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MovieMeditation presents...
HIS FILM DIARY 2015
The year is no spelling mistake
total movie count ........... viewing day count
281 .......................... 339
__________________________
December 6th
—— 2003 ——
AMERICAN
SPLENDOR
—— drama ——
This movie amazed me splendidly and sucked me straight into it,
like only a few, very special movies tend to do.
I found it utterly unique and completely different from anything I had ever seen. A docu-drama that combines actors and actresses with the actual people of the story. It is a loose documentary, an homage, a life story, a social statement, it is everything at once really…
I know this diary entry is technically about my first viewing, but since I saw it again and didn’t like it as much, I figured I could fault it while also praising it for a more even review. Honestly, a third watch is usually what cements an opinion if two watches of the same movie ends up so different, but I just don’t feel like watching it again… at least not now. Looking at it, the movie does feel like a one-watch movie, but because I wanted to possibly nominate it for a Hall of Fame here, I decided to give it another go... But anyways, I think its strengths is also its weaknesses. The way that the movie is driven by a broken narrative, which almost works as small-time highpoints of the life and career of Harvey Pekar, is what separates the movie from other biopics. And together with the odd and original mix of fact and fiction, ‘American Splendor’ is honest and true to life, while also being an exercise in fiction. It really honors this man and his view on life and I like that.
Writing about it now, I almost want to revisit it again. I almost doubt myself on why I didn’t like this the second time around. When looking back, I think it was the fact that it felt fragmented and cinematically fragile. All the performances are admirable, especially that of Paul Giamatti and Judah Friedlander – especially the latter was outstanding and how his career didn’t take off after this is beyond me. The story is supposed to be down to earth and loose in its narrative, but sometimes I did miss a firmer hand to hold everything together and bigger scenes or moments that would cement this film as forever memorable. But again, with the first watch it was exactly this no-nonsense approach that worked so well, so maybe I just went into it a completely wrong way the second time around. Oh well, I guess my thoughts and this review is more fragmented than the movie is at this point. So… I guess that third watch is definitive sometime after all.
first-watch
__________________________
MovieMeditation presents...
HIS FILM DIARY 2015
The year is no spelling mistake
total movie count ........... viewing day count
281 .......................... 339
__________________________
December 6th
—— 2003 ——
AMERICAN
SPLENDOR
—— drama ——
This movie amazed me splendidly and sucked me straight into it,
like only a few, very special movies tend to do.
I found it utterly unique and completely different from anything I had ever seen. A docu-drama that combines actors and actresses with the actual people of the story. It is a loose documentary, an homage, a life story, a social statement, it is everything at once really…
I know this diary entry is technically about my first viewing, but since I saw it again and didn’t like it as much, I figured I could fault it while also praising it for a more even review. Honestly, a third watch is usually what cements an opinion if two watches of the same movie ends up so different, but I just don’t feel like watching it again… at least not now. Looking at it, the movie does feel like a one-watch movie, but because I wanted to possibly nominate it for a Hall of Fame here, I decided to give it another go... But anyways, I think its strengths is also its weaknesses. The way that the movie is driven by a broken narrative, which almost works as small-time highpoints of the life and career of Harvey Pekar, is what separates the movie from other biopics. And together with the odd and original mix of fact and fiction, ‘American Splendor’ is honest and true to life, while also being an exercise in fiction. It really honors this man and his view on life and I like that.
Writing about it now, I almost want to revisit it again. I almost doubt myself on why I didn’t like this the second time around. When looking back, I think it was the fact that it felt fragmented and cinematically fragile. All the performances are admirable, especially that of Paul Giamatti and Judah Friedlander – especially the latter was outstanding and how his career didn’t take off after this is beyond me. The story is supposed to be down to earth and loose in its narrative, but sometimes I did miss a firmer hand to hold everything together and bigger scenes or moments that would cement this film as forever memorable. But again, with the first watch it was exactly this no-nonsense approach that worked so well, so maybe I just went into it a completely wrong way the second time around. Oh well, I guess my thoughts and this review is more fragmented than the movie is at this point. So… I guess that third watch is definitive sometime after all.
first-watch
__________________________