| American Splendor Review |
| by Dragan Antulov (Rating: 6/10) |
| Thanks to Hollywood, when people today hear of comic books they imagine
larger-than-life superheroes whose spectacular adventures can't be
adequately reconstructed on screen without hundreds of millions of
dollars spent on CGI effects. AMERICAN SPLENDOR,...more |
| American Splendor Review |
| by David N. Butterworth (Rating: 3/4) |
| Breakthrough filmmakers Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini's
"American
Splendor" chronicles the life and times of Harvey Pekar, a downbeat, dogged
Everyman (played to downbeat, dogged perfection by Paul Giamatti) who teamed
up with illustrator...more |
| American Splendor Review |
| by Shannon Patrick Sullivan (Rating: 3.5/4) |
| Directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini. Screenplay by Berman
and Pulcini, based on the comic book series "American Splendor" by Harvey
Pekar and the comic book series "Our Cancer Year" by Pekar and Joyce
Brabner. Starring Paul Giamatti,...more |
| American Splendor Review |
| by Harvey S. Karten (Rating: A-) |
| Cast: Paul Giamatti, Hope Davis, Harvey Pekar, Shari Springer Berman, Earl
Billings, James Urbaniak, Judah Friedlander, Robert Pulcini, Toby Radloff,
Joyce Brabner, Donal Logue, Molly Shannon, James McCaffrey, Madylin Sweeten,
Danielle Batone more |
| American Splendor Review |
| by Richard A. Zwelling (Rating: 3/4) |
| If I had to pick one word to describe the biopic of real-life comic
book star Harvey Pekar, it would be "ultra-realistic". I say this
despite the film's many ventures into hyperbolic narrative techniques
indicative of comic books. This is the story of...more |
| American Splendor Review |
| by Karina Montgomery (Rating: 5/5) |
| American Splendor is, like its subject, a rulebreaking genrebuster
about an ordinary man. Harvey Pekar (author of the graphic novel
from where the film takes its name) is a dead end worker, a
bent-backed curmdgeon, who writes about the petty...more |
| American Splendor Review |
| by Jonathan F. Richards |
| There is precious little in Harvey's relentlessly ordinary life as a file
clerk in a V.A. hospital to cheer him up. But he has managed to accomplish
something bigger than his poor existence. Harvey is the creator of American
Splendor comics, an...more |
| American Splendor Review |
| by Steve Rhodes (Rating: 2.5/4) |
| There's a lot to admire in the innovative cinematic construction of AMERICAN
SPLENDOR but not much to like unless you're a fan of the autobiographical
comics on which it is based. Harvey Pekar, whose mundane life is chronicled in
his "American Splendor"...more |
| American Splendor Review |
| by Susan Granger (Rating: 7/10) |
| Susan Granger's review of "American Splendor" (HBO Films/Fine Line Features)
Awarded the top prize at Sundance this year, this is the dramatized
true-life story of Harvey Pekar, a Veterans Administration Hospital file clerk
in Cleveland who,...more |
| American Splendor Review |
| by Homer Yen (Rating: B) |
| Harvey Pikar is not a happy person. His
existence is a drab, never-ending series of
disappointments, unfulfilled yearnings, and a
general affront to his sanity. Sometimes it
looks as if he wants to just lay down and die.
Sometimes, he appears to want...more |
| American Splendor Review |
| by Robin Clifford (Rating: B+) |
| In 1976 Cleveland native and Veterans Administration
file clerk Harvey Pekar conceived a unique idea -
create a comic book not about super heroes and
monsters from outer space but about the average
schmuck in a working class world. To Harvey's
surprise,...more |
| American Splendor Review |
| by Louis Proyect |
| Last night I saw "American Splendor", the much heralded semi-documentary
feature on Harvey Pekar, the Cleveland file clerk who turned his life
into a comic book. It is a fine movie that is true to the vision of the
artist himself, who rejects all the...more |
| American Splendor Review |
| by Jon Popick (Rating: 9/10) |
| Even though comic book movies are all the rage right now, it will take a
special kind of viewer to appreciate American Splendor. It's part
documentary and part biopic, part live action and part animation. It's much
more akin to Crumb and Ghost World...more |
| American Splendor Review |
| by Laura Clifford (Rating: B+) |
| When a depressed Cleveland VA Hospital clerk drops papers from the 'deceased'
folders he was about to file, he sees paperwork for a man who was born in
Cleveland, worked as a file clerk, and died in Cleveland. This small event,
combined with having seen...more |
