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American Splendor

HBO Classics

American Splendor

2003

Robert Pulcini, Shari Springer Berman

Paul Giamatti, Hope Davis, Harvey Pekar, Shari Springer Berman ...

6.9

11,669

Drama Harvey Pekar is file clerk at the local VA hospital. His interactions with his co-workers offer some relief from the monotony, and their discussions encompass everything from music to the decline of American culture to new flavors of jellybeans and life itself. At home, Harvey fills his days with reading, writing and listening to jazz. His apartment is filled with thousands of books and LPs, and he regularly scours Cleveland's thrift ... [+]

	Author	Review
United States	Roger Ebert Chicago Sun-Times	"This film is delightful in the way it finds its own way to tell its own story (...) The casting of Giamatti and Davis is perfect (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Desson Thomson The Washington Post	"Superbly conceived anti-biopic"	POS
United States	Peter Travers Rolling Stone	"A one-of-a-kind marvel"	POS
United Kingdom	Kim Newman Empire	"If you can get through the confusing goings-on of the first reel, then this is a satisfying experience - funny, touching and tragic by turns. And Giamatti deserves every award going (...) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Mike Clark USA Today	"'Splendor' splendidly illuminates a banal life (...) Warm but not sentimental (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Jonathan Rosenbaum Chicago Reader	"I can't say that this feature about the life and art of Harvey Pekar, made me want to run out and buy his comic books, but it does offer a highly interesting and original introduction to them"	POS
United States	Scott Foundas Variety	"Sad, tender, wise and beautiful film... It's a profound tribute to lives lived on the fringes of society -- to the introspective loners who are the most observant chroniclers of our times."	POS
United States	Lisa Schwarzbaum Entertainment Weekly	"Just as the author, in his comic books, discovered an original way to honor the challenges of everyday life, so have Berman and Pulcini come up with an inventive new movie hybrid that is its own formal breakthrough."	POS
United States	Scott Tobias AV Club	"The rare artist biopic that goes beyond the dull march of events and actually illuminates the creative process."	POS

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