I never read the comic. The movie didn't make me want to read the comic. It was well-done for what it was. It was basically a movie about losers with depressing lives and how the protagonist connect w/ an audience w/ his comic about it. It does have relevance, but as a movie it didn't give me anything to take away from it, other than the fact that you can live a very bland, lonely and depressing life and it still keeps going. I actually rated this high since it was well-acted & performed.

All this movie demonstrated to me was that Harvey Pekar really is as big an asshole as appeared to be so often on the Letterman show. Good acting, crap subject matter.

I always hate it when they bring in documentarian interviews with the real-life incarnations of the subject of true-story movies, but here it very much works. A few of the comic book-style set scenes with Giamatti rambling on for 5 minutes about, for example, the meaning of Harvey Pekars name to me felt a bit ham-fisted and out of place, but the rest of the film makes up for it by a mile, with the acting being solid all around and the soundtrack being jazzy gold. Really enjoyable, recommended.

Very real and very touching; I wish more comic book movies were like this. Paul Giammati is thoroughly excellent as the lead role.

Awesome Pekar

Paul Giamatti always delights me, and even when he's playing a rather grey and pessimistic character like Harvey Pekar he shines and makes me smile. A rather odd film really, but worth checking out.

A wonderful adaptation of an important piece of recent literature, and quite funny to boot.

A nice little film.

Besides reminding me and my friends of a guy we know, this is a great movie. Wonderful acting of a very weird guy makes for an interesting and at times darkly funny movie.

Mixing a comic with a semi-documentary with a biopic sounds like it can't possibly work, but it definitely does here. Giamatti is wonderful as usual, and the script nicely juggles drama, (cynical) humor and, well, plain ol' real life.

A chewable bone thrown to the famished fans of Ghost World, with a protagonist closely related to the latter's Steve Buscemi in his marginal existence, his menial job, his obliviousness or out-and-out resistance to fashion, his patronage of yard sales, his esoteric record collection, his congenital negativity. Even though Giamatti, the very epitome of a supporting player, relishes his chance at a lead, he's a bit of a one-note, a bit of a stickler about always staying "in character."