Biopics rarely come more inventive than this: splicing interview footage, comic-book panels and animation into the filmed tale of its subject's real life, American Splendor is both fiendishly clever and supremely entertaining.

It helps that it has a trueoriginal at its core. Harvey Pekar was a jaded hospital file clerk living in Pittsburgh when he hit upon turning his grump-fuelled observations into a comic series. Underground legend Robert Crumb helped, inking striking artwork to support the speech bubbles, and suddenly Harvey was churning out offbeat comics as satisfying as any costumed-crimefighter tales.

Character actor Paul Giamatti provides a dead-on Harvey-a-like, Hope Davis impresses as his rock-solid wife Joyce, and the real-life Harvey consistently pops up to offer his hilarious, murky musings. Put it all together and you have a movie that's sure to feature in Top 10 polls come December. Trust us, Harvey's winning line in slouched, cheerworthy repartee makes him the unlikeliest hero you'll ever see on screen.

DVD Extras:

It might seem odd to have an audio commentary over a film that already has a huge amount of narration, but American Splendor's relaxed, informal cast-and-crew gab is a winner. Featuring such highlights as Harvey making the ultimate commentary faux pas (having his mobile ring and actually answering the damn thing), it offers plenty of laughs and a good deal of insight to boot.Nothing else on the disc can quite match up. Nearest is a 15-minute interview with the man himself (he's in typically downbeat form), but the rest is eminently disposable: behind-the-scenes snippets that are too short to be of any real value and a yawnworthy doc - all three minutes of it about the movie hitting Cannes.