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Movie Overview
Cast
• Paul Giamatti
• Hope Davis
• Judah Friedlander
Director
• Shari Springer Berman
• Robert Pulcini
MPAA Rating
R - language
American Splendor (2003)

REVIEWS
NEWS
INTERVIEWS OTHER
OFCS Rating: 88% Fresh
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7/10
"wonderfully quirky biopic about an ordinary, real guy who is not really ordinary or real at all"  Movie Gazette  Anton Bitel

"Paul Giamatti seems to crawl into Harvey Pekar's skin. While not resembling Pekar physically, he's got that curmudgeonly attitude down pat."  ReelTalk Movie Reviews  Betty Jo Tucker

6/10
"While the picture is a superior depiction of the fractured mind at play, it doesn’t successfully capture the nature of Harvey Pekar the way his comics have done for him all these years."  Modamag.com  Brian Orndorf

B+
"a remarkable amalgamation of the real and the fictionalized"  AboutFilm.com  Carlo Cavagna

4/5
"If you're looking to feel good about your own miserable life, well, this is the movie to see."  Filmcritic.com  Christopher Null

"For a dour, cynical guy, he does okay: even this corniness works out, because his primary mirror is the undefeatable Joyce by way of Hope Davis."  Nitrate Online  Cynthia Fuchs

3/4
"Spendid!"  Movie Boeuf  David N. Butterworth

A-
"I found both Harvey Pekar and the film to be the genuine article."  Ozus' World Movie Reviews  Dennis Schwartz

6/10
"American Splendor, despite being interesting and likeable, is a film that could be truly enjoyed only by the fans of Harvey Pekar's work"  Draxblog Movie Reviews  Dragan Antulov

A+
"One of the most uniquely inventive cinematic experiences of the decade thus far."  FilmJerk.com  Edward Havens

A-
"It won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, and it's not hard to see why."  EricDSnider.com  Eric D. Snider

B+
"So many biopics tell us what we already know, or can guess from the trailer. American Splendor is no heartbreaker and no masterpiece, but it's different."  Film Blather  Eugene Novikov

3.5/4
"...has surprisingly captured the eccentric spunkiness of the pioneering Pekar...American Splendor is weirdly captivating in its offbeat intimacy."  Movie Eye  Frank Ochieng

A
"A weird and wonderful little masterpiece, an oddball classic."  One Guy's Opinion  Frank Swietek

"American Splendor recounts the truly remarkable real life story of a Cleveland V.A. hospital clerk who dared to follow his bliss and wound up as a comic book writer with his own little niche."  Spirituality and Practice  Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat

3.5/4
"I wish more of the comic book-inspired movies were like this."  ReelViews  James Berardinelli

4/5
"Quirky, off-kilter look at the life and work of cult-comics author Harvey Pekar is a snappy tale of low culture and pop art."  Netflix  James Rocchi

3.5/5
"It gets the mood right, but never slows enough to explore its rich, existential landscape--the cynical, ultimately humanist, musings at the heart of Pekar's comic manifestos."  Los Angeles Alternative  Jay Antani

8/10
"Un film assez lent, mais au récit tout de même fort bien construit"  Panorama  Jean-François Vandeuren

3.5/4
"A snap-happy synthesis of art and reality that is one of the year’s most engaging watches."  Palo Alto Weekly  Jeanne Aufmuth

10/10
"Makes a good case for the constructiveness of working out the questions, issues, and problems one faces in life through the output of art."  Window to the Movies  Jeffrey Chen

44/100
"Casting itself at first as an antidote to the overly sentimental strains of Hollywood melodrama, it succumbs to formula and a facile treatment of its hero's fight with cancer."  MovieMartyr.com  Jeremy Heilman

6.5/10
"'Flawed but never dull and with good performances as well as a welcomed imaginative flair.'"  Screen It!  Jim Judy

6/10
"I was personally a little bored with this film, and didn't exactly get into this guy's life or so-called witty quips about every day life."  JoBlo's Movie Emporium  JoBlo

