Perfectly Goddamn Delightful
I have to believe that if you are off-put by Crumb's art (the headless women with monstrous thighs; the caricatures of blacks as wild jungle-dwellers), or find his frank admissions of "perverse" sexual attractions uncomfortable, or find yourself with a wardrobe full of San Francisco 49er memorabilia, then you will be put off by Crumb's character as well.
I'm not. He's fascinating.
Director Terry Zwigoff gets a lot of mileage out of Crumb's reactions to situations. Whether it's the confused and perplexed look he gets from watching the parade of shallow consumers he sees on the streets, or his half-sincere/half-uncomfortable bursts of laughter following bizarre tales from his youth, Crumb's expressive face says more than his mouth ever could. This, combined with his wonderfully laid-back voice (at once sarcastic and self-deprecating and tinged with regret) makes me wonder why it's taken so long for this man to get some camera time. Self-imposed exile, I suppose. He's...
We'll Take The Crumbs.
Robert Crumb is SO anti-social, that you almost want not to praise him or the film, as it would most likely elicit only contempt and disgust from him at your pathetic interests. But he's such a talented, not to mention twisted (I mean that as a compliment) artist, that you have to admire him. While his style, and his hysterical, irreverent characters, are not for everyone, his honesty pervades all his work. He's famous, but deplores the celebrity, phoniness, and notoriety that fame brings. While not exactly surly, he begrudgingly acknowledges that some people like his work, the work being created for basically his own amusement. That the work pays for his treasured relative anonymity and elusive privacy is a bitter irony. I love good documentaries, though there's not that many, and this is one of my favorites. It's just a very intrusive but irresistable visit into Crumbs little world, where his art and beloved records of the 1920's and 30's are his obsessions (along with sex), the...
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Crumb is an awe-inspiring film when weighed against some of the more acclaimed "thought-provoking" films I've seen recently: it probes into SO much that is significant (the nature of art, the nature of madness, the nature of sexuality and sexual perversion, the nature of American society, the implications of American history of the last 50 years or so -- the list goes on); but, in part because it's a documentary, all of this rich material is just *there*--it isn't being shoved in your face and manipulated for effect in the fashion of more popular "thought-provoking" films. The film is honest and unflinching; it doesn't glorify Crumb, nor does it denigrate him--(we hear from great appreciators of his work as well as severe critics, and neither side is emphasized or made to seem more valid than the other)--it simply explores him, and his very bizarre family, for what he/they are, while subtley setting everything that we learn against the backdrop of...
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