Being released on DVD by Criterion this week: CRUMB
A portrait of the legendary underground comix artist Robert Crumb, Terry Zwigoff’s film delves into its subject’s artwork and history to reveal completely unexpected terrain – a disturbing upbringing by a schizotypical family which left its mark not only in Crumb’s distinctive artistic predilections for grotesque sexual and even scatological subject matter but most affectingly on his troubled brothers Charles and Maxon.
SF360 recently offered an appreciation for the film, as part of their “Essential SF” series focusing on key films about San Francisco in some way. I was living in SF when I saw CRUMB during its theatrical run in 1995 – one of the first contemporary documentaries that I was exposed to that helped instill a love for and an appreciation for what could be done with the form.
Criterion is also offering, for the first time on DVD, Zwigoff’s LOUIE BLUIE, which I haven’t seen yet (Update: The Documentary Blog has posted a review) – for more information and ordering details check out their website.
what (not) to doc 