If you’re looking to get away from mainstream movies, you can’t get much farther than this. I admit, when the doc first started, I thought the clips were so poorly made they’d be unwatchable, but by the end, I was completely won over by the sheer charm and ingenuity of their films. “It Came From Kuchar” serves as a fine introduction to the brothers and their work, with extensive interviews and even more extensive film clips. But even with no money, George and Mike (who, oddly enough, made their own separate movies) managed to create something distinctly different and occasionally touching. Inspired by classic Hollywood melodramas, the Kuchars re-created them the only way they could - cheaply. Brothers George and Mike Kuchar have been making no-budget movies since the 1960s, and they’ve influenced everyone from Baltimore trashmeister John Waters to Winnipeg visionary Guy Maddin. If “Crumb” whets your taste for documentaries about offbeat artists, allow me to recommend “It Came From Kuchar,” a look at two unique filmmakers. It’s mesmerizing - you can almost see his mind slip away over the course of the questionnaire.Ĭontact Will Pfeifer at or 81. Besides a remastered print of the film, the disc includes extra footage, commentary tracks from both Zwigoff and Roger Ebert (a huge fan) and, as a special bonus, a reproduction of Charles Crumb’s Famous Artists School application. Criterion just re-released “Crumb” on DVD and Blu-ray, and they’ve done a bang-up job. It’s not always pretty, but its offbeat power surprises you just when you least expect it.Īnd there’s never been a better time to watch it.
#Crumb documentary movie#
(That’s one reason why “Crumb” is a movie about comic books, but it’s not a family-friendly “comic book movie.” Sorry, kids.)īut if you’re up to it, “Crumb” is fascinating, examining both art and what happens to a life when the artistic mind takes another, more troubling, path. “Crumb” presents both sides of the argument, then shows enough artwork to let you decide for yourself.
Both of them have created some impressive art, but apparently couldn’t use that art to channel their inner demons, like their brother Robert did.Īnd make no mistake, Robert Crumb has some inner demons. Maxon does manage to interact with the public, but it’s only to panhandle on the streets of San Francisco. Even then, he stays inside his mother’s house, leading a strange, solitary existence. Charles, who got Robert into cartooning in the first place, is clearly brilliant but needs to be loaded up on meds just to face the day. The top two honors go to his brothers, Charles and Maxon, both of whom reveal strong artistic talent along with, unfortunately, considerable mental issues. All that work resulted in a fascinating portrait of Crumb that’s most surprising because Crumb - no paragon of normalcy himself - is only the third oddest guy in the movie. Originally released in 1994, “Crumb” was the result of years of filming by director Terry Zwigoff, a longtime friend of the cartoonist.
Unless, of course, you’ve seen the movie “Crumb.” Then it’s hard to forget him. In fact, odds are, you’ve barely heard of him. He could’ve made millions over the years, but he didn’t. (He didn’t work on the “Fritz” cartoon, but he hated it enough to kill his character off in print - with an ice pick.) That sort of sums up Robert Crumb: Cranky, talented, influential and incorruptible. As cartoonist Robert Crumb explains at the beginning of the documentary “Crumb,” he’s most famous for three things: that “Keep on Truckin’” drawing, the cover of Janis Joplin’s “Cheap Thrills” album and the X-rated animated cartoon “Fritz the Cat.”Īnd, as he goes on to explain, all three of those proved to be giant pains, and he regrets creating any of that artwork in the first place.
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