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DVD American Splendor
One of the most acclaimed films of 2003, American Splendor is 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 marvelous portrait of Harvey Pekar--scowling curmudgeon, brow-beaten everyman, insightful chronicler of his own life, and frustrated file clerk at a Cleveland V.A. 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 multifaceted commingling of "reel" and "real" turns American Splendor into a uniquely cinematic celebration of Pekar's life and, by extension, the tenacity of an unlikely American hero. --Jeff Shannon
First, I'd like to point out the fact that I hate hype. If I hear critics saying "it changed my life" then I will care even less about a movie. In fact, if someone tells me a movie will make me feel something, I'll try my hardest to NOT feel that.
Second, Shari Springer Berman and Rob Pulcini get top props for
actually achieving everything people were saying they had. It was oscar nominated and 25 more wins and 21 nominations at other festivals and organizations.
This movie did make me laugh, cry and think. It made me realize I'm just the same as the main characters: I have funny lines, but tradegy is waiting just a half an act away.
American Splendor is the (basically) true story of Harvey Pekar. A simple file clerk at a VA hospital, his second marriage going poorly, and the poor sap is losing his voice, from a hole in his vocal cords. This guy can't catch a break: after he gets home from the doctors, his wife leaves him. He's depressed, with no where to go.
Flashback a couple years, where Harvey is at a garage sale, feeding one of his habits: vinyl record collecting. He's with some friends, when they introduce him to a strange looking guy named Rob Crumb. He's a bookish type, who is also into jazz records, and comic books so they hit it off. Rob, however doesn't just like comics however, he has started to draw them.
Back to Harvey's divorce, Crumb is now famous on the underground comics scene, and Harvey realizes he's done nothing with his life. After a hilarious scene in a a grocery store, Harvey thinks 'I'll just write a comic about the stuff in my life.'
This movie used a couple things to get a four star rating: innovation, heart, and of course, the disc itself.
The innovation, in the sense that the people the actors are portraying take part in interviews, they are there in stock footage, and Harvey even narrates over Paul Giammati's acting out his life. This was a great idea, because you feel 'wow, harvey was real, his life did suck, his wife joyce was crazy, etc.' You don't see a lot of biopics where the actors are actually being 'directed' by the people that lived it.
It's got heart, as I said, because of it's bold faced truth, and simplicity. The film makers captured so much feeling...
And finally, the disc. Picture quality is pretty good, even in the scenes shot in beta. There isn't much grain, and the colors are dulled on pupose. None of this hinders viewing. The sound however, is standard, as the music is about the same volume as the voices, and sometimes I had trouble hearing something that was important.
Special features are everywhere! There's so many, they had to hide some. For a one disc set, and not even a 'special-perfect-collectors-criterion' or anything.
The commentary is awesome. We have Harvey Pekar, his wife, Joyce Brabner, his best friend (and funniest character) Toby Radloff, their daughter Danielle Batone, Paul Giamatti who plays Harvey, the directors, and eventual Judah Friedlander (who I recognized from I love the 80's.... shudder). They cover everything from cameos, anachronisms, film techniques, and the real life truths versus some of the film's fudged writing.
We also get a featurette about the Pekars, and their life after the movie. A comic, some hilarious easter eggs, and the common trailers and dvd rom links. A good movie that deserved some credit, about a guy who never got enough.
The agony and the ecstasy
This is the movie biography of the cartoonist Harvey Pekar who literally turned suffering into in art form.
Pekar is a lovable curmudgeon who always seems to see impending doom on the horizon and a cloud in every silver lining yet we cannot help but find Harvey Pekar to be a really lovable guy.
He lives in an apartment in Cleveland that he never seems to clean with his prized collection of Jazz records.
Pekar's cartoons have had a cult following for a while and take the form of autobiography, an autobiography of a common man, an "everyman", and the annoyances of everyday modern life which he encounters. The comics are done in somewhat of a tongue-in-cheek, insightful and some times a sarcastic style of humor that elevates the boredom and misery of life to an almost mystical perspective.
The film takes us from his youth, his friendship with R. Crumb, his love of old Jazz, the relationship with his wife, his day job as a filing clerk at the local hospital VA and the nuts and bolts of his work as an underground cartoonist where Harvey where we see him writing the dialogue and drawing stick figures that are later elaborated on by various artists (including Crumb). Also followed in this movie is his sudden success when he is "discovered" , his bout with cancer and the adoption of their daughter.
It gives a character sketch of someone to whom life has not exactly been kind but we also get the feeling that Pekar has done a good job sabotaging himself all along the way. You might actually find yourself asking yourself why Pekar sabotages himself as he does and the answer, if this is a true portrayal of the man, might be because he suffers from too much integrity.
The movie is done in a very creative style with Paul Giamatti playing Pekar through out the movie with Pekar himself showing up in and out of the movie in interviews on the set and film clips of his appearances on the Leterman show as well as some animation and of course close ups of some of the cells of Harvey's comics.
The casting of Giamatti was perfect and the actor pulls off the portrayal of Pekar supurbly and with ease.
The portrayal of the blossoming relationship with his wife is particularly touching and is quite sentimental for a guy who seems to take pride in being anything but sentimental.
Pekar finally being recognized as a social critic and artist of merit is taken as a mixed blessing by Harvey in true Pekar fashion and yet Harvey is seen as being pulled dragging and kicking through the hype.
