Mr. Natural: "Don't Mean Sheeit..."
One day while searching through my father's closet (about 12 years ago) I happened to come across a couple of comic books. The comics weren't in the best condition, a tear here and there, but they still held up pretty well. Being a slightly big comic book fan at the time (even bigger now) I took a peak at these weird looking comics. Well, I immediately found something special in these comics. Maybe it was the nudity, the drugs or the swears, but I was obsessed with these two comics for quite some time. The two comics were Zap #0 and Mr. Natural #2. I remember on the back of the Zapped comic there was directions on how to smoke a joint or a muggle. Great directions by the way. Ever since I found these two gems, I've become a fan of R. Crumb's work. The first time I saw Crumb the movie, I suppose I was a tad too young to grip what was going on. Thankfully my brother bought me the DVD this past Xmas. I've put if off for a while now, but I put it in last night, and I was immediately brought back to that same type of infatuation with drawing. But something I didn't pick up on the first viewing was all the emotion this documentary delivered. Crumb is a documentary that covers almost all bases of his life. From his tough childhood all the way up to the present as rich and famous artist. If you ever wanted to know who R. Crumb is or how he acts, or what he thinks, this is a must see movie. The film also focuses on Robert's family. Be it his ex-girlfriend, ex-wife or his mother and brothers. When they show up at his mother's house where his brother Charles still lives, the movie takes on a different feel. The scene with Robert, Charles and his mother in the living room is classic stuff. The scenes with Charles are incredibly funny yet pretty damn sad. If you ask me, a movie based on the life of Charles would have been just as good as this. For the reason, Charles might have been a better artist than Robert when he decided to stop drawing.
By the end of Crumb, I immediately put on the special features, which unfortunately is only a commentary, but a great commentary nonetheless with the director and Roger Ebert. I usually just check back at the special features down the road sometime, but with this film I had to watch it immediately....even at 2:30 am. If you're a fan of art, R. Crumb or just a fan of well-made documentaries there's no reason you shouldn't enjoy the hell out of this film. It's definitely one of the best documentaries on a person I've ever seen. 9.5 outta 10