SERIOUSLY. This is what the crap Hollywood still puts out?

Overrated

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

This is a documentary about the famous underground cartoonist, Robert Crumb, creator of characters such as Fritz the Cat. It is a very different type of documentary from the ones I usually come across. I enjoy watching docs about serial killers and murderers, to understand them a little better. This is not your typical documentary. It's about a very mundane, if not boring life of a man who enjoys spending his time observing people, drawing them and listening to classical music. The film shows him going to meet his brothers. They live very depressing lives, especially Charles Crumb, a man you can't help but feel sorry for. I explained in my review of Mary and Max (2009) that I hadn't seen was film that made me understand the topic of depression better than it. Well, this film is, perhaps, a better case study on the effects of depression on people than the other movie ever was, since this is all real. 'Crumb' is also about the man's relationships with other women, why it didn't work out, why it did, what he thinks of women, what his ideologies are on the topic of romance, all interestingly said by an interesting man who was sadly gifted with a dull life. Is it as monotonous as I'm building it up to be though? This is the part the film delves into the most: Crumb, the magnificent artist. What he really is. The way he describes things, I could listen to for days. What makes an artist? What influences their work? Underground art was revolutionized by Robert Crumb. His work portrayed sexual and surreal themes in a dark, comedic way. I guess the documentary tried to tell me how he got such a mindset, to create all that he did: his walk of life (imo)- the things only he saw, the things only he knows of. This is why makes an artist. This is what made Crumb. Amazing thought provoking documentary.

Crumb is documentary about the famous and controversial cartoonist Robert Crumb. The film was directed by Terry Zwigoff. Crumb is the second film directed by Zwigoff, the first being a documentary about Howard Louie Blue released in 1985. Zwigoff knew Robert Crumb before making the film, and had even played in Crumb's string band, but even with his close connections to Crumb it took a lot of convincing to let Zwigoff make the film. And the film itself was also very difficult to make, it took nine years to make on a a budget of roughly $200 per month. Zwigoff also said that he "slept with a loaded gun the pillow next to me trying to get up the nerve to kill myself." But Zwigoff's hard work paid of, because Crumb is a masterpiece.Robert Crumb is a cartoonist most known for his famous "keep on trucking" drawing, and his Fritz the Cat cartoon. Crumb is the ideal anti-celebrity. He turned down the offer to trademark and market the "keep on trucking" drawing several times, he also distanced himself with the Fritz the Cat animated film, and also refused to join any major magazines or comics. Mostly staying in small independent comics like Zap! For his life. And Crumb's counter culture attitude was perfectly represented in his art. His comics were typically crude, vulgar, depraved, and shocking. The film follows the career of Robert Crumb, how he started as a no-name cartoonist, who eventually got his disgusting comics hung in art galleries across the country. But the film doesn't just show us the history of Crumb's art. Zwigoff and Crumb go out and interview Crumb's family and we learn why Crumb is the way he is, delving deep into his psyche. To say that the art of Robert Crumb is "shocking" is a massive understatement. No matter how used to taboo's you think you are, it's hard not to feel repulsed by Crumb's art. Believe me I am not exaggerating when I say that much of it is sexist, racist, and overall just down right inhumane, and that may be enough to turn some people off. Several people that interviewed throughout the film are completely disgusted by Crumb's comics, and other find a strange sense of empowerment through his work. While most directors handling a documentary would just show a history of Crumb and his work, Zwigoff takes it to the next level by analyzing that art. In the very first seen of the film Zwigoff asks Crumb what the point of his work is, and Crumb says he doesn't really know what the point is, he just sort of figures it out as he goes along. So the film takes it upon itself to discover the purpose in Crumb's art, and it does this be interviewing Crumb's family, and this is where the film reaches its brilliance. The sections where they interview Robert Crumb's brothers, Charlie and Max, are some of the most depressing scenes in any film ever. We learn about how they mistreated and bullied each other and how their alcoholic father abused them, how Robert was rejected by the girls in his school, and how Charlie sexual fantasies never devolved past Bobby Driscoll from treasure island. Yes there is something truly saddening about these scenes, and the locations in which they're shot only add to this feeling. The crappy apartments that haven't been cleaned in weeks, with endless books covering the floors and walls, and the windows are covered with torn curtains. Robert and his brother Max, who became a painter, where able to escape this terrible fate through their art. But unfortunately Charlie was not able, and his horrible childhood ending up ruining his whole life.Crumb is not like most documentaries about artists, it doesn't just provide a history of Crumb's life and work, but instead the film seeks to really get at the heart of Crumb, what his art is, and why it is the way it is. Crumb did alright at the box office, but was a critical darling. But even with nearly every single review giving it a perfect rating, it still wasn't nominated for best documentary by the academy awards. (Ironically Hoop Dreams, another fantastic documentary that came out that same year wasn't nominated either.) But even with its snub, it still has gone down in history as one of the greatest documentaries ever, and was added to Roger Ebert's Great Movies in 2005. Crumb truly is not only one of the greatest documentaries ever, but one of the best films ever.

