--- title: "Crumb" year: 1995 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/crumb" fi1m_score: 87 critics_score: 85 critics_reviews: 13 published: "2026-09-17T04:58:15.091598+00:00" updated: "2026-09-18T08:38:43.301406+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Crumb (1995) Directed by Terry Zwigoff · 2h 01m · MPA R · Documentary **Fi1m score: 87** · Critics 85 from 13 reviews *In a sentence:* A family portrait in which the well-adjusted one is the man who draws the dirty comics > Terry Zwigoff spent years with the cartoonist Robert Crumb and his two brothers, and made one of the saddest and most candid films about an artist we know. It is funny, it does not flinch, and parts of it are hard to sit through. ## Synopsis Robert Crumb, the cartoonist who drew Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural, is preparing to leave America for France. Before he goes, Terry Zwigoff takes him home to Philadelphia, where his elder brother Charles Crumb lives with their mother and has not been out of the house in years, and to a San Francisco hotel room where his younger brother Maxon Crumb sits on a bed of nails. His wife, the cartoonist Aline Kominsky, talks about what it is like to live with him. The art critic Robert Hughes puts the case for the comics; Deirdre English and Trina Robbins put the case against. In between, the camera reads the drawings panel by panel, and the brothers remember a childhood spent making comics together. ## Review Terry Zwigoff’s documentary about the cartoonist Robert Crumb runs 121 minutes and spends surprisingly few of them on the cartoons. Crumb drew Fritz the Cat and Mr. Natural and the Keep on Truckin’ men who ended up on a million T-shirts, and by the time the film catches up with him he has grown to hate the sixties and most of what has been said about him since. Zwigoff, an old friend, is interested in the work. He is more interested in where it came from, and the answer turns out to be a house in Philadelphia and two brothers. It is a candid, funny and desperately sad film, and among the best we know about an artist and his family. Charles Crumb, the eldest, lives with their mother, takes his medication and has not left the house in years. As a boy he ran the family comic book and made Robert draw for it. Maxon Crumb, the youngest, lives in a San Francisco hotel room, begs on the street and sits on a bed of nails to meditate. Both brothers are clever and both are funnier than they have any right to be. Maryse Alberti films the Philadelphia living room with the curtains drawn and the lamps on, so the two men on the sofa look as if they have been sitting there since about 1958. She stays close and she does not move much. Nobody in this film is lit to look better than they do. The scene we will not forget comes when Robert and Charles page through the comics Charles drew as a teenager. Over a few years the pictures shrink and the lettering grows, until the panels are nothing but small dense handwriting with no drawings left in them at all. Charles talks it through without self-pity, as though describing the weather. We were not ready for it, and we sat still for some time afterwards. It is the plainest picture of a mind closing that we have seen on a screen, and Victor Livingston’s editing lets it go at the speed of a page being turned. The comics themselves are read rather than shown. Livingston and Alberti pan across the pages panel by panel, so that you take in the strip at the film’s pace and cannot skip the bits you would rather not see. Robert Hughes, the art critic, argues for them and puts Crumb alongside Brueghel. Deirdre English and Trina Robbins put the case against: the women drawn as bodies, the racial caricatures, the question of whether any of it is satire or simply what he likes. Zwigoff gives them room and does not talk over them, though he does let Crumb have the reply, and Crumb’s reply is always the same: he draws what is in his head and hopes it is not only in his. The best witness is Aline Kominsky, his wife and a cartoonist herself, who knows exactly what he is and has decided to stay. David Boeddinghaus provides old-time piano, the ragtime and stride of the 1920s records Crumb collects and prefers to anything made since. It plays under the family photographs and the shots of the brothers, and it makes the whole thing feel like old footage even when it is not. Crumb says at one point that he cannot stand the world he lives in. The music agrees with him. It is not tidy. Zwigoff shot over several years and cut the result together, and there is a stretch in the middle where fellow cartoonists such as Spain Rodriguez and Bill Griffith tell us Crumb is a genius and we learn nothing we did not know. Some of the time with Maxon made us uneasy to be watching; he says things about his past that a friendlier film would have cut, and Zwigoff keeps them in, and we are still not sure that was kind. The certificate is 18 and it is earned; the drawings are shown uncropped. Zwigoff went on to [*Ghost World*](https://film.one/film/ghost-world) (2001), a fiction about two teenage girls who cannot stand anyone either, and it has the same patience with people who do not fit. This is the harder film. Watch it with someone who will not need to talk straight afterwards, and give yourself the evening; you will not want to put anything else on. *Fi1m score 87, published 17 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews are uniformly favourable, and they agree on what the film is: a portrait of a badly damaged family, with Robert Crumb as its most functional member. Most critics single out the access Terry Zwigoff secured, above all to Crumb’s brother Charles, and the way the film traces the comics back to the household that produced them. Several praise how it moves between comedy and despair, and between candid footage of the brothers and hard argument about whether the drawings are satire or pornography. The disagreements are about degree. The spread runs from strong to warm, with nothing mixed or hostile. The Independent finds the film poorly structured and notes what it leaves out. Time Out thinks stretches of the family material tip into a freakshow. The Times credits much of the film’s hold to Crumb’s own laconic charisma rather than to the filmmaking, which is the closest anyone comes to a serious reservation. ### Reviews we read (13) - **Evening Standard**, Charlotte O'Sullivan (90/100, inferred): The critic calls the film amazing and in a class of its own as a portrait of a dysfunctional family. Zwigoff's focus on Robert Crumb's brother Charles and use of old-time music are singled out for praise. