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American Splendour a film on dvd
Reviews

From: rt
Category: Films
Date: 01 October 2004

Review

http://www.americansplendormovie.com/main.html

I am sick of neurotic irrascible men. This film is about the Larry David/late period Jack Nicholson, a-like cartoonist Harvey Pekar. There is something depressing about people so in love with the trivia of their own lives, even though in a way they provide an antidote to the poison of romance and idealisation that so many films and tv programs spew out. Just there must be something more than worrying about minor social embarrassments and annoyances. This film is quite good, though a bit slow, and never really builds enough momentum. The best bits are when you see the real Harvey Pekar, who has a lot more charisma and balls than the actor playing him who just manages his mannerisms and downbeatness. The real people portrayed in the film seem funny and complex, and the mixing of them with the dramatised parts makes asks nice questions about reality and narrative etc. blah blah blah. Yet a simple sort of R Crumb like documentary about his friend Pekar might have done more.

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