yet also infused with subtle hope and (gasp) heartwarming perseverance. We also see the real Pekar and this multi-faceted commingling of "reel" and "real" turns American Splendorinto a uniquely cinematic celebration of Pekar's life and, by extension, the tenacity of an unlikely American hero. --Jeff Shannon

Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Introduction by Harvey Pekar, Commentary - 1. Harvey Pekar, Featurette - 1. HARVEY MEETS THE BBC COLLECTIVE: Interview with Harvey Pekar, 2. SUNDANCE CHANNEL'S ROAD TO SPLENDOR, 3. BEHIND-THE-SCENES: characterisation, Trailers
Year:	2003
Release Date:	May 24, 2004
Runtime:	97 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	O P T D 0063
Keywords:	American, General, Drama, Splendor
Genre:	Drama