BlazeLime Strong and Moving!

WasAnnon Slow pace in the most part of the movie.

Ploydsge just watch it!

Brendon Jones It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

elicopperman In 1994, David Lynch presented to the world Terry Zwigoff's documentary on one of the raunchiest yet introverted souls in the comic industry, Robert Crumb. It garnished critical acclaim and even won the Grand Jury Prize Documentary at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. As for the movie itself, what could have been painful to watch given the subject matter ends up being strongly insightful about the man's life, influences, and personal demons.In spite of his disturbing inner sexual demons, Robert Crumb also displayed an awkward innocence and vision of appreciating beauty that displayed him as one of the biggest introverts of American culture. Even when he made his own self-indulgent fantasies like Joe Blows (a satirical incestuous family orgy), what always remained intact were his visions of the absurdity of human life that conflicted his view on the media. Growing up with a strictly abusive father, a depressed brother who stayed isolated to the point of suicide, and being a dork in high school would lead to his disdain for marketism and exploitive cultural aspects, only further contrasting with his "impaction of lusting, suffering, crazed humanity in sorts of bizarre, gargoyle-like, allegorical forms." (Robert Hughes) To think that a horny kid who lusted over Sheena of the Jungle and Bugs Bunny would turn himself into one of the most controversial yet innovative comic artists of his time is no wonder that some of his work still remains in museums to this day. He may have barely liked squat when it came to pop culture and the entertainment media (the less you ask him of the movie Fritz the Cat, the better), but that never stopped him from making what he believed in. As Crumb said it best, "I don't work in terms of conscious messages. I can't do that. It has to be something that I'm revealing to myself while I'm doing it. It's hard to explain. Which means that, while I'm doing it, I don't know what it's about. You have to have the courage...to take that chance, you know? What's gonna come out? What's coming out of this? I enjoy drawing. It's a deeply ingrained habit." Keep on truckin' no matter what comes your way.

sir-mauri 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.

ElMaruecan82 In the 'slap-in-your-face' category, the winner is Terry Zwigoff's "Crumb", a dispassionate yet humanly intense documentary about cult-cartoonist and counterculture icon Robert Crumb. I confess I didn't know Crumb much but I was raised by comics from the French- Belgian school, and my idols were influenced by "Mad" magazine. In the late 60's, many of them transitioned from youth-oriented to a more adult form of comics. But what makes Robert Crumb, such a groundbreaking pioneer is that he immediately aimed the adult target… and quite low. Crumb's comics were outlets for his wildest and dirtiest masturbatory fetishes: strong, big-legged and big-butted women, some reduced to bent over bare backs, other penetrated from all parts by worm-like little men… there was no holds barred. But it would be too easy to call him a pervert, he's more complex (and fascinating) than that. Like many baby-boomers (he was born in 1943), Crumb did LSD. The drugs guided his pencil and lead to the iconic "Keep On' Truckin", Mr. Natural, Fritz the Cat and the Zap Comics that would define the counterculture era like Woodstock for music. He would end up drawing the cover for Janis Joplin's "Cheap Thrills" and become a phenomenon. But Crumb never got along with hippie culture for all that, preferring music from the Great Depression and refused such juicy offers as a Rolling Stones' cover or SNL. You think he was crazy? This is underestimating how efficiently Zwigoff leads this investigation through Crumb's psyche. In fact, Crumb thought he was never liked in the past, so instead of being suddenly loved by selling his soul, he challenged his fans and made himself even more unlikable by being a little truer to himself. Robert Crumb's story is the triumph of inner authenticity, and even in its most vulgar and ugly forms, authenticity is appealing. And the key to this authenticity is Crumb's childhood and this is where the exploration gets interesting, when we're introduced to his lesser known but no-less artist brothers: Charles and Maxon.In fact, they were such preeminent characters in his life that the film could have been called "Crumbs" as we literally get crumbs of their own pains to understand how sometimes, our life is defined by the way we deal with our wounds. And to call the Crumbs a dysfunctional family would be an understatement, the brothers (and two sisters, who refused to take part in the film) lived under the tyranny of an ex-Marine father, an Alpha-male Good-American, who kept arguing with their mother, and was disgusted by the three 'wimps' he raised.There's Maxon, an ascetic painter whose practices go farther than what we usually imagine in Yoga courses. But the true scene-stealer, so to speak, is Charles. He was a promising handsome teen and Robert's first mentor and critic, yet he turned into a social pariah after being humiliated in school and developed an obsession toward child actor from "Treasure Island" movie. Charles seemed to be aware of his own impulses and chose to live in his mother's house, following medical treatment. There is something so resigned, so gentle and intelligent in Charles that you wonder why he didn't try to vent his frustrations on the paper. Well, if one thing, he wasn't Robert. Robert, who was as socially awkward as a teen, wearing thick glasses and missing front teeth, realized that niceness never paid off, not with girls and decided he would make his own self-therapy through drawings. He drew former high-school classmates, also remembering the bullies that poisoned his life. Still, he never played the victim card either, the examination of his own childhood leveraged his vision of life and society, and contributed to create a unique oeuvre, made of intense crosshatching, great winks to the reader, humor, pornography and maybe, misogyny. One of the critics in the film concede that behind this so-called misogyny hides greater insecurities, fears from the boy who didn't match the Alpha-male standards, a deliberate need to escape from suffocating and hypocritical puritanism and rigid moral codes. The same goes with his pictures of black people, what Crumb does is reflecting our own personal fantasies and fears, those we secretly hide, because we want to look normal, but who said the norm was a key to happiness? All along through the documentary, you see Crumb behaving in the most awkward and abrupt way, flirting with one of his admirers, refusing to sign an autograph, laughing at Charles' heartbreaking comments about his failed suicide attempts or his secret desire for a lobotomy, he kind of passes as a rude, non-empathetic and ultimately unlikable person, but he's truly "Mr Natural", and this is the most inspirational aspect of his personality, to the point it made me question my own past and insecurities starting with the glasses, a life-changing curse. Like Crumb, I had some shameful appetites targeting isolated parts, like Crumb, it was only through drawing that I could flirt with popularity, I even remember that whenever I had a possibility to kiss a girl, I brought some drawings to impress her. That's how awkward it was. But there's two ways to cope with such a past, you try to repress it, to hate what you were and be a better person, ending up hating yourself even more, or use the past as the revelation of your inner self and go ahead, without giving a damn to what people think.Crumb did, he's a legend now, and I guess he doesn't care much. (This review is dedicated to the late Ebert and Siskel. Indeed, if it wasn't for their rave reviews and the film topping their annual Top 10 lists in 1995 (#1 for Siskel, #2 for Ebert), I'd never have heard about "Crumb", documentary and artist, so this is one of the cases where I can fully appreciate the value of critics in movie industry.)

