American Splendor (film)

American Splendor

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Shari Springer Berman
Robert Pulcini
Produced by Ted Hope
Christine Kunewa Walker
Julia King
Declan Baldwin
Written by Shari Springer Berman
Robert Pulcini
Based on American Splendor and Our Cancer Year
by Harvey Pekar
Joyce Brabner
Starring Paul Giamatti
Hope Davis
Judah Friedlander
Music by Mark Suozzo
Cinematography Terry Stacey
Edited by Robert Pulcini
Production
company
Distributed by Fine Line Features
HBO Films
Release dates
  • January 20, 2003 (2003-01-20) (Sundance)
  • August 15, 2003 (2003-08-15) (United States)
Running time
 101 minutes[1]
Country United States
Language English
Budget $2 million
Box office $7,986,084[2]

American Splendor is a 2003 American biographical comedy-drama film about Harvey Pekar, the author of the American Splendor comic book series. The film is also in part an adaptation of the comics, which dramatize Pekar's life. The film was written and directed by documentarians Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini.[3]

The film stars Paul Giamatti as Pekar and Hope Davis as Joyce Brabner.[3] It also features appearances from Pekar and Brabner themselves (along with Toby Radloff),[3] who discuss their lives, the comic books, and how it feels to be depicted onscreen by actors. It was filmed entirely on location in Cleveland and Lakewood in Ohio.[4]

Cast

Production

Though Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini had directed documentaries before, American Splendor was their first narrative feature. Of the film's alternating of fictional portrayals with real-life appearances by Pekar and his friends and family, co-writer/co-director Pulcini recalled, "It really was the only way that made sense to tell that story because we were handed this stack of comic strips where the main character never really looks the same because he’s drawn by so many different artists. We wondered how to stay true to the material, and that’s the concept we came up with. The structure came out of that very naturally. It wasn’t something that we labored over."[5] Berman added that upon meeting Pekar they felt compelled to include him in the film. "We also got to know Harvey even before we wrote the screenplay. We actually went to Cleveland and spent time with Harvey and Joyce, and spoke to them on the phone a lot. Once we spent some time with both of them, we were like, “Oh my God, we have to put them in the movie!” That was a case where we were still using our documentary instincts and had to figure out a way to include him in it that was a natural fit for the material."[6]

Reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 94% approval rating, based on 181 reviews, with an average rating of 8.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Exhilarating both stylistically and for its entertaining, moving portrayal of an everyman, American Splendor is a portrait of a true underground original."[7] On Metacritic, the film also has a score of 90 out of 100, based on 42 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim."[8]

American Splendor won the Grand Jury Prize for Dramatic Film at the 2003 Sundance Film Festival, in addition to the award for Best Adapted Screenplay from the Writers Guild of America. At the 2003 Cannes Film Festival, the film received the FIPRESCI critics award.[9] It was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay at the 2003 Academy Awards.

Columnist Jaime Wolf wrote a laudatory review of the film in Slate, also drawing attention to formal parallels with Woody Allen's Annie Hall and other Allen films.[10]

Pekar wrote about the effects of the film in American Splendor: Our Movie Year.

Awards and nominations

Won

Boston Society of Film Critics

Chicago Film Critics Association

Los Angeles Film Critics Association

National Society of Film Critics

New York Film Critics Circle

Writers Guild of America (WGA)

Nominated

Academy Awards

Belgian Syndicate of Cinema Critics

Chicago Film Critics Association

Golden Globe Awards

Satellite Awards

Sundance Film Festival

References

  1. ↑ "AMERICAN SPLENDOR (15)". Optimum Releasing. British Board of Film Classification. Retrieved September 28, 2013.
  2. ↑ "American Splendor (2003)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved 2014-02-17.
  3. 1 2 3 Mitchell, Elvis (August 15, 2003). "American Splendor (2003) FILM REVIEW; A Comics Guy, Outside the Box". The New York Times.
  4. ↑ IMDB Locations' page Retrieved 12-28-2008
  5. ↑ McKittrick, Christopher (August 10, 2015). "'Follow the Book's Lead: Berman and Pulcini on 10,000 Saints". Creative Screenwriting. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  6. ↑ McKittrick, Christopher (August 10, 2015). "'Follow the Book's Lead: Berman and Pulcini on 10,000 Saints". Creative Screenwriting. Retrieved August 10, 2015.
  7. ↑ American Splendor at Rotten Tomatoes
  8. ↑ American Splendor at Metacritic
  9. ↑ 2003 FIPRESCI award winners Archived August 23, 2007, at the Wayback Machine.
  10. ↑ Wolf, Jaime (24 September 2003). "Harvey, Meet Woody: American Splendor vs. Annie Hall". Slate. Retrieved 2014-02-17.

External links

Awards
Preceded by
Personal Velocity		 Sundance Grand Jury Prize: U.S. Dramatic
2003 		Succeeded by
Primer
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