Crumb: BD Review
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Page 1 of 3 Criterion / 120 Minutes / 1995 / Rated R / Street Date: August 10, 2010
Robert Crumb, for those who may not know, is an inspired icon of underground counterculture comic books, perhaps most prominently in the ‘60s Zap Comix. Ever an outsider, he sought refuge in expressing himself through panels of drawings, expressing his political, social, and frequently sexual views. His style is often surrealistic, satirical exaggerations of reality. He exposes his proclivities, drawing women as sexual objects with breasts that defy gravity, nipples in a continuous state of protruding erection, and buttocks that make Jennifer Lopez look like one of the Olson Twins. His odd style and quirky sense of humor are indicative of a unique and slightly off-kilter personality, which makes him a potentially ideal candidate for a biographical documentary. This did not escape the attention of noted director Terry Zwigoff, best known for his film, Ghost World. In 1994, Zwigoff managed to talk a notoriously reclusive Crumb into allowing him and his film crew to intrude on his life and capture the essence of the artist. And since Crumb is so used to exposing his inner thoughts and demons to the world through his printed works, he was remarkably unguarded during the shoot. We learn more about the artist though descriptions of his experiences as a child and adolescent. He was the quintessential sexually frustrated adolescent nerd who couldn’t attract the attention of one girl. The butt of jokes and abuse at school, the solace of art became a catharsis and a means to succeed when no one had any such expectations for him. But his oddness extends beyond the influence of unkind schoolmates. Zwigoff takes us within the quirky Crumb family to meet his two brothers and his mother. One sibling is on psychoactive medication, another follows the tenets of a self-styled religion. But aren’t we aware that many outstanding artists have tortured souls that cry out for expression? Robert Crumb on medication would not have been the Robert Crumb that fascinates and amuses.
His frustrations extend into the business world. He lost a suit to regain the rights to his Keep on Truckin' cartoon in the '70s. He had problems with the Internal Revenue Service. He hated Ralph Bakshi’s production of the X-rated Fritz The Cat and was so incensed that he killed off Fritz in print, the victim of an ice pick in the brain. These troubles may have embittered Crumb, and it affected his art. Some supporters felt he had descended into misanthropy. Perhaps those experiences caused him such disillusionment with American society that in the mid-‘90s, he moved to the south of France with his wife, Aline Kominsky-Crumb (herself an underground cartoonist) and their daughter, Sophie. It’s fascinating to note that Crumb may have begun his career as a counterculture comic book artist, but he’s become so acclaimed and accepted, that several pages of his panels are published occasionally by the literate and respected The New Yorker magazine. The film is fascinating for its psychological depth, focusing on a subject who is inexplicably open about aspects of his life that most would keep hidden. I would have expected Crumb to be guarded and twitchy, completely at odds with the intrusion of the camera and the microphone. Quite the opposite is true; he seems remarkably comfortable and oblivious to the reactions of others as he reveals himself. The documentary is bizarre, funny, and a bit unsettling, but unavoidably enthralling as well. It may not have garnered a Golden Globe or Academy Award nomination, but the film went on to win twelve awards, including the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, New York Film Critics Circle Award, and National Society of Film Critics Award for Best Documentary. |
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