Review of American Splendor (2003) by Michael S — 01 Nov 2010

I wish all biographical films were this meaningful to me. He was a comic writer; I guess that's more interesting to me than some dude who named a magma ocean on the moon or something. The film focuses on Harvey Pekar, who wrote comics about his somewhat miserable life. The comic series was called American Splendor (duh). I, honestly, had never heard of American Splendor before. I hope itâ(TM)s understandable considering the comic was pretty underground. I had heard of this movie before on a television program about comic movies. That grabbed my attention before but I guess it escaped me until the other day when I got my hands on this. Anyway, this story basically starts from the poin right before Harveyâ(TM)s life picks up. Harvey is poor, still standing after two divorces, and is losing his voice. He eventually is brought into the world of comics and gets an artist to draw out scripts he writes about his own life. The comic becomes popular and things pick up from there. It isnâ(TM)t the most interesting thing in the world but it was able to hold my attention, I really liked it. The characters were believable and I especially loved how the real Harvey and co. came on the screen to comment on certain matters. The saddest thing about the film was learning that the real Harvey actually died earlier this year. I felt pretty bad about not knowing that before watching the movie. Basically, this movie is funny and charming. Itâ(TM)s a good story with good comedy and simplicity.

Definitely better than any Saw movie.