The film follows the daily life routine of underground comic book artist Robert Crumb. The film crew interviews his wife Aline Kominsky, and shows their teenage son and little daughter, who also practice drawing. Robert vists his two brothers, both psychologically unstable: Charles, who is under medication, and Max, who suffers from epilepsy and lives in San Francisco. Robert recalls his displeasure with the movie adaptation of his comic book "Fritz the Cat"; his childhood when he was unpopular with girls; his comments about the society. Ultimately, Robert and his family move to southern France.
One of the few documentaries that Roger Ebert included in his list of Great Movies, "Crumb" is an acquired taste since it plays out something like "Freaks II". "Crumb" shows a glimpse of the underground subculture and the 'cockroach existence' of the very bizarre, almost disturbing and unsettling mentality of comic book artist Robert Crumb—among others, he claims he was sexually attracted to Bugs Bunny; humped his mom's cowboy boots as a kid; rode piggyback on his wife—and yet, by having the director Terry Zwigoff contrast him with his other two brothers, Charles (under sedation due to manic depression) and Max (alienated from society, suffering from seizures), it's clear Robert is the most normal one among them. Upon moving to France, Robert even admits he feels guilty for leaving Max behind: "Not too many other people he'd talk to. I'm probably his closest human relationship in the world". The movie feels as if it is a meditation on how far human behavior can stray away from the limits of normal, which makes for a dubious viewing experience. The best moments are when Zwigoff uses a couple of directorial interventions to align the movie into something more purposeful: at around 78 minutes into the film, the camera zooms in on the photo of a young Charles holding his hand in front of his chin, and then makes a "match cut" to the present Charles talking to the camera, subconsciously still holding his hand in front of his chin; the comical scene where Robert presents a drawing of his delirious self, lying in bed while a giant, black camera is staring at his face, and says this is how he felt the whole time while making this documentary; or Robert's recollections from his childhood, intercut with panels from his comic books which parallel his life (he claims he watched the TV show "Sheena" as a kid, cut to the comic book of a grown up Crumb making out with Sheena). Robert's comic books about incest, racism, sick society and perversions feel indeed as if on an acid trip, and thus some viewers will have trouble stomaching all of what is shown on the screen.
Grade:++
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