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/forgotten-favourites-crumb-documentary-a4500251.html) - **Los Angeles Times**, Kenneth Turan (90/100, inferred): Turan finds the film riveting and haunting, like a Diane Arbus photograph, highlighting how horrific family conditions nurtured Crumb's singular artistic sensibility as the most functional member of his troubled clan. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1995-04-28-ca-59763-story.html) - **RogerEbert.com**, Roger Ebert (90/100, inferred): Ebert calls it one of the most remarkable and haunting documentaries ever made, centering on how Crumb's art served as a coping mechanism from a deeply dysfunctional family background marked by abuse and his brothers' severe mental struggles. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/crumb-1995) - **Slant Magazine**, John Lingan (90/100, inferred): The critic calls it a balanced and insightful portrait of the artist and a wrenching depiction of a tragic family, praising its compositional skill in moving between verité revelations, art criticism, and shifting tones from comedy to despair. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/dvd/crumb/) - **The AV Club**, Nathan Rabin (A-): The critic highlights the film's queasily intimate access to Crumb's family and psyche, exploring how his art allowed him to escape the despair that defeated his brother while entertaining debates about the work's satirical versus pornographic qualities. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/crumb-1798201616) - **The New Yorker**, Terrence Rafferty (90/100, inferred): Rafferty deems it a brilliant, scary movie—the best American film of the year so far—for its unsparing yet sympathetic examination of Crumb's family trauma and the artist's detached, misanthropic creative process. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1995/05/01/mr-unnatural) - **The New York Times**, Stephen Holden (90/100, inferred): Holden describes the film as a riveting, unguarded portrait of Crumb and his dysfunctional family that reveals how his psychic wounds fueled his satirical art while probing intimate family details. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1995/04/21/movies/film-review-ideas-and-confessions-of-a-quirky-cartoonist.html) - **Variety**, Todd McCarthy (90/100, inferred): McCarthy praises it as an excellent countercultural documentary that intimately explores Crumb's personality and extraordinarily dysfunctional family, explaining the sources of his twisted, satirical comic art. [Read](https://variety.com/1994/film/reviews/crumb-1200438541/) - **Little White Lies**, Soham Gadre (80/100, inferred): The critic praises Zwigoff’s documentary for its honest portrayal of Robert Crumb’s skepticism toward consumerism and capitalism, highlighting the film’s creative use of Crumb’s art and its enduring relevance. [Read](https://lwlies.com/in-praise-of/robert-crumb-terry-zwigoff) - **The Independent**, Sheila Johnston (75/100, inferred): The critic finds the documentary provocative and fascinating despite its flaws. Zwigoff's portrait of the cartoonist and his dysfunctional family is candid but poorly structured, with notable omissions. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/to-forrest-gump-an-evil-twin-to-woody-allen-a-clone-1588844.html) - **Time Out**, DW (75/100, inferred): The review describes the film as an outstandingly interesting portrait of obsession and genius, noting its fascinating look at Crumb’s family but criticizing parts that veer into a prurient freakshow. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/crumb) - **The Times**, Stevie Chick (70/100, inferred): The film succeeds thanks to the laconic charisma of its subject. It is a darkly sad picture that ends on a cautiously upbeat note, as Crumb has fashioned a warm, strong and very real family life. [Read](https://www.thetimes.com/culture/tv-radio/article/american-splendor-15-crumb-18-qwwbldhgds0) - **Collider**, Andre Dellamorte (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the documentary for providing a full, unvarnished portrait of Robert Crumb that respects his uncompromising integrity as an artist while confronting his personal demons and controversial elements. It highlights the film's contrast between Crumb and his damaged brothers as a key strength, noting its relevance amid shifting cultural ideas of authenticity. [Read](https://collider.com/crumb-criterion-blu-ray-review/) ## Details - **Director:** Terry Zwigoff - **Director:** Terry Zwigoff - **Writer:** Terry Zwigoff - **Cinematography:** Maryse Alberti - **Editor:** Victor Livingston - **Music:** David Boeddinghaus - **Producer:** Terry Zwigoff, Lynn O'Donnell - **Cast:** Robert Crumb as Self; Aline Kominsky as Self; Charles Crumb as Self; Maxon Crumb as Self; Robert Hughes as Self; Martin Müller as Self; Spain Rodriguez as Self; Don Donahue as Self - **Runtime:** 2h 01m - **Certificate (MPA):** R - **Release (the US):** 28 April 1995 - **Genres:** Documentary - **Box office:** $3 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=67uWAtFmjYI ## Where to watch in the US - The Roku Channel: free, hd, leaving 2026-10-01 - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Apple TV: rent $3.99, sd - Apple TV: buy $12.99, sd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $14.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AU, NZ, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary 1995: Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for Best Documentary (won) ## If you liked this - *Grey Gardens* (1975), Fi1m 86: Two women, one collapsing house, and cameras that stay long after politeness would leave — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/grey-gardens.md) - *Ghost World* (2001), Fi1m 84: Zwigoff’s fiction debut, from a comic, with the same tenderness for misfits — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/ghost-world.md) - *American Splendor* (2003): Harvey Pekar, Crumb’s collaborator, played by Paul Giamatti and by himself - *The Devil and Daniel Johnston* (2005): Another artist whose illness and gift arrived in the same parcel - *The Arbor* (2010): A Bradford family’s history told by actors lip-syncing the real voices; unsettling and sad --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/crumb