I did not know for some time what this film listed in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die was about, so I was very interested when I found out it was a documentary about a famous comic book cartoonist who I had heard about. Robert Crumb is the cartoonist and artist who drew and created popular comics and images such as Fritz the Cat, Mr. Natural and Keep on Truckin', he was the major pioneer for the genesis and popularisation of underground comics. This documentary details his life from developing his talent for drawing and making his own comic books with his two brothers, and of course becoming famous, but we also get an insight into the darker and strange regions of his subconscious mind. Interviews come from Crumb himself, his mother, his two brothers Charles and Maxon who are perhaps more strange than Robert, his then wife Aline Kominsky who knows her husband is unusual and his ex- girlfriends, as well as other artists, art critics and historians, and some admirers. The work of Crumb started from childhood with his love for Disney and various cartoon characters, where he and his brothers would create their own adventure comic books, and growing up he developed his bizarre style which included satire and sexual and perverted imagery. It is interesting to hear his various stories about his creations, his relationships with his brothers, his parents and the women he was with, it is interesting to see how disturbed his brothers are (one committed suicide after the film), and it is interesting to see his works discussed, including the mentioning of killing off Fritz the Cat following the cartoon film which he did not approve. This has many elements to it, it is fascinating, it is artistic, it is strange and it is disturbing, Crumb is obviously a genius with his cartoon style and imagination, but his eccentric personality and family background is the most interesting thing to watch this for, a most worthwhile documentary film. Very good!

Upon rewatching the film, the first thing that stands out about it is how poorly it has held up as a filmic 'portrait of an artist'. In the intervening years, documentaries such as The Kid Stays In The Picture, American Splendor, and Mayor Of The Sunset Strip have used narrative and filmic techniques that make Crumb seem downright quaint and formulaic, by comparison. From the technique of highlighting the bizarre and uninteresting people that inhabit mumbling cartoonist Robert Crumb's life, to having statically placed talking head experts- such as Femininazi journalist Peggy Orenstein and Deirdre English, a former editor of Mother Jones magazine, who decry Crumb's alleged misogyny and racism, to egghead elitists like Time magazine art critic Robert Hughes who ridiculously masturbate over the most inane and puerile of Crumb's work, to ending the film with a text-laden write-up of what happened after the cameras stopped rolling, Crumb seems to be a relic from another age; which is ironic since many in the film seem to already- by then, associate him with the bygone psychedelia of the 1960s. But that's what it is- a pre-Internet ideal of the classic Junior High School approach to its subject matter. Its only deviance from formula is the deviance of its subject…. The actual film is not bad, merely adequate, which given its hype, is quite disappointing. In rewatching the film, too, there just seemed to be many moments where things were staged for effect, such as when Crumb is confronted in a coffee shop by a young female who objects to his work, and weakly defends himself by stating, 'not everything is for everyone,' or when Orenstein and English pontificate against Crumb, only demonstrating their stolidity, while Hughes bloviates in his defense over minutia that Crumb does not even buy. That anyone with an intellect can take such lowbrow and transitory work with such seriousness says far more about the decline in art and critical thought than anything satirical or lampooning from Crumb's pen. Robert Crumb may be a great comic book illustrator, but he is not a great artist, for technically his work never rises to a visual sense that moves nor provokes the deepest and highest ideas and ideals, and there is no profound message, nor joy, to his work. In short, it and this film are not nearly as great as its hagiographers claim- which seems about right, for that is just like the man himself.