American Splendor

Acclaimed comedy drama, based on the comics by Harvey Pekar and charting his mundane but surprisingly complex life. Paul Giamatti stars as Pekar, who becomes inspired to put pen to paper after an encounter with famed artist Robert Crumb. He soon acquires a cult following, which leads him to a relationship with fan Joyce Brabner (Hope Davis). The film successfully captures the comics' sardonic humour and cleverly mixes fact and recreation, in the style of a docu-drama, with the real Pekar and Brabner chipping in to comment on the presentation of their lives.