"The filmmakers have done a remarkable job of integrating the profusion of elements that come into this story and make the movie unique."  In the Dark  Jonathan F. Richards

2.5
"I expected more from a movie that took home gold in Cannes and wowed ‘em at Sundance."  Bangitout.com  Jordan Hiller

5/5
"It's a self-reflexive paean to a self-reflexive peon who happened to turn lemonade into lemons and rocked the indie comic world."  Cinerina  Karina Montgomery

3/4
"Amusing almost as often as it is depressing."  Montreal Film Journal  Kevin N. Laforest

B+
"The real surprise of the film...is Hope Davis, who is utterly hilarious in her blank faced seriousness of purpose"  Reeling Reviews  Laura Clifford

3/5
"Pekar's autobiographical chronicle of day-to-day banality is a rich, if dingy, tapestry of ordinary life in all its infinite, homely peculiarity, which filmmakers Sheri Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini bring to uniquely eccentric life."  TV Guide's Movie Guide  Maitland McDonagh

3.5/4
"A soup can is just a soup can until you hang it on a wall in an art gallery."  Movie Habit  Marty Mapes

"Paul Giamatti, with a stunning leading-man confidence and sincerity... turns a sad-sack depressive into the unlikeliest champion of the mundane."  Flick Filosopher  MaryAnn Johanson

4/4
"American Splendor is one of the best cinematic depictions of an artist and his work that I ever recall seeing."  Aisle Seat  Mike McGranaghan

A
"He may be reliably disappointed in himself, but the honesty of his take on himself and his life is, ultimately, quite beautiful."  Movie Mom at Yahoo! Movies  Nell Minow

2/4
"An act of unabashed postmodern self-commentary employed to deliberately blur the distinction between the authentic Harvey Pekar and actor Paul Giamatti’s faithful recreation."  Slant Magazine  Nick Schager

5/5
"Um filme auto-referencial e com várias camadas de realidade e ficção que se entrecruzam de maneira inteligente e dinâmica."  Cinema em Cena  Pablo Villaca

"A film so compelling and strange and funny...that even a legendary grouch like Harvey Pekar himself would be won over by it."  Critic Doctor  Peter Sobczynski

"A film so compelling and strange and funny...that even a legendary grouch like Harvey Pekar himself would be won over by it."  Critic Doctor  Peter Sobczynski

5/5
"Cleverly and joyfully blurs the lines of real life with various dramatised versions of it."  Shadows on the Wall  Rich Cline

5/5
"The movie is as unclassifiable as the comic -- neither documentary nor biopic, or maybe both."  eFilmCritic.com  Rob Gonsalves

A
"A one-of-a-kind wake-up call that begins and ends with Harvey Pekar. Without him, there is no movie; with him, there's a movie you can't resist."  Flipside Movie Emporium  Rob Vaux

A
"An unconventional movie in just about every sense of the word."  Laramie Movie Scope  Robert Roten

B+
"American Splendor could have been better if it didn't try to be too many things and gave the stars more screen time and the real Harvey a lot less."  Reeling Reviews  Robin Clifford

A-
"In the world of comic-book movies, American Splendor is the real deal, the warts-and-all adventures of the most unlikely hero on the comic stands."  Seattle Post-Intelligencer  Sean Axmaker

A-
"A blast of originality, an oddly poignant and viciously entertaining glance into the conflicted mind of a genius."  Eclipse Magazine  Sean O'Connell

7/10
"Amid the fact and fiction, Paul Giamatti delivers a tour-de-force performance, finding humor and humanity in one of life's real losers, as does Hope Davis."  www.susangranger.com  Susan Granger

1.5/4
"The problem with post-modernism is that the end of post-modernism is the destruction of the scrutinized."  Film Freak Central  Walter Chaw

"Click here to see review"  Wolf Entertainment Guide  William Wolf

4/4
Read review  Big Picture Big Sound  Joe Lozito

Read review  Cinema Crazed  Felix Vasquez Jr.
OFCS Rating: 88% Fresh
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