Crumb (1994)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Terry Zwigoff

Release Date:

28 April 1995 (USA)

Genre:

Documentary | Biography

Tagline:

Weird sex · Obsession · Comic books

Plot:

A cinematic portrait of the controversial comic book writer/artist and his traumatized family.

Plot Keywords:

Art | Satire | Underground | Comic Book | Consumerism

Awards:

13 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Robert Crumb	...	Himself
Aline Kominsky	...	Herself (as Aline Crumb)
Charles Crumb	...	Himself
Maxon Crumb	...	Himself
Robert Hughes	...	Himself
Martin Muller	...	Himself
Don Donahue	...	Himself
Dana Morgan	...	Herself (as Dana Crumb)
Trina Robbins	...	Herself
Spain Rodriguez	...	Himself
Bill Griffith	...	Himself
Deirdre English	...	Herself
Peggy Orenstein	...	Herself
Beatrice Crumb	...	Herself
Kathy Goodell	...	Herself

MPAA:

Rated R for graphic sex-related cartoons, and for language.

Runtime:

119 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Australia:M | France:U | UK:18 | USA:R

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Superior Pictures

Trivia:

Media reports following the film said that Robert Crumb later told Terry Zwigoff that he hated the film. According to Zwigoff, however, this never happened and the two still speak on a regular basis.

Goofs:

Factual errors: "San Francisco" is misspelled in the closing titles. The caption reads: "Max Crumb still lives in San Francicsco".

Quotes:

Charles Crumb: How perfectly goddamned delightful it all is, to be sure.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Ghost World (2001)

Soundtrack:

A Real Slow Drag

Heartbreaking and funny as hell

What are the odds that an artist can survive family violence, mental illness, sexual rejection, and Big Mac culture? As far as this film can make clear, three members of the Crumb family had strong artistic temperaments and significant talent. Only one, Robert, made it out alive, and his life and work are defined by resistance to what should have been a sad fate.

To many, this documentary may be depressing, offensive to women, or just too damn ugly to sit through, but it made me as happy as anything I've ever seen on screen. Art's ability to reveal truth and promote survival is evident in every frame. I admire R. Crumb's courage to speak unpopular truths, to draw what gets him off, and to ferret out the art he loves at considerable expense and trouble (he's a blues maven; one of my favorite scenes, where's he's sitting on his floor absorbed by aching music, is echoed in Ghost World, when Enid takes home Seymour's record and gets lost in her favorite song). And like Ghost World, ratty, real American culture is railed at hilariously: another favorite scene involves R. on a park bench, disgustedly commenting on the ugliness of everything around him: logo-emblazoned clothes, graceless music, ugly plastic everything.

By the end of it all, I respected and liked him Crumb enormously. I'd take his scary-woman worship over the banal musings of a dime-store philosopher any day. And Terry Zwigoff deserves much praise for being able to pull it off (especially as a first-time filmmaker who had very little idea what he was doing). From high art and family pathos to a lovely animal appreciation of big round female asses, this is far more a "roller-coaster, I laughed/I cried" film than most others so touted.