American Splendor

"This one is plain brilliant" - Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun Times

Winner 2003 Cannes Film Festival International Critics Award

Winner 2003 Grand Jury Prize Sundance Film Festival

American Splendor is the story of a little known working class everyman, and a first class curmudgeon, Harvey Pekar. Pekar finds love, family and a creative voice through the underground comic books he creates, but still can't manage to find the quicker supermarket check out line.

Ordinary life is pretty complex stuff.

Pekar, played by Paul Giamatti, is a frustrated file clerk at a V.A. Hospital, but also a comic book fan who befriends the young illustrator Roger Crumb and is soon inspired to create comic books based on his own life, entitled American Splendor. Along the bumpy journey, he meets, marries and falls for Joyce, an admiring comic book seller, played by Hope Davis.

Also appearing in the movie are the real Harvey and Joyce, comic book renderings of the couple, and cameos by some of Harvey's closest friends. In this truly original, ultimately heartwarming film, you will find yourself deeply immersed in a world of American Splendor.

"One of the best times you'll have at the movies this year" - Peter Travers, Rolling Stone