classicsoncall While a college student during the years 1968 through 1972, one of my electives was an English course taught by a free wheeling prof who's primary reading assignments consisted of Crumb comic books. I didn't know that when I signed up for the course, but even if I did it wouldn't have mattered because I didn't know who Robert Crumb was at the time. I could have opted to drop the class but then, as now, I was always interested in alternative points of view, so I stuck it out. Just like I stuck it out watching this flick, which for some I'm sure offers a semblance of artistic merit, but to my mind more closely approached publisher Deirdre English's assessment of her contemporary in the story, a study of Crumb as someone with an arrested juvenile vision.Physically, Crumb looks like an anorexic Grouch Marx, with Coke bottle eyeglasses and a temperament throughout the picture that seems to settle on a constant state of bemusement. This was all rather unsettling to me as he described what one might consider a horrific childhood, and if that weren't enough, he had two brothers who turned out even worse than he did. Charles Crumb, obsessed with comic books from an early age to the exclusion of all else, eventually committed suicide a short time after this film was released. Brother Maxon's maturity as an adult can be measured by the resentment he still feels for his role as a supply boy in his older brothers' childhood comics club.That Crumb would eventually find someone he could marry is puzzling given his masochistic and perverse views of women, but there wasn't just one, but two lucky women who tied the knot with the celebrated cartoonist. Both were interviewed for this film and they're not disparaging, perhaps a testament to the idea that they were just as weird as he was. In fact, Aline Crumb admits it - "My mind is shot..."Yet on another level I can relate to Crumb's detachment from a world that seems to depend on crass commercialism. However refusing to wear clothes that endorse commercial products is about as far as I go. I have to admit though, I was surprised by Crumb's refusal to accept a hundred grand for a publishing gig that would have cured a lot of his family's financial problems. In a certain sense, the man stayed true to his inner self, though for the life of me, I have no idea what kind of inner self that could possibly be.

eroscow-05581 Crumb is a documentary explaining the events that led artist Robert Crumb to create the comics he did. The whole family seems to have incredibly weird personalities and views toward sex.Robert's brother, Maxon, practices celibacy as sex triggers seizures for him. His other brother, Charles, has never had sex and is a recluse who lived with their mother up until his suicide. Robert himself is promiscuous and has feet and cartoon (especially to do with cartoons he has made) fetishes. Only a small amount of detail as to why all of these boys are so sexually inhibited is revealed. You do learn about their upbringing but not enough information is revealed to fully gauge why they ended up how they did. Some may disagree with that but I found that more backstory as to their upbringing would've provided greater insight into their situations.I mostly found this documentary extremely depressing. Robert himself says he lacks the ability to love anyone and the only person he loves is his daughter, Sophie. He doesn't mention feeling love for his son, Jesse, who seems a little heartbroken that he can't become closer with his father. Charles (at the time of recording before committing suicide) was on medication to deal with his mental problems. He goes into immense detail about his inability to feel connected to other people. Maxon seems just as strange as he swallows what I believe were pieces of cloth which he would digest in order to "clean out his insides". He also went into detail about pulling women's shorts down in public places and walking in on a woman who was naked in the bathroom, subsequently falling on the bathroom floor and having a seizure after looking at her.This documentary is fascinating, depressing, and leaves you asking more questions after finishing it. Definitely not a movie for a prudish person. But if this sounds interesting to you and you'd like to learn more I recommend you watch this movie.

sol- Years before 'Ghost World', Terry Zwigoff first made a name for himself with this documentary about Robert Crumb, author of 'Fritz the Cat' and other raunchy comic strips. The film strikes a nice balance between interviews and montages of Crumb's work; a lot of time is spent on the camera gliding over the inventive images that Crumb generated over the years. His images are provocative and Zwigoff again strikes a great balance between interviewing those who hate his work (believing it sexist, racist and worse) and those who think he is misunderstood. Crumb himself gives sadly little insight into the rhyme and reason behind his work. Early on, he claims to never work with "conscious messages" and later on he admits to having no idea where the inspiration came for a fake advert. Crumb's brothers are also interviewed, and while Robert is the famous one, it is Charles and Maxon who are the most intriguing. Both seem disturbed, whereas Robert is actually well-adjusted and happily married with a doting preteen daughter (though his choice to make her watch 'Goodfellas' is odd). It is hard not to wonder how different the film may have been with Charles and Maxon more in focus. Charles was in fact an accomplished artist himself but unable to ever restrain himself, while Maxon has some perversions, almost as odd as those seen in Robert's comics. 'Crumb' is an interesting documentary either way and even if one finds some of Robert's images offensive, there is no denying the artistry and imagination required to come up with such bizarre concoctions.

Dave from Ottawa Robert Crumb has become an icon in the world of underground comic artists, and this documentary takes a close look at his work and the often unhappy life that informed it with an intimacy that is both gratifying and disturbing. Crumb's art and career are celebrated here on film even while his dysfunctional adolescence, his personal insecurities and his sexual obsessions are dissected by family, friends, pop psychologists and other invited crackpots. We see how, by his own understanding, that young Robert Crumb developed his talent as a vehicle to reach out and connect with other people, especially girls, and then had to deal with the frustrations resulting from his failure to achieve success with this. We see how his cartooning style evolved, how certain repeated subjects and motifs found their way into his work.We get a close up view of Robert Crumb that is almost too close up. The film's intimacy with its subject creates an almost claustrophobic feel, especially since Crumb himself is almost painfully awkward and lacking in personal charm, his mother is an ogress, his wife and daughter seem wary and stiff on camera, and his older brother is borderline crazy.Especially interesting is Robert Crumb's brother Charles, who is also a cartoonist and quite talented but clearly mentally unbalanced. His work shows genuine technical polish and is extremely evocative. It is also morbid and obsessive to the point of wallowing in darkness and despair, since its creator is an over-40, out of work dingbat who lives and works in the attic of the Crumb family home. Charles was a key inspiration to the young Robert Crumb, yet he is also an object lesson. With a little less professional drive and career focus, Robert could easily have followed his brother's path in life and art.