Crumb (1994)

An intimate portrait of the controversial cartoonist and his traumatized family.

Director:

Terry Zwigoff

Stars:

Robert Crumb, Aline Kominsky, Charles Crumb

14 wins & 3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
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

Storyline

This movie chronicles the life and times of R. Crumb. Robert Crumb is the cartoonist/artist who drew Keep On Truckin', Fritz the Cat, and played a major pioneering role in the genesis of underground comix. Through interviews with his mother, two brothers, wife, and ex-girlfriends, as well as selections from his vast quantity of graphic art, we are treated to a darkly comic ride through one man's subconscious mind. As stream-of-consciousness images incessantly flow forth from the tip of his pen, biting social satire is revealed, often along with a disturbing and haunting vision of Crumb's own betes noires and inadequacies. As his acid-trip induced images flicker across our own retinas, we gain a little insight into this complex and highly creative individual.

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Plot Keywords:

satire | comic book | robert crumb | underground | art | 

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Taglines:

Weird sex · Obsession · Comic books

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Genres:

Documentary | Biography

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

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

Details

Official Sites:

Sony Pictures Classics

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

28 April 1995 (USA)

Filming Locations:

New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Gross:

$3,174,695 (USA)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Superior Pictures

Technical Specs

Runtime:

119 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

All the artwork by Charles Crumb seen in this movie was thrown away by his mother, Beatrice Crumb, after his death. She didn't think anybody would be interested in it.

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Goofs

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

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Quotes

Robert Crumb: I'm drawing some portraits of girls that I had crushes on in high-school. Milford Delaware. This one I'm drawing now is Winona Newhouse, affectionally known among the boys as "The Shelf." She had a phenomenal rear shelf.

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Connections

References Leave It to Beaver (1957)

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Soundtracks

"Comic Montage Stomp"
Composed by David Boeddinghaus
Performed by David Boeddinghaus & Craig Ventresco

User Reviews

candid

Crumb takes a deeply personal look at 60's counterculture artist Robert Crumb. The film focuses upon three decades of Crumb's artwork to reconstruct his unhappy childhood, days with Zap Comix in the late 60's, `dark side' period and recent life. Interviews with him, his wife Aline, family and friends reveal the motives behind his astounding creativity. Crumb is sometimes hilarious, often depressing and always entertaining – a rare combination in a documentary film.

During childhood, Crumb and his brothers Charles and Maxon found solace from their tyrannical father in comic books and drawing cartoons. Crumb escaped the mental illness that ended both his brother's careers as artists (Charles was equally as talented), but otherwise had a perfectly miserable childhood and adolescence. Socially awkward, bullied at school and rejected by women, he decided in 1962 (at age 17) to take revenge upon society `by becoming a famous artist'.

In 1966, his chemically inspired `revelations of some seamy side of America's subconscious' caught the eye of a Haight Street publisher in San Francisco and Zap Comix was born. Zap was an outlet for his creative energy, which was rooted in his social difficulties. He was uninterested in money and once turned down a $100,000 contract – a huge sum of money in those days. Although identified with the hippie crowd, he could not relate to their culture: `My main motivation [for drawing] was to get some of that free love action'.

After a few years of fame, he retired from Zap to express the darker side of his nature. His later work frequently contained sadistic and violent themes and was sometimes labeled as pornography by friends and critics alike. Even Crumb isn't sure of his intent: `Maybe I should be locked up and my pencils taken away from me'.

Critic Robert Hughes says that in Crumb's world there are no heroes and `even the victims are comic' – ideas that don't jive with traditional American culture. But Crumb has always considered himself to be an outsider and enjoys the feeling of `being very removed or extremely separated from the rest of humanity and the world in general'. `Words fail me, pictures aren't much better' to describe his disgust with American consumerism. He now lives in France because its culture is `slightly less evil than the United States'.

The film is embarrassingly candid about unhappy details of Crumb's life, such as his brothers' mental illness, experiments with drugs and ambivalent attitudes towards women. Yet it is apparent that there is no misery or violence in this man – it's all on paper. (Rating: A)