American Splendor
film — USA — 2003

7.0
American Beauty, American History X, American Pie, American Wedding, American Psycho, The Quiet American... the list could go on and on forever. What has this Splendor thing got that the other films don`t have? It certainly is the embolishment of the American dream, although in a bit acward way. First, it`s a film based on true facts, and it even features the prototypes of the films characters. Harvey Pekar is a middle-aged loser who works as a filing clerk, has been left by his second wife and has very little pleasure in life. His interests include collecting old records and comic books. I personally never got what`s so great about them comic books, but I don`t care. And one day he decides that he can start a comic book of his own - not about some superhero but about the average loser - himself. He can`t draw, off course, but there are other people who can. And he becomes massively popular, not that it makes him happy or anything, cos` he`s still a loser. He even gets married and he could be happy if he wanted to. But he doesn`t want anything like that. There`s also his friend Toby who`s a genuine nerd, and who`s proud for that. This film is somewhat similar to "Napoleon Dynamite" - in being an obscure comedy about a loser, although it`s less obscure for sure. And it also reminded me of a Simpsons episode called "Angry dad" - where Bart started drawing comics about Homer, and also became successful at that. This film is certainly worth watching, but not particulary interesting.
2005-02-17
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