For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

"If you're the kind of person looking for romance or escapism or some fantasy figure to save the day... guess what? You've got the wrong movie."From the very opening scene co-directors, Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini, present us with a rather unconventional film by blending a feature narrative with documentary style footage. Through voice over narration, Harvey Pekar, introduces his character played by Paul Giamatti as an ordinary man living a complex and depressing life. So while this biopic follows a traditional narrative style, it also interrupts it by showing documentary footage of the real people being portrayed in the film explaining the events that took place. The film also includes animation throughout the narrative from Pekar's underground comics, so from the opening credits the audience is introduced to a very different, but clever biopic. Paul Giamatti gives one of his best performances to date and I was glad to finally see him play a lead role. If you are a fan of his work, than by no means will you want to miss this film because his portrayal of Harvey Pekar is perfectly captured in a very natural way. There is nothing ordinary about the character Paul plays, Harvey has a very depressive and unique view on life, and the way he portrays the normal events of his life are told in a sour but hilarious way. Harvey's story alone is worth knowing, but the way the film combines the different styles in this movie make it stand above other traditional biopics.The film tells the true story of Harvey Pekar (Paul Giamatti), an ordinary man living in Cleveland and working as a filing clerk in a VA hospital. He seems to get through each depressing day thanks to his enthusiasm for music and comic books, which he collects. One day while searching for LPs at a garage sale, he meets Robert Crumb (James Urbaniak). They become friends through their passion for jazz music and comics, and eventually Crumb becomes a famous comic book author. This inspires Harvey to begin writing about his ordinary life, and through his unique and dark sense of humor he eventually begins to have some underground success. American Splendor is the title he gives to his autobiographical graphic novels which narrate the common events that take place in his life. In his work he often includes his interesting co-workers: the autistic Toby Radloff (Judah Friedlander), and the veteran Mr. Boats (Earl Billings), with whom he shares hilarious interactions. Thanks to the success of his comic he also gets to meet his future third wife, Joyce Brabner (Hope Davis), and their depressing relationship also becomes an important part of his work. These interactions about the working class and Pekar's way of telling them are the heart of this biopic.In a way American Splendor's sense of humor reminds me a lot of Seinfeld, although Pekar's vision of life is far more depressing. The blending of documentary footage and narrative feature works thanks to Giamatti's spot on performance. Having the real Harvey Pekar and the actor portraying him in the same film could have been a disaster, but Giamatti captures his mannerisms so well that it works and takes this character study to a higher level. I also thought the secondary characters in this film were all very interesting. They were all so quirky and different, but their interactions with Harvey made for some funny material. One of the scenes that stood out for me was the scene where Harvey and Toby are criticizing The Revenge of the Nerds movie. American Splendor is a very innovative and odd film and one worth checking out despite lacking some better pacing at times. Still it stands out by combining fact with fiction in a very creative and funny way.

A reluctant review for a phenomenon not truly understood. "American Splendor" is a true cinematic novelty, where documentary mixes with comic-book movie to become what in essence is a bio-pic focused on the extra-ordinary eccentric Harvey Pekar (played spot on by Paul Giamatti, but also featuring throughout as himself adequately adding commentary to his life and times) and his hipster comic novel career. Directors Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini tell the story of Pekar's rise to fame, when through his friendship with legendary Robert Crumb (James Urbaniak) he becomes the author of a cult comic book, famed across the country. Unable to draw Pekar uses stick figures to write down stories from his weird and wonderful life, then with the aide of true artists delivering the revered "American Splendor" comic strip.Immensely challenging from a cinematographic standpoint Berman and Pulcini achieve a perfect balance between the layers, thus supplying an entertaining off-beat movie, but one that seems best directed to American audiences. Harvey Pekar is peculiarly quirky, while his comics so engraved in American popular art, that it seems best appreciated by people part of this odd every-day reality. Naturally Harvey Pekar is on the verge of socially accepted normalcy, but that is exactly the perception that was challenged and so admired.In hindsight a pretty entertaining watch with some veritable social poignancy, but ultimately one that honestly has to be digested at 'home', not by audiences detached from the reality in which it takes place, as little effort is truly placed in having the movie permeate with the feeling of the time.

Never having heard of Harvey Pekar or the American Splendor comics, I had no idea what to expect, especially since the DVD cover makes it sound like some sort of romcom. Instead what you get is a very edgy yet polished, medium-bending presentation every bit as revolutionary as the original comic books were.What I mean by "medium-bending" is that the storytelling medium (mostly biopic cinema) slips from film to documentary archival footage to comic book images seamlessly. We begin with a series of comic book panels, this morphs into Paul Giamatti as Harvey Pekar, then to the real Harvey as himself being interviewed about the movie, then back to Paul playing the role, more comic book panels, then footage of the real Harvey on the Letterman show, and so on. If it sounds confusing, it's not. Especially when you realize that the original American Splendor comics were drawn by several different illustrators each with their own style, you realize that this disjoint way of storytelling captures the spirit of the comics perfectly. A+ for creativity and originality; it reminded me of the excellent film "Tristram Shandy: A Cock & Bull Story" with Steve Coogan playing himself while also playing the 18th century nobleman Tristram, hopping back & forth from one reality to the other.The story itself and particularly the characters were quirky but nothing out of the ordinary... and that's the point of the whole comic series. It's not about superheroes or talking cats but instead it's about an ordinary file clerk in Cleveland. His "adventures" are the day-to- day things that happen in his life, some days eventful, other days not so.As such, the plot is about as interesting as any average joe's life. The beauty of the film is seeing how an ordinary life can be creatively and stylishly told, just like in the comic books.I can't think of many films I could compare this to. Maybe the musical biopic "De-Lovely" about composer Cole Porter, or the equally challenging musical biopic "Beyond the Sea" starring Kevin Spacey as singer Bobby Darin. All of these are biopic films that brazenly challenge the standard method of storytelling, jumping between different realities and telling stories about people who are not necessarily heroic, or even likable. But that's what reality is all about, warts & all.

I had wanted to read a couple of autobiographical graphic novels like Perseipolis , Fun Home and the like. So I decided to check out American Splendor. Through the novel I found the movie and I read many reviews praising it so I decided to check it out . The main difference between the series and movie is that while the series is pretty funny the movie is poignant and a bit sad.Maybe it is the music or maybe it's the people or both. Harvey Pekar lives a sad life. He works at a dead job because his comics do not make money. He lived quite a part of his life in gut wrenching loneliness and there is nothing good happening to him.Harvey Pekar died this year in early July. I actually felt very sad without having known him . Maybe because this was a real human being. He wasn't pretending to be anyone else. He was trying to reach out to people like him who are struggling in life. And that is what the movie does. Harvey Pekar narrates and Paul Giammati plays the role. One thing has always come to my mind when I see Paul act. He is not that great looking but incredibly talented. This helps him get unconventional roles like this one or American Splendor. In that way he is actually luckier than Tom Cruise who will never get unconventional roles because of his looks.These are fractured souls. They can barely make sense of the society or the environment they live in yet they struggle and soldier on. In that sense it might be actually called a feel good movie.American Splendour is a great movie. Maybe when I am older a lot of things in the movie will seem clearer and more relatable but even now it seems like a great movie that I might have to see a couple of times.