AMERICAN SPLENDOR -- Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini, dirs

©2003
studio: HBO Video
production company: Good Machine, Home Box Office (HBO)
dir: Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini
cast: Paul Giamatti, Harvey Pekar, Larry John Meyers, Vivienne Benesch, Barbara Brown, Earl Billings, Danny Hoch, James Urbaniak, Eli Ganias, Sylvia Kauders, Rebecca Borger, Nick Baxter, Allen Branstein, Dick Prochaska, Charles Eduardos, Judah Friedlander, Robert Pulcini, Toby Radloff, Bianca Santos, Maggie Moore, Hope Davis, Mike Rad, Amy K. Harmon, Joyce Brabner, Donal Logue, Molly Shannon
screenplay: Shari Springer Berman & Robert Pulcini, based on comic books by Harvey Pekar & Joyce Brabner

Based on the life and work of underground comic book writer Harvey Pekar- a prickly poet of the mundane who knows that all the strategizing in the world can't save a guy from picking the wrong supermarket checkout line. [from Amazon.com]

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An interesting film which moves in and out of biographical segments with the actual Harvey Pekar, and the actor Giamotti as Pekar. (My favorite scene is the actor Giamotti as Pekar watching another actor playing Pekar on stage -- how I would have loved to see the actual Pekar watching the filming of the scene [or perhaps writing it out for a new comic page].) The use of comic book segments and word balloons really helps to keep us in the right frame of mind as to the comic book origins of this film.

Finally a film about comics that doesn't suck!

The unfortunate aspect of this film is that it is about a real curmudgeon. Could anyone be more depressing than Pekar? It certainly doesn't leave me with good feelings or even a sense of having watched a great film.

It was good. Clever. Well filmed. Sometimes boring. And I have no strong reactions or lasting impressions.

If you're looking for something a little different and don't want to read subtitles on a foreign film, then this might be right for you.