Keswick Film Festival

Synopsis

Biopic of recalcitrant file-clerk and underground comic book writer Harvey Pekar. 'American Splendor' began life in the 1970's, exploring the mundane reality of Pekars' own life and of those around him.

Mixing real interviews with Pekar alongside his fictional alter-ego (Paul Giamatti), the movie skilfully combines animation, reality and fiction in its engaging story of the meeting of Harvey and comic-store owner Joyce Brabner (Hope Davis), a pair who combine a huge range of personality and health disorders.

These are the ordinary grumps Hollywood ignores, treated with neither condescension nor special pleading and set in Cleveland, probably America's least glamorous city.

Grand Jury Prize - Sundance Film Festival 2003

New Director's Award - Edinburgh International Film Festival 2003