tomgillespie2002 Documentaries rarely get to the true heart of their subject, at least, none more than Crumb, Terry Zwigoff's passion piece on the work and soul of one Robert Crumb, comic-book innovator, serial piggy-back rider and loather of practically everything modern. The notoriously reclusive Crumb, who self-proclaims that he doesn't like to interact with people he isn't completely comfortable with, would normally be a near- impossible target for any self-respecting documentary film-maker to get even an interview out of. But life-long friend Terry Zwigoff, who reportedly threatened to kill himself if Crumb wouldn't allow him to film him, achieves an immaculately intimate portrayal of what drives the man, and how this strange and often extremely dark-humoured man came to be.Born in 1943 and growing up closely with his brother Charles and Maxon (he also has two sisters who declined to be interviewed), the brother's developed an early fascination with comic-books, mainly thanks to Charles' obsession with the medium. Living with a tyrannical father who often beat them, the three boys grew up extremely damaged and socially inept. Charles was good-looking but, as he describes, there was "just something wrong about me,", but Robert would use these experiences as amusing pieces in his sketches. As he got older, Robert wrote for Zap! Comics, and was one of the front-runners in the underground comic-book scene, where he developed the Keep on Truckin' serial, as well as his most famous characters Mr. Natural and Fritz the Cat.Given what seems like unprecedented access to Crumb, Zwigoff doesn't bombard the film with archive footage or talking head interviews (though there is a bit of the latter), he instead allows the story to be told by Crumb interacting with his family and friends, who all seem to regard the man with a lot of love, regardless as to how damaging he has been to their lives. We meet his two brothers - Charles still lives at home with his mother in a room piled high with literature, discussing his inability to get an erection due to the vast amounts of medication he has been given, and Maxon, having recently discovered his own artistic potential, is compelled to sit publicly on a bed of nails and pass linen through his body to cleanse his intestines. This isn't your typical all- American family.Which makes it interesting is that the idea of a husband happily greeting his wife and kids after a hard day's work to sit down to a wholesome dinner in middle-class suburbia, became one of the focal points of Crumb's work. It is something that obviously appals and amuses him, this idea of 1950's all-American perfection where consumerism took centre-stage and capitalism reared it's ugly head. He frequently refers back to a simpler time, where America lay relatively untouched, when people's problems were real and poured their souls into the blues songs he so obsessively loves and collects. His piece A Brief History of America, where a peaceful and green bit of land slowly gets taken apart and replaced by all manners of ugly wires, pylon's and advertising boards, shown here in the film, is especially powerful.Zwigoff isn't afraid to show the dark and ugly side of Crumb either. Shown sketching random passers-by on the street, he formidably judges and satirises them without uttering a word to them. This is a man whose opinion of humanity is nigh-on misanthropy, voicing his disgust at the brands and slogans people feel compelled to wear. His work also went places that most people would leave untouched, such as N****r Hearts, where a perfect, all-white family sit down to a dinner of African- American organs, or the sketch in which a man and his friend rape a woman with no head (later revealed to have been simply pushed down within her). He's certainly a troubled man, but all great geniuses are, or at least should be, and Crumb the film lays it out on the table. Undoubtedly one of the greatest documentaries ever made.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com