Whether or not this indeed a true portrayal of the man the Harvey Pekar of this movie come across as being a many of integrity.
His struggle with cancer is told with honesty and in it we see our anti-hero as someone who is quite heroic.
A very entertaining movie about a real character.
Included with the DVD is a mini-comic book which I found quite delightful.
Jim Connell "Hallstatt Prince"
Odd & quirky
This movie is very hard to describe. It's based on a true story and sometimes feels like half documentary and half movie because it switches from the actor playing the main character to the real "Harvey Pekar" (the underground comic book writer of "American Splendor"). The movie also shows the real people in Harvey's life and then switches back to the actors playing them. It uses a lot of comic book drawings and animation in the film too.
Harvey Pekar, (played by Paul Giamatti), is a frustrated file clerk at a V.A. Hospital that eventually is inspired to create comic books based on his own life. He is a grouchy and depressed working-class everyman type of guy. He eventually meets and marries "Joyce", (played by Hope Davis), who is a quirky and sometimes depressed comic book seller. There are a lot of very funny moments in this movie but I think the average/mainstream movie viewer won't really like this movie because it's really strange and I thought the character "Harvey Pekar" was very annoying. But in an odd way, it's still interesting. It took a while for me to start liking it enough to not turn off the DVD player. I was interested enough to keep watching. But I have no desire to see the movie again. I recommend this movie for someone that likes really quirky and offbeat movies and wants to see something really different. Art-house crowds will probably love this movie. I rate it: C-
Screenwriters rarely develop a distinctive voice that can be recognized from movie to movie, but the ornate imagination of Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich, Adaptation) has made him a unique and much-needed cinematic presence. In Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, a guy decides to have the memories of his ex-girlfriend erased after she's had him erased from her own memory--but midway through the procedure, he changes his mind and struggles to hang on to their experiences together. In other hands, the premise of memory-erasing would become a trashy science-fiction thriller; Kaufman, along with director Michel Gondry, spins this idea into a funny, sad, structurally complex, and simply enthralling love story that juggles morality, identity, and heartbreak with... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Michel Gondry DVD Release Date: Released the 28 September 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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With Sideways, Paul Giamatti (American Splendor, Storytelling) has become an unlikely but engaging romantic lead. Struggling novelist and wine connoisseur Miles (Giamatti) takes his best friend Jack (Thomas Haden Church, Wings) on a wine-tasting tour of California vineyards for a kind of extended bachelor party. Almost immediately, Jack's insatiable need to sow some wild oats before his marriage leads them into double-dates with a rambunctious wine pourer (Sandra Oh, Under the Tuscan Sun) and a recently divorced waitress (Virginia Madsen, The Hot Spot)--and Miles discovers a little hope that he hasn't let himself feel in a long time. Sideways is a modest but finely tuned film; with gentle compassion, it explores the failures, struggles, and... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Alexander Payne DVD Release Date: Released the 05 April 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Like a good dream, Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation envelops you with an aura of fantastic light, moody sound, head-turning love, and a feeling of déjà vu, even though you've probably never been to this neon-fused version of Tokyo. Certainly Bob Harris has not. The 50-ish actor has signed on for big money shooting whiskey ads instead of doing something good for his career or his long-distance family. Jetlagged, helplessly lost with his Japanese-speaking director, and out of sync with the metropolis, Harris (Bill Murray, never better) befriends the married but lovelorn 25-year-old Charlotte (played with heaps of poise by 18-year-old Scarlett Johansson). Even before her photographer husband all but abandons her, she is adrift like Harris but in a total entrapment of... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Scarlett Johansson - Bill Murray - Giovanni Ribisi Director(s): Sofia Coppola DVD Release Date: Released the 03 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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A Sundance Grand Jury prize winner and a true conversation starter, Capturing the Friedmans travels into one apparently ordinary Long Island family's heart of darkness. Arnold and Elaine Friedman had a normal life with their three sons until Arnold was arrested on multiple (and increasingly lurid) charges of child abuse. Because the Friedmans had documented their own lives with copious home movies, filmmaker Andrew Jarecki is able to sift through their material looking for clues. Yet what emerges is more surreal than fiction: the youngest Friedman son went to jail, the eldest became a birthday-party clown. In the end, we can't be sure whether Arnold Friedman is a monstrous child molester or the victim of railroading. The portrait of a disconnected family is deeply disturbing,... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Arnold Friedman (II) - Elaine Friedman - David Friedman (IX) - Jesse Friedman (II) Director(s): Andrew Jarecki DVD Release Date: Released the 27 January 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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If you've ever felt alienated by the world around you, Ghost World will offer laughter, tears, and reassurance that you are definitely not alone. Adapted by Daniel Clowes and Crumb director Terry Zwigoff from Clowes's acclaimed graphic novel, the movie spends summer vacation with high school graduates Enid (Thora Birch) and Rebecca (Scarlet Johansson). They inflict little tortures on the denizens of urban sprawl, wielding scathing irony as a defense against a "ghost world" full of pop-cultural lemmings and uncertain futures. But when Enid picks a 40-ish vintage-record collector (Steve Buscemi) as the target of her latest cruel prank, she finds herself unexpectedly attracted to him ("he's the opposite of everything I completely hate") and is forced to confront her own... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Thora Birch - Steve Buscemi Director(s): Terry Zwigoff DVD Release Date: Released the 05 February 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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