I kicked off my Cinematic year with the absolutely fantastic ‘American Splendor’ today,the true ‘down to earth’ story of comic book writer Harvey Pekar.
The film features the actor Paul Giamatti as our ‘hero’ and the REAL Harvey Pekar himself.
Pekar was a Cincinnati hospital clerk for all of his working life,and he decided to document his ‘blue collar’ existance though the comic book medium,though his own artistic abilities never got better than drawing ‘stickmen’.
Consequently,his work used the illustrative talents of the likes of Robert Crumb to tell his tales.
This is a genuinly touching,funny and at times uplifting story of a man who, by documenting his ‘humdrum’ life,shows us what a complex thing ‘ordinary life’ is.
It’s only 7th January,but I think that it is going to take some extraordinary film to beat this one in my books.
I heartily recommend this film to everyone.
FIVE star entertainment!.
I loved this movie as well. It was released in 2003, though, so if you eventually try looking for it on the “best of 2004” lists, you’ll be disappointed. It was one of my favorites from last year, along with Lost In Translation, ROTK, Laurel Canyon & Spellbound.
It’s on a lot of “best of 2003” lists!
Pleased you enjoyed ‘American Splendor’ too,Kar.
It actually only opened in the U.K. last friday (we sometimes have to wait months to see these films).
I saw the trailer for ‘Lost in translation’ and it looks a good 'un.
Yep, “Splendor” is excellent, as is “Lost in Translation”, where Bill murray turns in his best-ever performance.
Kevin–yes, I forget that films open at different times around the world! A couple of years ago, I was Amsterdam in Novemeber, and the only English-language movies were the “summer” Hollywood stuff. Now, I had already seen the one or two that I could stomach that summer in the States, so there was NOTHING to see! Well, luckily Amsterdam has plenty to do otherwise.
I HIGHLY recommend Lost in Translation. As I was watching it, it became one of my top ten favorite movies of all time. I just love it.
‘Lost…’ opens today! It has had some glowing reports in today’s press.
I will definately be going to see it at my local ‘Art film’ cinema next week.
Also,the following week ‘Girl with a Pearl earring’ (also,like ‘lost’,featuring Scarlett Johansson) is on.
As you may already know,it’s the story of a young maid who works in the household of the artist Vermeer,and ends up posing for him.
The cinematography looks very ‘painterly’ from what I’ve seen so far.
January looks set to be a great month for films!